diff --git a/jmdaemon/jmdaemon/irc.py b/jmdaemon/jmdaemon/irc.py
index 0e6553c..16db483 100644
--- a/jmdaemon/jmdaemon/irc.py
+++ b/jmdaemon/jmdaemon/irc.py
@@ -19,11 +19,20 @@ log = get_log()
 def wlog(*x):
     """Simplifier to add lists to the debug log
     """
+    def conv(s):
+        # note: this only works because of the future package
+        if isinstance(s, str):
+            return s
+        elif isinstance(s, bytes):
+            return s.decode('utf-8', errors='ignore')
+        else:
+            return str(s)
+
     if x[0] == "WARNING":
-        msg = " ".join([str(a) for a in x[1:]])
+        msg = " ".join([conv(a) for a in x[1:]])
         log.warn(msg)
     else:
-        msg = " ".join([str(a) for a in x])
+        msg = " ".join([conv(a) for a in x])
         log.debug(msg)
 
 def get_irc_text(line):
@@ -402,4 +411,4 @@ class txIRC_Client(irc.IRCClient, object):
         #wlog('(unhandled) left: ', channel)
 
     def noticed(self, user, channel, message):
-        wlog('(unhandled) noticed: ', user, channel, message)
\ No newline at end of file
+        wlog('(unhandled) noticed: ', user, channel, message)