For Inktober: Jabba the Trump.
It’s probably been done before, but I had to get it out of my system.
Posts categoriezed as Amusements
Background Check Your Doctor: Try This Health Care Provider Review Aggregator
I wrote a suite of scripts to help you background check your doctor.
The Primary Care Provider Investigator imports a list of health care providers and then scrapes multiple review sites (e.g. Yelp, UCompareHealthCare) to aggregate their reviews: PCPInvestigator.
This project was born of frustration with my health insurer’s “search for a doctor” function, which listed the doctors my insurance covered but didn’t give me any sense of whether a doctor was any good.
Now I have a database of doctors and a snapshot of their reviews across multiple sites, plus a local webpage that displays the results and lets me sort by the categories I care about. (Click any image to view full-size.)
Y’see, doctor reviews became important to me when I visited Dr. Norma C. Salceda back in 2009 and had such a bad experience that I complained to my insurer (then Blue Shield) and was told just go find another doctor.
If I’d had the PCPInvestigator at the time, I would have been able to see this before I ever made an appointment:
That’s 38% positive reviews for Dr. Norma C. Salceda with over 150 reviews to examine. That’s bad.
In the summary report, I would have seen such quotables as “WORST experience that I’ve ever had with a doctor,” “worst medical experience I’ve ever had,” and “LADIES BEWARE SHE IS AN ANIMAL!!!”:
Sure, any doctor can have dissatisfied patients and a few complaints, but the intensity and the sheer number here is pretty special.
If you want to try the PCPInvestigator out yourself, it’s on github. You’ll have to be comfortable with the command line, and it’s useful to have some familiarity with python and mongoDB. You may also have to massage the doctors’ information input parsing to get it to match whatever list you can get from your health insurer. There’s more detail in the README. And you should know…
WARNINGS
- Web scraping violates Google ToS. Irresponsible use may result in your IP getting blocked.
- Pymongo cursor has been set to have no timeout (due to long intervals between scrapes.) Proceed w/ caution.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Health care review website formats change without notice.
- Searches by doctor name and so may suffer false positives (i.e. include reviews for other doctors of the same name) or false negatives (i.e. omit some available reviews)
- Disparities between your input file and the expected input format may require elbow grease to resolve.
- Script developed on OSX. Installation/execution not tested on any other system.
Even with these issues, if you want to find the best, closest primary care provider covered by your insurance, this is the only way I’ve found.
Hope this helps. Enjoy!
Dead Week (Remastered)
Back and now mobile-friendly for your Halloween enjoyment! Evil is at the door.
DEAD WEEK (Remastered): the week before final exams, college roommates face a horror they may not survive.
“Dead Week” is an interactive horror webtoon with audio, playable in English or Korean. Headphones and a modern browser on a desktop computer are recommended for the best experience.
Twine is a platform for making interactive fiction—stories integrated with choice, picture, and sound. If you like IF, you might be interested in sub-Q Magazine.
“Meddling Auntie” on lesbian.com!
Check out “Meddling Auntie” on lesbian.com!
Thanks to Lesbian.com for the interview and Kristine Chester, as always, for her kind support.
Read more “Meddling Auntie” at meddlingauntie.com, purchase as eBook or trade paperback at Amazon, or purchase as a comic at IndyPlanet.
B is for Broken Cover Reveal
It’s here! Earlier this year I worked with Rhonda Parrish on the cover and interior illustrations of her new alphabet anthology B is for Broken, to be released May 26. And now the art is out of the bag!
Working with Rhonda was a treat. Thanks to Alexis A. Hunter for the tip! It’s a double honor to grace the cover of one of Alexis’s stories.
Here’s the original art. I’m pretty psyched with how it turned out. Still learning, but psyched.
I’ll post some process images later this week. If you like process, you’re gonna LOVE THESE IMAGES.
Meddling Auntie Comics: New Release Plus Giveaway!
Meddling Auntie Comics are now on Amazon as eBooks! The series includes a brand new, harsh-truth-soothing, squirm-inducing topic: Puberty.
The comics will and should always remain free and open. However people have asked for other ways to read and share them, and I aim to deliver.
Next week they’ll be available for print at Amazon CreateSpace. Follow this blog or follow me on Twitter for a chance to win both print volumes: “Bullies and Perverts” and “Puberty and Drugs.”
Be the first to hear when new subjects are released! Join Meddling Auntie’s Newsletter:
3 Animators That Will Explode Your Brain
You work hard. You show kindness. You pay your taxes. You just remembered you have to pay your taxes. You deserve to meet three animators that will explode your brain. There are no fluffy 3D clouds or meet-cute plots here. But there are unforgettable images and squealing rapture.
Time Consumption Advisory: these artists’ work is often short but extremely addictive, and you may find yourself unable to do the thing you were supposed to do today.
1. Nina Paley
A cartoonist, animator, writer, and free culture (“Copying is Not Theft”) activist, Nina Paley is prolific, innovative, and engaging.
