$JOURNAL_TITLE

NEW BLOG

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 03:31:40 GMT

I'm hosting my own blog now, and probably will never update this one again.

We've had some GOOD TIMES LIVEJOURNAL!

Anyhow, I've made a LJ syndicated user for my blog so all of you Live Journal junkies.
So if you friend dasbistro_sam you will see all of my antics, misadventures, and
escapades.

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:48:23 GMT

It would seem that the Clerk's Office of the House has the nice XML up for votes.
The senate has horrid HTML, and Thomas's bill stuff is as well. Oh well. If I was
feeling tough I could use Beautiful Soup on it.

Python for freedom information gathering

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:43:33 GMT

Wow. PATRIOT Act again. Go figure. I'm jamming to the new William Shatner album
(it is AWESOME, BTW) and I was getting curious who were the 43 Democrats who
voted against their party, and why did they do it?

I jumped over to http://thomas.loc.gov and clicked my heels three times. Instantly
I was transported to the vote count. It was a bunch of funky tables with italics and
whatnot. Curiously the url, http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll414.xml, reveals that
it /says/ it's an XML document. Downloading revealed it _is_ an XML document, with
like actually useful metadata, and it's not some stupid blogging standard thing.

I'm thinking that some enterprising soul can make some nice greasemonkey extensions
for http://thomas.loc.gov. Off the top of my head I can think it'd be nice to be able to
cross referencing links to US Code and other documents that bill modify. And maybe
formatting these votes differently would be good.

In the meantime, I'm not quite ready for javurscript hackery, so, for your amusement
at how much of a nerd I am, here is the little vote dissector I built in python. If you really
wanted to you could do something really crazy with this I'm sure.

from xml.dom.minidom import parse

def ayevotep (v):
  return 'Aye' == v.getElementsByTagName('vote')[0].lastChild.data

def democratp (v):
  return u'D' == v.getElementsByTagName('legislator')[0].getAttribute('party')

def state_name (v):
  l = v.getElementsByTagName('legislator')[0]
  return (l.getAttribute('state'), l.lastChild.data)

doc = parse('roll414.xml')
votes = doc.getElementsByTagName('recorded-vote')
aye_democrats = [state_name(v) for v in votes \
                                   if ayevotep(v) and democratp(v)]

aye_democrats.sort()

for s,n in aye_democrats:
  print s,n

And here are our winners!

AL Cramer
AL Davis (AL)
AR Ross
CA Baca
CA Harman
FL Davis (FL)
GA Barrow
GA Bishop (GA)
GA Marshall
GA Scott (GA)
HI Case
IA Boswell
IL Bean
IL Emanuel
IL Lipinski
KY Chandler
LA Melancon
MD Cardin
MD Hoyer
MD Ruppersberger
MO Carnahan
MO Skelton
NC Butterfield
NC Etheridge
NC McIntyre
NC Miller (NC)
ND Pomeroy
NJ Andrews
NJ Menendez
NY Higgins
OK Boren
PA Holden
PA Schwartz (PA)
SC Clyburn
SC Spratt
SD Herseth
TN Cooper
TN Davis (TN)
TN Gordon
TX Edwards
TX Green, Gene
TX Ortiz
TX Reyes

I figure I'll just use what state they're from to make wild conclusions to why
they voted for the PATRIOT Act (Texas: they're jerks, North Carolina:
rednecks, Louisiana: hillbillies) until I can find the XML of their personality
profile and campaign contribution lists.

Should your lawyer be expected to spell?

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:47:27 GMT

http://www.laub.com/press.asp

The Star Track

Mon, 04 Jul 2005 04:06:28 GMT

Classic:

Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.

http://www.morningstar.nildram.co.uk/A_New_Sith.html

hee

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 07:04:52 GMT

Special Message...

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 06:53:40 GMT

to you know who:

Remember Kids...

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 14:23:19 GMT

Jedi Knight's == Republicans

I read it on the Internet

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=57&forum=63

More Roger Ebert

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 20:29:41 GMT

I am surely following the tangents today. Roger Ebert's closing paragraph of his 'Herbie: Fully Loaded' review is the best part of a silly review of a silly movie:

It goes to show you how we in the press so often miss the big stories that are right under our noses. There is a famous journalistic legend about the time a young reporter covered the Johnstown flood of 1889. The kid wrote: "God sat on a hillside overlooking Johnstown today and looked at the destruction He had wrought." His editor cabled back: "Forget flood. Interview God."

UPDATE: Here's the proper URL:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050621/REVIEWS/506210301/1001

I Hate Batman Reviews

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 20:23:25 GMT

Why, why, why, why do I keep reading these 'Batman Begins'. I always pick the ones that hate the movie, and then I feel like beating people up. This one is the worst. If you haven't already seen the film DON'T READ IT. He spoils the ending like a the crap-ass reviewer he is.

http://www.burbankleader.com/entertainment/story/16565p-23133c.html

For the folks who haven't seen it read the review from someone who gets movies: Roger Ebert.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050613/REVIEWS/50525003/1023

More Bats v. Supes

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 20:16:03 GMT

Here's that Chicago Tribune story from yesterday. It has since migrated to Florida.

http://www.southflorida.com/movies/sfl-supervsbatmanjun22,0,1260354.story?coll=sfe-movies-headlines

No one in a batmobile won.

