Almost another three weeks have past since my last update, and although a lot of stuff has gone on, I don't have too much to add.
First, I did buy that bass guitar. It's a Fender Squier J Bass, which was part of a package that included "everything I needed to get started." Basically it was just about everything I needed; an amp, a tuner, a strap, a cable, a DVD, and a bag (for the guitar, obviously). Even though I went in the music store with the intention to buy a book and just look, then research, I ended up spending about an hour looking and asking questions (it was a small shop tho