When Nina’s gorgeous, hilarious, wrenching magnum opus SITA SINGS THE BLUES reached NetFlix, I watched it. Enjoyed it. The next night, came home to find my roommate had just started it. Thought, “I’ll just sit and watch this part.” Watched the whole thing over again. It’s that good.
Origin story
In 1991, at age 23, Nina was already producing work this good (for Grateful Dead Comix):
Secret superpowers
Adobe Flash, animating with embroidery, embracing technology, resisting authority
Viewing rabbit hole starts here
This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo.
2. Felix Colgrave
Distinctive, playful, unsettling, Felix Colgrave’s work is so good it makes me angry. Every time he puts out a new short, I watch it three times in a row. Can’t help it.
He has the skill, the portfolio, and the beard-growing prowess of a man twice his age. He’s 22 right now and I can’t handle that information at all.
Origin story
Originally from the Tasmanian Northwest, currently living and working in Melbourne, Australia, Felix produces steady freelance work, including a music video for Fever the Ghost and a short for Comedy Central’s Triptank (NSFWish). He is also pretty great at life drawing.
Secret superpowers
Adobe Flash, comic contrast, comic timing, making Melbourne as cool as Adelaide
Viewing rabbit hole starts here
3. Cyriak
Cyriak Harris’s appetite-suppressing, electronica-backed flights of fancy are as fun as they are disturbing. There is no creature so innocuous that he can’t turn it into a hypnotic dancing spider-beast.
Origin story
Breakout star of British media site B3ta, Cyriak answers the cries of a hungry public with music videos, Adult Swim bumpers, and assorted original shorts.
Secret superpowers
After Effects, music composition, patience for render times
Viewing rabbit hole starts here
Enjoy, and don’t forget your taxes.
Spring 2015 Cartoon Preview
This article first appeared as a “Chick on the Draw” column in Luna Station Quarterly, March 6, 2015.
This year’s animated lineup is out of control. There is no controlling it. Don’t try. You will hurt yourself. There are two Disney/Pixar movies coming out this year: INSIDE OUT (June 19) and THE GOOD DINOSAUR (Nov 25). TWO PIXAR MOVIES IN ONE YEAR.
But there’s still time to find a paper bag to breathe into. Let’s talk about spring.
HOME (March 27)
Based on Adam Rex’s extremely silly 2007 children’s book, The True Meaning of Smekday, the film follows a girl and a friendly, outcast alien on the journey to find her mother and save the earth. In the book, the friendly alien was named J. Lo; those missing the old name may be relieved by the movie’s actual Jennifer Lopez.
And can we talk about a brown girl main character? IS THIS REAL LIFE?
Expect silliness, flying cars, heartfelt moments, Minions-esque marketability, and Jim Parsons at 100% Parson.
| Known for | ||
| Director | Tim Johnson | OVER THE HEDGE (2006) SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS (2003) |
| Based on | The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex | |
| Screenplay by | Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember | GET SMART (2008), EPIC (2013) |
| Studio | DreamWorks Animation | HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (perpetual) KUNG FU PANDA (perpetual) |
Cast: Rihanna, Jim Parsons, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez
UNDERDOGS (April 10)
A 2013 hit in its original Argentina, METEGOL lands in the US as UNDERDOGS. In it, Foosball players come to life to help a young man combat a childhood enemy returned to destroy their hometown. Expect adventure, pandemonium, and gags of all kinds.
In the lead role of Jake (née Amadeo) appears Nicholas Hoult, who is off to a hell of a busy year.
| Known for | ||
| Director | Juan José Campanella | AVELLANEDA’S MOON (2004) SON OF THE BRIDE (2001) A huuuge amount of TV |
| Studio | 100 Bares, Plural-Jempsa and Catmandu Branded Entertainment | The first feature from Catmandu, who proclaims METEGOL “the largest Ibero-American CG production to date” |
Cast: Ariana Grande, Nicholas Hoult, Matthew Morrison, Katie Holmes
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE (April 24)
Fixture of the BBC that reached US audiences through NETFLIX streaming, Shaun the Sheep arrives in his first feature to hit the city and rescue a lost Farmer. Expect rampant adventure, puns, visual gags, and startling emotional moments.
Shaun the Sheep listener advisory: extremely catchy theme song.
| Known for | ||
| Directors | Richard Goleszowski, Mark Burton | First time at the helm |
| Story | Richard Goleszowski, Mark Burton | GNOMEO & JULIET (2011) MADAGASCAR (2005) THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT (2005) CHICKEN RUN (2000) |
| Studio | Aardman Animations | WALLACE & GROMIT (perpetual) CHICKEN RUN (2000) |
Cast: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes
Other Items
Originally slated for May, new Paramount feature from director Chris Wedge (ICE AGE, EPIC) MONSTER TRUCKS, has been pushed to a Christmas release. No poster. No trailer. No worries?
The release date for the RATCHET & CLANK movie remains unannounced. So if you need a throwback Sony fix, you need to dust off the PlayStation.