diff --git a/scrape.py b/scrape.py
index 5dba0f9..608d5cd 100644
--- a/scrape.py
+++ b/scrape.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ from nio import ClientConfig, AsyncClient, LoginResponse, InviteEvent
 
 
 def get_accesstoken_from_file(accesstoken_path):
-    accesstoken_file = open(accesstoken_path, 'r')
+    accesstoken_file = open(accesstoken_path, 'r', encoding='utf8')
     single_accesstoken = accesstoken_file.read().strip()
     accesstoken_file.close()
 
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@ def extract_image_url(image_html):
     image_url_fragment = re.findall(r'url\("?(.*?)"?\)', image_html.attrs['style'])[0]
     return 'https:'+image_url_fragment
 def sanitize_category(raw_category):
-    return raw_category.replace(' ', '').replace(':', '').lower()
+    return raw_category.replace(' ', '').replace(':', '').replace('.', '').lower()
 def get_blog():
     url = 'https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/'
-    html = requests.get(url).text
+    html = requests.get(url, timeout=60).text
     soup = BeautifulSoup(html, 'html.parser')
 
     base_url = 'https://news.blizzard.com'