I have started a Spotify Playlist of songs that I think have a very distinctive bass sound. A lot of this revolves around the technique, rather than the tone, and I feel it's a lot of very fundamental bass styles that most strong bassists are able to base nearly all of their playing from. Granted, a lot of these songs are pretty new, and they're probably influenced by others for similar reasons.

The songs that I started this list from are:

• Dashboard - Modest Mouse (Album published 2007)
• Not An Addict - K's Choice (Album published 1995)
• Plowed - Sponge (Album published 1994)

The last two in this list were very influential in my desire to play bass when I was a teenager. Now that I've got almost 20 years of dabbling with the bass under my belt, I figure it's time to get serious and refine my skill. Studying these songs, along with the (currently) 15 others on the list I think will be a great place to start with that.

I don't really know what my schedule for this effort will be, but I think I will start with sharing the outcomes here on my resurrected blog. Maybe they'll even be helpful or interesting for others!

Daddy, do we have a yard stick?
-- Jr

It came to my realization that this ubiquitous instrument of metrology doesn't exist in our house, and likely doesn't in most houses of people around here. When I was a kid, growing up in the Midwest though, it seemed like everyone had one.

In reflecting on why we don't have one, I came up with a few plausible reasons for the lack of it:

1. We haven't ever gone to the county fair to get a bunch of swag like that. In Indiana, it seemed like the county fairs I visited (Newton, Jasper, and White) all had the pole barn or tent of local businesses trying to drum up more revenue by offering such things for free to whoever wandered by.
2. They're not as common among our generation. This is fodder for another post later on, but whether you look at Gen X or Millenials, it's probably fair to say that neither really has one in their possession. Possibly due to the trauma of being swatted with one as a reprimand in their youth, it's a passive protest now.
3. That's just a Midwest or rural area thing. Here in the greater Houston area, it's very city and those sort of things are just not common.
4. We have tape measures now! Sure, they're not rigid and of a constant 3 foot length, but they're compact and handy. I think I have at least one in my desk right now, and probably no fewer than 5 in the garage.

It's a funny thing, but a thought-provoking observation to share.

One of the many reasons I built GrumpLog is because I got so tired of having to walk on eggshells with what I posted here or on Facebook.

I don't understand why the world can be so pro-first-amendment and yet ridicule and judge someone for the open expression of things that frustrate them. In my case, it was often my health, my political views, or frustrations about work. It all came to a head when a friend approached me and asked if I was doing okay. They said that their spouse saw something I shared on Facebook and was concerned that I might be suicidal or homicidal as a result.

All I wanted was a place that I could vent and not have someone try to fix it. That's why GrumpLog exists today. I'm not allowed to post in my own sites, on social media, or talk to others about the things that frustrate me or make me angry because they'll either tell me I am whining too much or they'll try to fix it. I don't want either. If I'm sharing my frustrations with you, I want either a shrug or a nod. That's it.

I do want to mention that I am not [sui|homi]cidal. While I do often struggle with depression (caused by the mountain of medical issues I deal with), it's not so severe as to make me take action with it. The next part was redacted because of the frustration that lead to the bit above.

I still have to get the responsive/mobile layouts done, but for now this will suffice.

Use the comments to let me know how you like it!

I decided it was tim(e) to modernize the site a bit. I'm working on another layout that doesn't use tables for things, but instead uses Twitter Bootstrap's 12 column grid layout.

I haven't started with making it mobile friendly yet, but I will after I get the basic layout done. As I mentioned here, I am making it not-white-on-black. For me, this is a bit harder on my eyes, but I think for most others it will be a welcome change.

Stay tuned and maybe you'll get to see the results here!