diff --git a/src/common.py b/src/common.py
index bd79b788..93eca601 100644
--- a/src/common.py
+++ b/src/common.py
@@ -62,7 +62,13 @@ def debug(string):
     a CLI software
     """
     fdes = open("debug", 'a')
-    fdes.write(string)
+    try:
+        fdes.write(string)
+    except:
+        try:
+            fdes.write(string.encode('utf-8'))
+        except:
+            fdes.write(string.encode('utf-8'))
     fdes.close()
 
 def get_base64_from_file(path):
diff --git a/src/connection.py b/src/connection.py
index c0bd5575..0ac8be6a 100644
--- a/src/connection.py
+++ b/src/connection.py
@@ -220,6 +220,5 @@ class Connection(threading.Thread):
         """
         we received a vcard
         """
-        return
         from common import debug
         debug('\n====\n%s\n\n' % iq)
diff --git a/src/gui.py b/src/gui.py
index 6b9180ad..8038243f 100644
--- a/src/gui.py
+++ b/src/gui.py
@@ -288,6 +288,8 @@ class Gui(object):
         char_we_dont_want = [',', '(', ')', '.']
         words = list()
         for msg in self.current_room().messages[:-9:-1]:
+            if not msg:
+                continue
             for word in msg.txt.split():
                 for char in char_we_dont_want: # remove the chars we don't want
                     word = word.replace(char, '')
@@ -1018,6 +1020,8 @@ class Gui(object):
         i = 0
         link = None
         for msg in self.current_room().messages[:-200:-1]:
+            if not msg:
+                continue
             matches = re.findall('"((ftp|http|https|gopher|mailto|news|nntp|telnet|wais|file|prospero|aim|webcal):(([A-Za-z0-9$_.+!*(),;/?:@&~=-])|%[A-Fa-f0-9]{2}){2,}(#([a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*(),;/?:@&~=%-]*))?([A-Za-z0-9$_+!*();/?:~-]))"', msg.txt)
             for m in matches:
                 if i == nb:
@@ -1065,4 +1069,3 @@ class Gui(object):
             sleep(0.2)          # :(
 	self.reset_curses()
         sys.exit()
-
diff --git a/src/multiuserchat.py b/src/multiuserchat.py
index 8fb510f7..bd60641e 100644
--- a/src/multiuserchat.py
+++ b/src/multiuserchat.py
@@ -223,7 +223,6 @@ class MultiUserChat(object):
     def on_presence(self, presence):
         """Receive a MUC presence notification"""
         from_ = presence.getFrom().__str__()
-
         if get_stripped_jid(from_) in self.rooms:
             self.handler.emit('on-muc-presence-changed',
                                jid=from_.encode('utf-8'),