During my research for the best and fastest hardware, I came across a number of pictures of customized computer cases. Modding, as it was known, was introduced to me just as custom model car building was when I was a teenager. Flipping through magazines at the news stand became clicking through pages of the Internet. I was aw-struck and fascinated by this artistic medium.

Case modding seemed to be a growing and popular pastime for a young crowd of PC gamers and power users. And it was pretty much relegated to just customizing the case of the computer – cool paint jobs or graphic decals and vinyl appliqués. A handful of hard core modders were fabricating parts out of plastics, wood and metal and some were heavily modifying obsolete computer cases and other objects. I saw cases made from brief cases, TVs, auto tires, old radios and even a toilet. Most were based on current PC cases and a number of case manufacturers were beginning to offer cases with pre-cut acrylic side panels and blow holes.

Never one to be quite satisfied with being average at anything, I think I decided early on that my computer building project was going to be a little more than just a case mod. I never bought a piece of furniture without taking into consideration the other items and accessories around it. I never threw on a shirt without some thought of what pants, socks and hat would go with it. I didn’t shop for new wheels for my car without a clear plan on how they would go with the paint job or what tires would look good wrapped around them. To me, modifying the computer case also meant modifying the monitor, keyboard and mouse – or trackball, in my case. And heck, why not the table it sat on too.

I became the Mad Modder. It was fitting. I’m a bit of a grump, or mad, if you will. I was a burgeoning modder. So I referred to myself as “The Mad Modder.” CPU Magazine seemed to like the phrase and in one of their early features of case modders, they called Functional Design the “Mad Reader Mod.”

Enjoy the pictures and I hope you will take the time to read about some of my work and projects modding computers and their peripherals here at Grump’s Place. Your comments are always welcome.

The headings on Grump’s Place are also using this font, but you will only see the Addled font if you already have it installed on your computer. Instead, you may see either Arial Black, Franklin Gothic Heavy or the obligatory sans-serif font families, depending what you have installed.

I hope you will like the Addled font well enough to want to install it. You can download it from a number of sites, but here are two that I have direct links to: fontonic and fonts101.com

There’s not a lot the average website can do to offer its readers a more interesting font style. We’re pretty much stuck with whatever the viewer has on their computer. But even for the casual computer user, it’s fun to add a little personality to their email and snail mail letters. So, I recommend the Addled font – not just so you can see Grump’s Place in all its glory, but to give you something to play with in other applications.

I’m just a lazy, good for nuthin’ that has a serious problem with follow-through. Delay starting, take forever to do it – and yet still never quite finish. You’ve seen those smilies with the guy smacking his head against a brick wall… that’s me right now.

Well just about bedtime last night, I come meandering into the site for a quick look and a longing to finally do something here. And whata ya know, I spend the next 4 hours – ’til 6AM – tweaking the style. Nothing of any real substance, mind you, just playing with the colors, resizing a few elements and other mindless, inconsequential stuff like that. Not really a waste of time, but certainly a waste of healthy sleep time.

Grump’s Place is prettier now. Big deal, hu? Oh, and I’m writing this. Maybe it’s what I need to get going on this much delayed project of bringing Grump’s Place back to life. I really wanna share some of my recent projects, fill you in on my current frustrations and complain about a few things in life. You know you want it.

Okay, enough self-depreciation. I resolve to get busy converting the old computer modding articles and update you on my home remodeling projects. I will share my latest case mod (thought that would never happen again). And I will spend endless hours writing about my frustrations with getting old, terrible neighbors, world events, lousy VA health care and being poor. Sure, lots of people got it tougher than me, but I won’t think about that.

…and multiplied. I began trying to tweak the code and re-write some of the pages, or portions of it anyway. Oh man, I totally screwed some up so bad I had to get rid of them. You see, as many of these types of “out-of-the-box” web creation products do, they insert a bunch of code that just isn’t your standard fare – especially if you have learned as little as I had at that point. But I wanted so much more.

So, I learned more and I practiced and spent time on great websites and forums like SitePoint, Position Is Everything and of course, W3 Schools Tutorials. The more I learned, the more I wanted to change this site.

Sometime in 2007, I realized I wasn’t capable of designing the graphics and, although I had learned something about XHTML and CSS, I hadn’t really figured out how to build a template that would give the site the same look and feel on every page. I had some ideas and I had the avatar I had been using since shortly after I joined my first Internet message board in 1994 (the very same one you see to the left). It was a picture in my mind, but I didn’t quite know how to put it in pixels and code.

So, I had a contest. I can’t remember what site it was on, but it was an interesting contest. A couple of people didn’t seem to understand what I wanted and submitted some crap I never gave a second thought to. One guy, Blake, of Skywide Design, seemed to have the best interpretation of my ideas. In fact, his rendering was quite nice. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get the coding, which I felt was okay, since I thought I could handle that part by now.

When I received the source files, I was very disappointed. I paid the contest winnings for a PSD file that was about as messed up as you could get. There were elements in there that didn’t even go with the design and the template wasn’t sliced – split in the various pieces you need to be able to plug them in the code and have the design look the same on a web page as it does in an image viewer. Since I tend to get a little, shall we say, “anxious” when I feel an injustice has occurred, he finally got tired of putting up with my shit and just stopped responding to my emails.

