the story of OHMer

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/19633781/detail.html

INDIANAPOLIS -- With gas prices up another 20 cents Tuesday, an Indianapolis man is happy to not have to worry about it.

Patrick Roth uses a fully electric car to take his daughter to school and run errands, 6News' Jennifer Carmack reported.

The car may look like any ordinary Ford Escort, but a closer look reveals that it's anything but. Roth didn't buy the car that way. He built it himself.

"I have taken out all of the components to the internal combustion engine and replaced it with a big electric motor and a bunch of batteries," Roth said. "Essentially, I've turned it into a 100 percent electric vehicle."

Roth said he got the idea while driving his Lexus hybrid. He thought that since the Lexus can go partially off the battery, he could get a car to run solely on electric power.

"I found myself constantly trying to trick the car to run on the electric motor as much as possible, which got me thinking," Roth said. "Why not just have a second car that's purely electric?"

There are electric cars on the market, but they aren't cheap. After a lot of research, Roth tackled the conversion himself.

"It works great, actually. I've tested it on the highway up to 70 mph," he said.

Roth said he checked with both his insurance company and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and found that his converted Escort is legal.

Instead of hitting a gas pump every week or two, he just pulls the car into the garage at night and plugs in.

"In the equivalent, it works out to what it would cost me if I were paying 75 cents a gallon at the pump," Roth said.

Roth spent about 10 weeks building the car, a project he contends just about anyone can do.

"If I can do it with no mechanical ability and no engineering degree, no electrician's degree, then certainly anyone else can do it with basic skills," he said.

Roth bought the car specifically to convert. The cost of the vehicle and the conversion was about $13,000.

Click here to see how he did it: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3155482

The greatest competition in the history of man? I think 'yes'.

ComicCon San Diego 2006 & 2008

The monitor is from 2006 and before I changed my name. Me and Stephanie are standing in the DC booth in 2008 as I point to the second monitor.

Is it the mild, maritime air?  The fact that San Diego is a "healthful" city?  I don't know.  But for some reason it's the base for this really big convention.  It's a mass-mind experience where you're swimming in the pop and anti-pop and thinking about your allegiances... Yes, being a professional nerd has it's many concerns.  I've been twice.  Once in 2006 and again in 2008.  Both times I had two words on the mind: portfolio review.  It has it's protocol.  The first time I rolled into town it was in our beloved burgundy van and I was late to drop off my Marvel submission.  I raced through the booths, dodging otaku, steampunks, what-have-you, and arrived sweaty and beaming.  I was ready to charm if necessary.  The fellow didn't need to look at the work, he quietly accepted it, no problem, I would get my chance at a meeting.  DC Talent Search too.  My name was on the monitors the next day.  Affirming.  That night we slept in our van for the first time (something we would soon know well) and I visited the local gym before entering the hall.  Not to work out, just shower.  I moved away from LA after three years in and for 2008 I flew to San Diego and stayed at a proper hotel.  In line for a meeting I sat beneath an enormous banner of Samurai Girl and smiled to myself that I'd been in LA long enough to befriend the young woman who played the best friend character, Cheryl.  Then they came around to glance at the portfolios in our laps to make sure we were in fact ready to even ask for a meeting.  The reviews themselves had a tone resonating positive: keep going.  But this year I had it in my head that I was going to give a manuscript to a certain alternative publisher in the impromptu fashion.  Without even a look the offer was refused.  Too hectic.  Slightly crestfallen, I brooded in the hotel hot tub.  The next day another DC monitor bore my name and I had a meeting with a Vertigo/Minx editor.  The critique helped and I left feeling that much closer to the level of participation in the industry I crave.  When I wasn't absorbed by career advancement, killing time, I was testing brush tip markers, getting art prints signed, talking to other creators, and getting photos of minor celebrities and cosplaying folk.  You end up seeing or doing something pretty rad just milling around the convention without a specific goal.  I wish I could've slowed on down and gotten a copy of Twilight signed and seen Tori Amos autographing Comic Book Tattoo... plus seen the Eisner awards.  But all in all, there's simply too much at this nerdsplosion to take in.  I skipped 2007 and I plan on skipping 2009 but beware, I plan to nerd-out again in 2010.

