diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d317a9a..bf15b4f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,23 +4,18 @@ being an ambient activity feed for tilde.town
 
 ## development plan
 
-TODO: when I wake up, reevaluate the `~/.bustle.spool` file idea to see if I can avoid a bunch of
-coding / socket programming. also think through if i want any kind of database backing to keep track
-of stats for the sake of throttling (ie detecting cron/bot writes over time).
-
 - [ ] skeletal server
 - [ ] skeletal client
+- [ ] proof of concept inotify handler
 - [ ] manually created proof of concept spool files for a few users
-- [ ] basic `bustle update <something>` (decide on protocol)
-  - [ ] receiving client update
+- [ ] basic `bustle update <something>`
+  - [ ] seeing the update on the server
   - [ ] writing audit log
   - [ ] writing to bustle.log
 - [ ] basic `bustle` command
-- [ ] proof of concept inotify implementation
 - [ ] bbj integration
-- [ ] user management task
 - [ ] event aggregation, sampling, and throttling
-- [ ] ...honestly if you can even get to hear you can worry about what is next then.
+- [ ] ...honestly if you can even get to here you can worry about what is next then.
 
 ## motivation
 
@@ -81,10 +76,15 @@ events, listening for shouts, and ready to receive API hooks.
 
 ### How should the daemon work?
 
-- for shouts and bot integration, every user gets a file in /town/bustle/spool/. bustled does a select over every file. a scheduled task adds and removes spool files based on who exists on the system.
-- for file activity, some kind of inotify watcher.
+all updates are written to a ~/.bustle.spool file. bots will need a corresponding user account to
+house this file. alternatively, in the future, bustled can be told about bot spool files in a
+particular spot; for now there is a one to one between `/home/*/.bustle.spool` files and entities
+that can tell bustle about stuff.
 
-#### pre-bed thought
+these updates are picked up via inotify, which we're already using to aggregate ambient file
+activity.
+
+#### (pre-bed thought)
 
 I'm going through the trouble of setting up inotify. For every user. Instead of doing a socket
 connection, how about:
@@ -93,9 +93,14 @@ connection, how about:
 - the `bustle` command just writes to it
 - i notice those updates by filename and handle them specially
 
+what are the race conditions here? i think it's ok? if it's inotify based...the bustle client
+command is just adding to an existing file. the server doesn't care until it's saved and
+communicated and will only ever read from it. i think this might work D:
+
+
 ### How should user clients work?
 
-when you run `bustle`, it enters a loop. at some interval, messages print. should a connection be
+when you run `bustle` with no arguments, it enters a loop. at some interval, messages print. should a connection be
 maintained with bustled waiting with recv? I don't think so, since the log is not personalized. what
 if `bustle` is just a fancy `tail -f` on a file, `/town/bustle/bustle.log`? i think that's fine. i
 want running bustle to be exciting and cute, animating the messages in various ways. someone who