diff --git a/screenless/bureau/bureau.py b/screenless/bureau/bureau.py
index 38db6fd..b407c32 100644
--- a/screenless/bureau/bureau.py
+++ b/screenless/bureau/bureau.py
@@ -229,6 +229,7 @@ class Bureau(object):
         """
         fp = io.BytesIO()
         barcode.generate("CODE128", code, writer=barcode.writer.SVGWriter(), output=fp)
+        fp.seek(0)
         # TODO: add file output
         return fp.read().decode()
 
diff --git a/screenless/bureau/publications/publications.py b/screenless/bureau/publications/publications.py
index 5b1896c..f4157c9 100644
--- a/screenless/bureau/publications/publications.py
+++ b/screenless/bureau/publications/publications.py
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ class Publications(Bureau):
                 continue  # skip bogus links
             tmpcode = self._make_shorturl(link.attrib["href"])
 
-            svg = barcode.get("CODE128", "PBr." + tmpcode).raw
+            svg = self.bc_svg("PBr." + tmpcode)
 
             footnote = html.makeelement("div")
             footnote.attrib["class"] = "footnote"
@@ -173,7 +173,7 @@ class Publications(Bureau):
             notetext.text = str(notecount) + ". " + link.attrib["href"]
             footnote.append(notetext)
             #TODO: make this barcode inline thing a util method
-            encoded_svg = b64encode(svg).decode()
+            encoded_svg = b64encode(svg.encode()).decode()
             encoded_data = "data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8;base64," + encoded_svg
             svg = '<img class="endnotebc" src="%s"/>' % encoded_data
             footnote.append(lxml.html.fromstring(svg))
@@ -276,8 +276,8 @@ class Publications(Bureau):
 
                 entry.source = feed.feed.title
                 entry.dbhash = self._make_shorturl(entry.link)
-                entry.svg = barcode.get("CODE128", "PBr." + entry.dbhash).raw
-                encoded_svg = b64encode(entry.svg).decode()
+                entry.svg = self.bc_svg("PBr." + entry.dbhash)
+                encoded_svg = b64encode(entry.svg.encode()).decode()
                 encoded_data = "data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8;base64," + encoded_svg
                 entry.svg = '<img src="%s"/>' % encoded_data
 
diff --git a/screenless/bureau/publicrelations/publicrelations.py b/screenless/bureau/publicrelations/publicrelations.py
index 98b5836..dafaacd 100644
--- a/screenless/bureau/publicrelations/publicrelations.py
+++ b/screenless/bureau/publicrelations/publicrelations.py
@@ -51,16 +51,25 @@ class PublicRelations(Bureau):
         self.auth = twitter.OAuth(oauth_token, oauth_secret, CK, CS)
         self.t.t = twitter.Twitter(auth=self.auth)
 
+        # TODO: expand config to have other masto servers
         MASTO_CREDS = os.path.expanduser('~/.screenless/masto_creds')
         if not os.path.exists(MASTO_CREDS):
             Mastodon.create_app('screenless',
                                 api_base_url='https://mastodon.social',
                                 to_file=MASTO_CREDS)
+        # TODO: catch the error when our token is too old and throw it out
         self.masto = Mastodon(client_id=MASTO_CREDS,
                               api_base_url='https://mastodon.social')
-        masto_user = self.config["mastodon"]["user"]
-        masto_pass = self.config["mastodon"]["password"]
-        self.masto.log_in(masto_user, masto_pass)
+        try:
+            masto_user = self.config["mastodon"]["user"]
+            masto_pass = self.config["mastodon"]["password"]
+            self.masto.log_in(masto_user, masto_pass)
+        except KeyError:
+            print("no mastodon config found.")
+            print("you can add a 'mastodon:' section to PR.yml with:")
+            print("  user: myuser")
+            print("  password: mypassword")
+            print("skipping masto login for now...")
 
         # setup DBs to map short codes to tweet ids
         self.tweetdb = self.dbenv.open_db(b"tweetdb")