diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e496076..40cede1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ LDLIBS=
 PREFIX=/usr/local
 
 SRC = src/journal/main.o \
-    src/journal/journal.o \
-    src/journal/emotion.o
+    src/journal/journal.o
 
 all: ensure_bin journal
 
@@ -30,7 +29,6 @@ journal: $(SRC)
 	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o bin/journal $(SRC) $(LDLIBS)
 
 src/journal/journal.o: src/journal/journal.c
-src/journal/emotion.o: src/journal/emotion.c
 src/journal/main.o: src/journal/main.c
 
 clean:
diff --git a/src/journal/emotion.c b/src/journal/emotion.c
deleted file mode 100644
index a8c8d50..0000000
--- a/src/journal/emotion.c
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-#include <stdio.h>
-
-#include "journal.h"
-
-void handle_emotion(FILE *journal, char* msg)
-{
-    journal_write_topic(journal, "emotion", msg);
-    return;
-}
diff --git a/src/journal/emotion.h b/src/journal/emotion.h
deleted file mode 100644
index b9b6393..0000000
--- a/src/journal/emotion.h
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-#ifndef __EMOTION_H__
-#define __EMOTION_H__
-
-#include <stdio.h>
-
-void handle_emotion(FILE*, char*);
-
-#endif
diff --git a/src/journal/main.c b/src/journal/main.c
index 640dcfa..d5ad915 100644
--- a/src/journal/main.c
+++ b/src/journal/main.c
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
-#include "emotion.h"
 #include "journal.h"
 
 #define TOPICS 10
@@ -60,16 +59,19 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
         "emotion"
     };
 
+    // default handling by journal_write_topic is marked
+    // as the NULL values in this array.
     void (*handlers[])(FILE*, char*) = {
-        handle_emotion,
+        NULL,
     };
 
+    // list all topics when arg1 is list
     if(strcmp(topic, "list") == 0)
     {
-        // list all topics
         for(int i = 0; topics[i] != NULL; i++)
             printf("%s ", topics[i]);
         printf("\n");
+
         return 0;
     }
 
@@ -84,15 +86,18 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
             FILE* journal_file = journal_open(topic);
 
             char *handler_message = extract_handler_msg(argc, argv);
-            printf("'%s'\n", handler_message);
+            printf("[%s] said '%s'\n", topic, handler_message);
+
+            if(fun_ptr == NULL) {
+                journal_write_topic(journal_file, topic, handler_message);
+            } else {
+                fun_ptr(journal_file, handler_message);
+            }
 
-            // the joined args[2] and beyond come as the
-            // second argument
-            fun_ptr(journal_file, handler_message);
             journal_close(journal_file);
-
             free(handler_message);
-            printf("done\n");
+
+            printf("done!\n");
             return 0;
         }
     }