Share this:

Writing a simple Web Crawler

HYUNYOUNG SONG

from XKCD

Although I shouldn’t really be procrastinating, writing for hours makes me depressed. Learning a new programming language makes me happy. Hence, for the past 2~3 weeks, I spent like 2~3 hours on Saturdays or Sundays to build a web crawler which I never done before. The crawler was implemented to capture and import posts from my Korean blog to this wordpress blog. In order to do this, I learned a new language, python.

This is what I did:
1. I opened up a http connection using urllib2 module.
2. In order to parse the content of interest, I used BeautifulSoup module. It is built on top of regular expressions and sgml. I can traverse the html tree very easily and can search a node using regular expressions.
3. I dumped it out to a text file in Movable Type format, which was inserted into wordpress import system.

I…

View original post 416 more words

Share this:

A WEEK OF CULTURE

Kimathi University woke up on Monday 12^th November to what was to be a weeklong celebration of culture dubbed Kimathi Cultural week. The event is usually hosted by the student body KUTSO once a year and involves various activities that stretch through the week. Different dress codes are laid for each day; a norm for the social event. Monday was for the old school wear that saw guys bringing the old school tough in their outfits. Tuesday was for casual wear while Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were for crazy, official, sporty and general wear. The day that brought many to attention was Wednesday’s crazy wear seeing a couple of dudes dressing like the ladies. On spot was a first year male student that put on a waist-high dress that was matched with a bra that was kept on check with two cups; the look was sealed with a shoe on one foot and a sandal on the other. Kababa, a second year I.T student was also part of this and put on a feminine clad that was to see him win the crazy wearer of the day. 

The crazy lads

The event had a slow start with the first day being dedicated to tree planting. It picked up by Wednesday seeing some students being ferried to Nyeri town for the town clean up. Each day was wrapped up with an evening show hosted by local artist C.J on which contenders for the dressing codes battled out and eventually winners crowned in both gentlemen and ladies categories. The evening shows were well attended as everyone tried to catch a glimpse of what was happening on an otherwise overcrowded podium at the school’s student center. A deejay face-off that was scheduled for Friday evening was shifted to Saturday afternoon and later to Saturday evening during Mr. and Miss Kimathi night. This arose mixed reactions from the students with some criticizing the organizing body for what they termed a shoddy work. Well, everything turned out right in the end. 

The purpose of the event was to appreciate our culture, give back to the community and largely for students to have fun. A closer look and one could see that the first years this time round were much active and put up a spirited fight for the evening cash rewards for the rest of the other groups, bingo! Kimathi media group wishes to congratulate the organizing team for the good job on their part and ensuring the event was a success.

Kimathi, A Home of Cultures

Just like a jungle comprised of animals with different species, different ways of life and eating habits, a university setting is a clear image of the same environment. In a jungle,there is struggle for existence for the minority ones while the superior are said to run the ‘business’. On the contrary, KUCT stood out as an institution where cultural diversity is something worth bragging about. The integration of different cultures, apart from enhancing peaceful co-existence between students it has also boosted the efforts by various government institutions to enhance national unity.

The recently concluded cultural week gave a platform to various appreciation of cultures that the university is wealthy of. The Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo and Luhya cultures were among the many that were appreciated. The students hailing from these communities had demonstrations of their favorite meals and dances. It was pomp and color as the stage was filled to the brim with students dancing to the tunes of various songs from different cultural backgrounds.

The Luhya community opened the stage with their Isukuti and kamaveka dances thanks to the preparations made by KUMSA. Their favorite meal ingokho and traditional vegetable isucha was served with ugali. Women dressed in their traditional outfits served men as a show of respect as expected of them in the Luhya culture. It was all jeers as they left the stage dancing to the tune of the famous Mukangala song. What a culture!

The Luo community followed on stage with their Ohangla dance well organized by the Ramogi association. As the dances went down, one could tell how the whole crowd cheered and joined them in their peacock like moves. Thefamous Tony Nyadundo hits graced their time at the stage with the mammoth crowd singing and dancing to the tunes.