OMG it's sooooooo good

This song makes my testicles dance:



If your testicles/clitorii were dancing while watching that, then check out these bad mamma jammas:

http://www.myspace.com/goldenshowergs
http://www.myspace.com/thetwilightdivision
http://www.myspace.com/unkleremis
http://www.myspace.com/8bitphilharmonic
http://www.myspace.com/ftftunes
http://www.myspace.com/swampyboy
http://www.myspace.com/anamanaguchi

A short review of the new Terminator movie

I went to the midnight showing at Bowtie last night. If you were expecting the war with the robots, you'll get a great taste of it, and with 2 more movies eventually coming out, you'll be delighted.

But let me say, about 20 mins into the movie, while in a post apocalyptic city, when you see a decrepit sign of a toy store, it has John Wayne Gacy's clown face on it. Fuck'n shweet. Unexpected, but fuck'n shweet.

Along with beautiful effects, giant human harvesting robots, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and of course Gacy's face, the story was surprisingly brilliant and captivating. To me, an avid fan of all Terminator movies, this is by far the cream of the crop. It's better than Iron Man by a long shot, so expect to change the blog name after seeing it.

Like I said before, I'm not giving away plot elements, a synopsis, or spoilers, the only reviews I'm gonna do are movies that you should blatantly go out and see. And this is one of them.

Looking at the world was very reminiscent to Fallout 3, if your familiar with the game, and I'm a sucker for post apocalyptic anything.

You'll love it. It's just about everything you expected. It's a battle, but as they said in the movie, the war is far from over, so for the big war, I'm sure you'll have to wait for later movies. But go watch it, it's still most certainly worth the 10 er 12 bucks.



Hasta la vista, baby.

-Remo Is Error

Dr. Michio Kaku discusses "the physics of Star Trek"

http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-gaming/article/2009-05/warp-speed-possiblewe-ask-string-theorist

Here's a brief excerpt:

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PopSci: Let's talk about some concepts that are familiar in the show and that you talk about in your book, like teleportation. There is a scene in the movie where Kirk and Sulu are falling without a parachute, and they have to be beamed up; Chekov decides he has to do it manually. Unlike "The Next Generation," which had "Heisenberg compensators," the movie doesn't mention the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (the more precisely you locate the position of a particle, the less you can know about its momentum.) I know there has been success in teleporting atoms, but will we ever be able to teleport a human?

Michio Kaku: Well, quantum teleportation already exists. For the past 10 years, we've been teleporting photons as well as atoms of cesium and rubidium and terbium. The world record is 1,800 feet, across the Danube River. I suspect very soon that we will be teleporting molecules. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the coming decades, we are able to teleport DNA, or maybe even a virus. But beyond that, it starts to get very difficult. You have to entangle two atoms, they have to vibrate in unison, and that is very difficult beyond the molecular level. But, Star Trek takes place in the 23rd century, so maybe by then we can teleport 100 trillion cells, which is about the number of cells in a human body.

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To read the rest of the interview with Dr. Kaku, click here: http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-gaming/article/2009-05/warp-speed-possiblewe-ask-string-theorist


For those who don't know who Michio Kaku is, he is a super awesome dude who built an atom-smasher in his garage when he was 14 years old (no lie). It was his science fair project. He also faught in Nam!

I highly recommend his books: Visions, Hyperspace and Parallel Worlds. He has lots of other books that I haven't read, so I can't comment on them, but the three above-mentioned are super easy to read and very well-written. Go to mkaku.org and learn all about Dr. Kaku!!!

As mentioned previously, he is super awesome.

Star Trek Review

caution, lens flare may ruin your experience. it did for me.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCpMlEUAh_8