diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 525d7c8..b0ced5d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,15 +1,16 @@
-# HellPot
+<div align="center">
+  <img src="https://tcp.ac/i/00ctL.gif" alt="HellPot"/>
 
 [![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/yunginnanet/HellPot?status.svg)](https://godoc.org/github.com/yunginnanet/HellPot) [![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/yunginnanet/HellPot)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/yunginnanet/HellPot) [![IRC](https://img.shields.io/badge/ircd.chat-%23tcpdirect-blue.svg)](ircs://ircd.chat:6697/#tcpdirect) [![Mentioned in Awesome Honeypots](https://awesome.re/mentioned-badge.svg)](https://github.com/paralax/awesome-honeypots)
 
+</div>
+
 ## Summary
 
 HellPot is an endless honeypot based on [Heffalump](https://github.com/carlmjohnson/heffalump) that sends unruly HTTP bots to hell.
 
 Notably it implements a [toml configuration file](https://github.com/knadh/koanf), has [JSON logging](https://github.com/rs/zerolog), and comes with significant performance gains.
 
-![Exploding Heffalump](https://tcp.ac/i/H8O9M.gif)
-
 ## Grave Consequences
 
 Clients (hopefully bots) that disregard `robots.txt` and connect to your instance of HellPot will **suffer eternal consequences**.
diff --git a/internal/config/config.go b/internal/config/config.go
index 8e00dff..89b10a2 100644
--- a/internal/config/config.go
+++ b/internal/config/config.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package config
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -24,6 +25,16 @@ var (
 	snek         = viper.New(".")
 )
 
+func init() {
+	home, _ = os.UserHomeDir()
+	if home == "" {
+		home = os.Getenv("HOME")
+	}
+	if home == "" {
+		println("WARNING: could not determine home directory")
+	}
+}
+
 // exported generic vars
 var (
 	// Trace is the value of our trace (extra verbose)  on/off toggle as per the current configuration.
@@ -41,8 +52,13 @@ var (
 func writeConfig() string {
 	prefConfigLocation, _ := os.UserConfigDir()
 
+	if prefConfigLocation == "" {
+		home, _ = os.UserHomeDir()
+		prefConfigLocation = filepath.Join(home, ".config", Title)
+	}
+
 	if _, err := os.Stat(prefConfigLocation); os.IsNotExist(err) {
-		if err = os.MkdirAll(prefConfigLocation, 0o750); err != nil {
+		if err = os.MkdirAll(prefConfigLocation, 0o750); err != nil && !errors.Is(err, os.ErrExist) {
 			println("error writing new config: " + err.Error())
 			os.Exit(1)
 		}
@@ -92,25 +108,31 @@ func Init() {
 	}
 
 	if chosen == "" && uconf != "" {
+		_ = os.MkdirAll(filepath.Join(uconf, Title), 0750)
 		chosen = filepath.Join(uconf, Title, "config.toml")
 	}
 
 	if chosen == "" {
+		pwd, _ := os.Getwd()
 		if _, err := os.Stat("./config.toml"); err == nil {
 			chosen = "./config.toml"
+		} else {
+			if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(pwd, "config.toml")); err == nil {
+				chosen = filepath.Join(pwd, "config.toml")
+			}
 		}
 	}
 
-	if chosen == "" {
+	loadErr := snek.Load(file.Provider(chosen), toml.Parser())
+
+	if chosen == "" || loadErr != nil {
 		println("No configuration file found, writing new configuration file...")
 		chosen = writeConfig()
 	}
-
 	Filename = chosen
 
-	if err := snek.Load(file.Provider(chosen), toml.Parser()); err != nil {
-		println("Error opening specified config file: " + chosen)
-		println(err.Error())
+	if loadErr = snek.Load(file.Provider(chosen), toml.Parser()); loadErr != nil {
+		fmt.Println("failed to load default config file: ", loadErr.Error())
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/config/logger.go b/internal/config/logger.go
index 92a7373..a9aba64 100644
--- a/internal/config/logger.go
+++ b/internal/config/logger.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path"
+	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -20,10 +21,10 @@ var (
 
 func prepLogDir() {
 	logDir = snek.String("logger.directory")
-	if err := os.MkdirAll(logDir, 0750); err != nil {
-		println("cannot create log directory: " + logDir + "(" + err.Error() + ")")
-		os.Exit(1)
+	if logDir == "" {
+		logDir = filepath.Join(home, ".local", "share", Title, "logs")
 	}
+	_ = os.MkdirAll(logDir, 0750)
 }
 
 // StartLogger instantiates an instance of our zerolog loggger so we can hook it in our main package.