Data not tallied

Data not graphed by today's XKCD and "I've had {x} boy/girlfriends":

x: "I've had {x}" "boy/girlfriends", I've had {x} "boy/girlfriends"
1: 0, 44,100
2: 5, 46,400
3: 8, 47,800
4: 9, 42,600
5: 8, 42,000
6: 3, 40,100
7: 3, 39,600
8: 4, 39,300
9: 2, 38,200
10: 0, 42,700
Note: Google suggested "without quotes" in most cases.

x: "I've had {x}" "girl/boyfriends", I've had {x} "girl/boyfriends"
1: 2, 16,600
2: 5670, 16,600 <-- a HA!
3: 722, 20,600
4: 7, 18,300
5: 5, 15,200
6: 4, 14,800
7: 1, 14,200
8: 3, 13,600
9: 1, 13,300
10: 3, 16,900
Note: Google suggested "girlfriends" in most cases.

productive elf is productive

I got up this morning and went into the studio and the rain on the window was A Problem. And I'd lost a couple of days last week to springtime lawnmower noise coming from outside in addition to being sick, so I decided TODAY IS THE DAY for making those two new sound baffles for the window.

The last time I made one - the first one, which is bigger than each of these individually but not as large as the two combined - it took three days of futzing. But today was PRODUCTIVE DAY and I was determined. Also, these have a slightly different design - they're intended to be more flexible than the Monolith. Lookie! Photos!


Sound baffles
Those are the baffles themselves. Unlike the Monolith, these are designed to be deployed under several scenarios. I built them for the windows, but I can also use them for other things - like separating two instruments, dampening sound brightness, all sorts of stuff. They're still fairly large - 95cm by 145cm - but unlike Monolith, the interior PVC framework is all glued together with hardcore PVC glue. You lose flexibility, but gain sturdiness. Also, you can't see it, but there's a third layer of carpet on the inside, further sound-isolating the area where the carpet wrap folds over. Monolith has about the same amount of carpet, but it was achieved with overlapping, rather than a separate, third element. This is a cleaner look. It theoretically could have some sound benefits, too, but tiny and I'm not banking on that. Regardless, it's more mass, which is important for low-frequency sound dampening.

On the left one you can see two of the attach points. I've build a couple of attachments already, a generic offset-and-angle set, and legs to go with it. The offset-and-angle piece is glued together within itself, but the legs can be removed for (again) more flexibility. At the bottom (touching the floor) are two more attachment points, facing down.


Baffle, with offset-and-angle pieces, and leg set
This is how they're ... actually set up now, in the studio, up against the window. This was shot down in the garage. You can see the offset-and-angle pieces, which provide distance from the slab for a leg pair, and the four legs attached. They're freestanding (as in these photos), or can be leaned against things with the offset legs providing a little bit of pressure. I needed to make the offset legs a little longer than I did, because I didn't think about the carpet tacking under the carpet against the wall of the studio. But that's easy enough to work around; I have lots of bits left.


Second baffle, front view
Pulling as tight as I can I still don't get a perfectly flat front, but that doesn't seem to matter much, honestly. It works.

This carpet isn't nearly as stinky as the previous carpet that I used in Monolith. Still stinky, tho'. *-_-*;