Proper error catching

Never, ever have an empty except clause like the following:

try:
    ...
except:
    ...

With an empty except clause, any error that occurs in the try block will be caught by the except clause. This includes errors that aren't intended to be caught, like a SystemError, where something goes wrong internally.

The proper way to specify what error you want to catch would be to write your except clause like this:

except ExceptionType:
    ...

Properly opening files

The generally accepted method for opening files in Python is to use a contest manager, as seen below. If you use a context manager, the file is closed implicitly, and you can guarantee that the file is closed properly if the program unexpectedly exits:

with open("path/to/my/file.dat", "mode") as my_file:
    ...

More to come.