The Kalenjin community came third on stage with the famous hit, Emilly chepchumba by Motomoto band. Mouth-watering dishes prepared by the team were served to the students. The aroma of murisik,isochot and kimyet filled the entire hall as the lucky bit had a chance to taste the delicacies. The stage was made full to capacity when the hit kiptindinyo was put. The security personnel had to come in to limit the number of people on stage as dancing styles from all walks of life were up for grabs. Thanks to the preparation made by Kirisa-Kitwek association as the whole demonstration was a success!

The Kikuyu community closed the session with Mugithi almost bursting up the roofs of the strongest building around, the Catholic hall! It wasn’t a stage anymore since everybody was up on their feet dancing to the tunes of Ken Wamaria. As the DJ ended the songs it was all heckling at him with dissatisfaction for they all wanted the songs to continue. What a lovely evening!

As the decks and turntables were bundled up and the music dwindled off it was all lessons well learnt! Appreciating one another regardless of their origin was a virtue to borrow from the crowd moving events. The esteemed academicians were reminded of their roots but at the same time the fact that that should not be a basis of disunity among them was emphasized. Just as everyone danced to the tunes of different origin and enjoyed the delicacies as a united KUCT,the same is expected of us in our daily activities. It is our responsibility to shun away tribalism then sit back and enjoy the cultural diversity the KUCT community brags of. Unity moves mountains, trust me.
by: Juma Stephen

THE KIMATHI CULTURAL WEEK

Share this:

Being late is good.

I hate being late, and sometimes when this happens some people confuse me for being lazy. Well, today, nobody was there to tell that to me but I was being beaten inside by my conscience. Quick bathe, halitosis removal, make up (with kimbo like products-you can tell I was shining)…in whatever order.

Walk down to the new mess and I see the KBB leaving. Me nani, i hoped into the bus, since I got information that it was going to nai. If you don’t like free rides please stand up and kill the rest of population. I haven’t mentioned why the bus was leaving to Nairobi. 

ok,their were the inter universities tournament going on at Kenyatta University, where over this weekend, the school was being represented by various teams, among them, the basketball, hockey women’s and netball teams. However, the bus didn’t make a final at KU. It continued to City Park. This is where the kimathi titans were to battle it out with parklands sports club, in a bigger league-the national men’s hockey league. Kimathi sat at 4th place before the game…and were still 4th place after the win. (Ok, i leaked it too early)

However the humiliation which the titans gave to parklands sports club was one I had waited for.

Parky, (as I will refer to them here), in the changing rooms seemed well fit, and mentally prepared to whoop some kimathi ass. You should have seen the meanness written all over.

Well, almost two minutes into the game, they confirmed their mission with one shot that hit the back of the board. However, it being my first game to watch, i was hopeful that the guys would reply. Try after try showed the spirited fight that the team carried, way from the changing rooms.

35minutes into the game was the end culmination of the 1st half with the titans having not equalized. They came from the changing rooms charged.

Goal one. Whoa. Classic goal it was that was farfetched and long awaited for. From the cheering in the crowd, you’d have thought that the whole of the lot of spectators was for Kimathi. Nwe, that’s beside the point.

Goal two… that was even more neat and organized. My cheering was taken to another level.

...”PAH”, goal three. Ok, that I didn’t watch since a female friend had come by me and…Well, you know the attention was divided. But the celebration wasn’t. A victory was now confirmed. One that I wanted, having sacrificed a lot to be their, including a date with a Miss KEMU.

Ok, i am not sure whether I sacrificed the date, or I just stood someone up.

70mins, a hoax of rain, and a few kashatas later, the game was over, and yes the team of titans had done me proud. I was elated. For me, it was a perfect pre-birthday gift.

Well done Kimathi titans, well done comrades.

I said I hate being late, so yeah; I was late in watching the titans earlier in the season, so I was also late in getting home.