Some Blog Site

We hope to move into a new house soon. Inspired by some things on the internet, I started sketching proposals for arrangements of the boys’ bedrooms.

Here are 4 of them.

Sunken Bed

The purpose of this is to prevent injuries for the child who rolls out of bed often. The raised floor can be used for extra storage, with lids to access the space.
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For an upcoming project of sorts, I wanted to find some hymns in a file format that was easily readable by both people and computers. I found the Open Hymnal website, which provides a lot of hymns in ABC format.

To repay Brian J. Dumont for his services, I encoded When I Survey the Wondrous Cross with three different tunes. I picked that one because I noticed the version he had on his website was the wrong tune. Or rather, a tune unfamiliar to me. So I put together an ABC file with it in the right tune. And our hymnal has it set to two different tunes, so I put together the second ABC file. And, while researching the hymn, I saw that it is commonly set to yet another tune. So I setup that ABC file too. I sent the files to Mr. Dumont, but they are not on the website yet. Until then, here are links to the files:

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Hamburg)

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (O Waly Waly)

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Duke Street)

I recent built a potato cannon. For those who remember my post from last month about potato cannon attachments: no, I did not try any of those.

In the past, i.e. before I had 4 kids, I would have taken photos of each step: raw materials, prepared but unassembled parts, partial assemblies, then finished product. But today you aren’t getting any photos. There are plenty of photos and step-by-step instructions already on the Internet. In case you’re wondering – I used the plans from Instructables.

I couldn’t follow the instructions exactly, because the big-box stores didn’t have 3″ solid-core PVC. So I had to go with a 2″ combustion chamber and a 1.5″ barrel. Smaller displacement means less power, but it still worked.

I was somewhat surprised when the potato cannon worked on the first try. Right Guard for the propellant initially. That was noticed by my brother-in-law because that’s what he uses for his deodorant. I told him not to get too close.

After that, I tried WD-40. That didn’t produce any combustion. Maybe my can was too old. So then I tried half Right Guard and half WD-40. That worked pretty well, but I think the Right Guard did all the work and the WD-40 didn’t contribute much.

After about half a bag of potatoes, the cannon started misfiring. One side of the electrode was a bolt with a nut, so it was secure. The other side was held in place by tape. That was not so secure. It wore out, came loose, and the pressure from combustion started coming out the side of the cannon instead of pushing the potato out.

I was going to take the cannon home to add another bolt and nut to fix the problem, but after much spraying of Right Guard and WD-40, the cannon was greasy and smelly. So I left it at my parents’ house.

Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2012 SFS Baby Name List. That baby name list is the place to go in case you are wondering what are the most popular baby names in 2012 regardless of how they are spelled. The Social Security baby name list does not adjust the rankings based on alternate spellings (like Catherine/Katherine), but SFS does.

For yet another year, Jacob is NOT the most popular boy’s name in the US – Aiden is. Rather, the name that is pronounced the same as Aiden is the most popular boy’s name in 2012.

Some Stats

• The top 4 names for the boys are the same as 2011, but not the same order except for Aiden at the top spot (what the government said was the most popular name was actually fourth).
• The top 2 names for the girls are the same as 2011, and places 3 and 4 just switched spots (the government got the first and fourth places correct, and switched spots 2 and 3).
• I don’t remember making any name predictions like I did last time, so I have no updates on that.
• Ethan is the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations, passing Noah, which passed William from last year. This means that the boy name ‘Ethen’ has dropped off the rolls.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (301/1000 vs. 214/1000 alternates)
• The boys still have the name with the highest number of alternate spellings (Aiden with 9 vs. Hailey with 8)
• There were more Sophias and Emmas this year, but fewer Isabellas and Olivias.
• Emma is the highest-ranked girl’s name that has no spelling variations, same as last year. It’s simple enough that it’s hard to vary it.

2012 Improved Baby Name List

Click on the link above and peruse to your heart’s content!

Thanks to the magazine Machine Design, I have a design to prevent you from ever sleeping past your alarm again:

Whoever tries it first, please let me know how it goes. Remember to arm the snooze button before going to sleep.

Here is a project for you, if you are unable to think of a good jack-o-lantern design. I’m not saying this one is necessarily good – just that it is a design.

In case your phone is having trouble with the QR code, here is the plain image:

If you do decide to use this design I recommend stretching the corners, rather than fitting the paper to the pumpkin directly, so that the image appears square when viewed through one’s phone. Otherwise the QR reader might not work with the distortion from the spherical shape.

Some of you may be wondering, as I was last week, “Can I stack Trofast?” or “Can you flip the stair-step storage things from IKEA?”

If you are trying to do what we were trying to do, then the answer is this: you can stack them as long as you do not flip them.

TROFAST is a series of organizational furniture from IKEA. There are tall shelves and wide shelves and shelves that resemble a piece from Tetris:

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