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:20:25 GMT

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_Story.asp?ID=128389

You wanna be a superhero?

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:15:41 GMT

Forbes calculated Bruce Wayne's net worth and how much it would cost to be a high end super hero.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/06/20/batman-movies-superheroes-cx_de_0620batman.html

Also they have the Fictional Fifteen, the top 15 richest fictional characters.

http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/400fictional.html

Haters

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:05:53 GMT

Why don't people get that Superman is a dick?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0506210005jun21,1,2943362.story?page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1&coll=chi-leisuretempo-hed

(Update: Apparently Chicago Tribune sucks and you have to register. Sorry. The story was about how much better Superman is than Batman.)

Are you ready for a superhero party?

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 07:53:57 GMT

Ok I started to read this out loud to Shannon, and then when she realized how lame it was she ran away. Now I can't find her! She's out in the awful city alone! Help! Batman!

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2719.asp

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 06:54:45 GMT

Reason number 572 why I lurve Shannon.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dracunculus/35544.html

PS. We're both being gross bloggers recently.

Get it?

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 02:47:19 GMT

Philippines' Cardinal Sin is dead

Batman vs FF

Mon, 20 Jun 2005 23:46:54 GMT

Yet another comic book showdown in the Texas A&M student paper.
Notes:

The Fantastic Four are what made modern Marvel Comics.
Johnny Storm is way more out of control than Batman
The Fantastic Four are a bad team? Has this guy seen the X-Men?
That comic store owner is a complete DC apologist.

Ok, not that I'm the biggest Marvel/FF fan in the world (in fact I'm really more of a Batman fan), but against Batman they'd clean the room with him. Sorry.

http://www.thebatt.com/media/paper657/news/2005/06/20/Aggielife/Superhero.Smack.Down-958113.shtml

Damn Dirty Filker

Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:27:36 GMT

She's Got a Bantha to Ride
(filked from the Beatles, "Ticket to Ride")

I think I'm gonna be sad,
I think it's today, yeah.
The girl that's driving me mad
Is going away.

(Chorus)
She's got a bantha to ride,
She's got a bantha to ride,
She's got a bantha to ride,
But she don't care.

She said that Tatooine
Is bringing her down yeah.
For she would never be free
With the Empire around.

(Chorus)

I don't know why she's ridin' so high,
She ought to think twice,
She ought to do right by me.
Before she gets to saying goodbye,
She ought to think twice,
She ought to do right by me.

I think I'm gonna be sad,
I think it's today yeah.
The girl that's driving me mad
Is going away, yeah.

(Chorus)

Ah, she's got a bantha to ride,
She's got a bantha to ride,
She's got a bantha to ride,
But she don't care.

My baby wookie, my baby wookie.
My baby wookie, my baby wookie.
My baby wookie, my baby wookie.

The Perfumed Icepick?

Sun, 19 Jun 2005 01:44:27 GMT

Rep. Henry Hyde [R-IL]: Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) has just administered the perfumed icepick.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd?id=109-h20050617-19&person=400314

The What? The perfumed icepick? What does this all mean? dracunculus thinks the whole thing sound vaguely gay.

Batman Initiates a Plan

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 04:54:55 GMT

So you should really watch Batman Begins because it's like totally cool, and he is a rockin' ninja. No I'm serious this is a great Batman movie.

Really really good. Apparently Gotham City has a big ole monorail too.

FIREFOX!!!

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:47:30 GMT

Blargity blar blar blar. I'm playing with firefox lj thingys.

Serenity/Firefly RPG

Sat, 07 May 2005 19:27:01 GMT

I'm a blogaholic.

http://www.thegpa.org/index.php/pressrelease/MARGARET_WEIS_FINDS_SERENITY

Superhero Conference

Sat, 07 May 2005 19:20:53 GMT

Seriously:

http://www.ahcca.unimelb.edu.au/Superheroes/

More Gav

Fri, 06 May 2005 17:56:28 GMT

So P.J. Corkery is probably the best columnist in SF right now. Today he
wrote more from his interview with our future Governor, Gavin Newsom.

How Gavin plays it by the book

My favorite out of the article:

It irks enemies that he is unaffected by the red-hot ingots of gossip forged and stoked in San Francisco's rumor mills. Of the rumor that he's gay, he just told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "It's great [that] people speculate! But it's not true. To me, it's not a negative. So why would I be upset if someone thought I was, when I'm not? And, I would say, quite the contrary." So there! ...

Also apparently the country music is for heartache, and not because Gavin is a big hillbilly.

Also in his office is a photograph of Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ex-wife. They talk daily, but the divorce goes on. And that explains all that country music on his iPod. When a city guy is listening to Rascal Flats (or Jane's Addiction or "Turandot," for that matter), that's for heartache. There's no manual for that, just an iPod.