Some Blog Site

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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Subtitle: in which I improve the government’s records

Allow me to introduce to you the 2011 SFS Baby Name List. Some of you may recall that I like to take the Social Security baby name list and reorganize it so that a name is counted only once even if it is spelled different ways. It is that time again, this time it’s the names from 2011.

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 2011.

Some Stats

• The top 4 names for the boys are the same as 2010 (the government got the top two names wrong).
• The top 3 names for the girls are the same as 2010 (the government got the top two names right).
• William went up in popularity, as I predicted last year.
• Same thing with Catherine/Katherine. More people spell it with a ‘K’, but the Duchess of Cambridge spells hers with a ‘C’. Both variations increased by about the same amount.
• William is the highest-ranked boy’s name that has no spelling variations.
• Girl names still have more spelling variations than boy names (319/1000 vs. 229/1000 alternates)
• The boys still have the name with the highest number of alternate spellings (Jayden/Aiden with 9 vs. Hailey/Carly with 8)
• The girls had more new variations added this year. For example: Braelyn/Braelynn, Samiya/Samiyah, and Sloan/Sloane for the girls. Also for example: Bentlee was new, as was Johan/Johann for the boys.

2011 Improved Baby Name List

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

Before I start this recap of how I installed my ROFL, I should inform you that ROFL stands for Reverse Osmosis FiLter.

Some of you may recall that we had an iron filter installed several weeks ago. That improved the general quality of the water, but I wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t need to buy bottled water anymore.

So I bought a reverse osmosis filter.

The whole system was about $170. Since bottled water is $5 per case of 24 and we went through about a case a week, it will take 34 weeks to break even. Plus I won’t have to lug those cases home from the store, and I won’t have to take the recycling out every week.

The installation is easy, in theory. When you’re dealing with an old house, nothing goes quite as simply as you hope.

On to the tutorial:

This post will tell you how to install a reverse osmosis filter. Or rather, how I installed mine.
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