Well, I’ve been burnt worse. I figured some day I would be able to do something with it, or I would be tired of it and just forget about it. As you can see, here it is. It’s Janurary 2008, I finally got around to doing what I’ve wanted to do for years and I was able to use the design Blake came up with after all. Well, sorta. I rebuilt the design, re-did all the graphics, changed the colors ever so slightly and turned it into a WordPress theme. The theme was also the original creation of someone named Bucey – the same theme I use on my 1 Foot in the Grave website, which I have also modified considerably.

Thanks go out to Blake for the work he did. I’m sure he has gotten better at his craft in the last 2½ years and I wish him all the best. Now it’s onward and upward for me and Grump’s Place. I will spend some time replacing the old pages of the site, although they are still hiding here on the server. Pretty bizarre, but it’s hard to just throw stuff away when you’ve had it so long. And I will try to add new content that might interest you as time and temperment permits.

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I love computers – software, hardware…
I prob’ly spend way too much time on my computers, but they are just so fascinating. I got my first one in 1991, intimidating as Hell, but needing something to help me keep the books. It wasn’t long before I was fiddling around with the settings, trying to squeeze more performance out of a 386DX with 1MB RAM, a 4MB HDD and running MS-DOS 5. Then I discovered something quite different from my pet peeve about working on cars – I didn’t get any grease on my hands when I popped the hood.

Even more than tweaking the software and settings, I loved not getting my hands dirty, so to speak. It seemed my computer always had the case or side panel off. I learned by trial and error, and believe me, there were a lot of errors. I read everything I could get my hands on and I started “going online.”

In those early days of my online experiences, I was paying toll charges to dial into CompuServe on a 9600Kbps modem – and being lucky to connect at 8 or 900. My first month’s bill was $300.00 more than normal. But, boy, was I havin’ fun.

On these pages, you’ll find all kinds of computer related content. Let me warn you though, I am not a computer professional, I am only a hobbiest/enthusiast. Yes, I’ll charge to install some hardware or software for you and if you want to buy one of my mods, it’ll cost you plenty. But I don’t want you to confuse me with someone who does this for a living. ‘Course, you never know what the future will hold.

My main purpose for sharing these computer experiences is purely self indulgence and braggadocio. Of course, I do want you to enjoy it and take something away when you leave. I’ll try to direct you to the best sources for help and do my best to explain my modding techniques. I’ll try to keep a list of downloads you might find interesting and I’ll provide you with links to all my favorite sites. Above all, I want you to enjoy yourself here and to like it well enough to send your friends and associates over to visit. Please feel free to link to me any time.

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That was a long time ago. These days I don’t do much with the computers except use them. Lung disease has sapped my energy and the dust that collects inside these things really taxes my breathing when I get too close. But I enjoy the remenise and I hope you will too.

Nestled in the nether regions of My Documents was a copy of the first blog post I ever did. Although this is January 2008, I time-stamped this at the same date and time this file was created. Click the image there on the left to see what it looked like back then. What you see below is word-for-WordPress. The only thing I changed was the email link at the end – it now links to my official contact page. Sorry. I know it’s bad, but remember, this was new to me in 2003 and still new to the World Wide Winternet back then. Enjoy.

It’s an official fad. I read about “blogs” in my daily newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, and thought, gee, I could do that. So, I did. I don’t really know why I did, ‘cept I don’t have nothin’ else to do at this particular time. An’ I know you all are jest jumpin’ at the chance to read my wit and wisdom. Okay, you’re not. But I see you got nothin’ better ta do either.

Le’see, what do I have to piss an’ moan about today? I got this customer, see — I won’t name names, to protect my income — who thinks it’s most convenient to have me meet him to discuss a floor job at the unGodly hour of 7am. I guess he thinks, since he has the compulsion to start work at 6am, I should be fine with meeting him at 7. Then he stands me up. Not once, mind you, but twice. Then he thinks buyin’ me breakfast will make up for it. An’ because he stood me up twice, I ain’t about to drive all the way down town without bein’ sure he’s there. So I call. Yep, he finally made it an’ I tell him I’ll be there in a few minutes. About 5 minutes later, I walk into the restaurant and he’s having his breakfast. Already. Didn’t wait for me, noooo. I order and by the time my food is delivered, he’s like tapping his fingers an’ fidgetting like he’s anxious to get going. I mean, gimme a friggin’ break here.

Manners, jeez, that’s a real sore point with me. You’d think, with a name like “Grump”, that I prob’ly got it because I was horribly deficient in that area. You’d be wrong. I actually got it because I rag on people so much for not having enough of them. Yeah, I can get rude, as you’ll see, but it’s one a those, “what goes around, comes around” kinda things. Only I tend ta double up sometimes.

Okay, that’s enough from me and enough for this very first borg post. Hey, come back again an’ see if I don’t have something else ta bitch about. For now, surf around my site a little and enjoy yourself. Be sure to let me know what you think by dropping me a note.

Later, Grump