diff --git a/ebook.rb b/ebook.rb
index 68860d0..3d9d10f 100644
--- a/ebook.rb
+++ b/ebook.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,17 @@ end
 
 rand_key = rand($rand_limit)
 
+def filtered_tweets(tweets)
+  include_urls = $include_urls || params["include_urls"]
+  source_tweets = tweets.map {|t| t.text.gsub(/\b(RT|MT) .+/, '') }
+
+  if !include_urls
+    source_tweets = source_tweets.reject {|t| t =~ /(https?:\/\/)/ }
+  end
+
+  source_tweets.map {|t| t.gsub(/(\#|@|(h\/t)|(http))\S+/, '') }
+end
+
 # randomly running only about 1 in $rand_limit times
 unless rand_key == 0 || params["force"]
   puts "Not running this time (key: #{rand_key})"
@@ -26,31 +37,34 @@ else
   begin
     user_tweets = Twitter.user_timeline($source_account, :count => 200, :trim_user => true, :exclude_replies => true, :include_rts => false)
     max_id = user_tweets.last.id
-    source_tweets += user_tweets.reject {|t| t.text =~ /(https?:\/\/)/ }.map {|t| t.text.gsub(/\b(RT|MT) .+/, '') }
+    source_tweets += filtered_tweets(user_tweets)
   
     # Twitter only returns up to 3200 of a user timeline, includes retweets.
     17.times do
       user_tweets = Twitter.user_timeline($source_account, :count => 200, :trim_user => true, :max_id => max_id - 1, :exclude_replies => true, :include_rts => false)
       puts "MAX_ID #{max_id} TWEETS: #{user_tweets.length}"
       max_id = user_tweets.last.id
-      source_tweets += user_tweets.reject {|t| t.text =~ /(https?:\/\/)/ }.map {|t| t.text.gsub(/\b(RT|MT) .+/, '') }
+      source_tweets += filtered_tweets(user_tweets)
     end
   rescue
   end
   
   puts "#{source_tweets.length} tweets found"
+
+  if source_tweets.length == 0
+    raise "Error fetching tweets from Twitter. Aborting."
+  end
   
   markov = MarkovChainer.new($markov_index)
   
   source_tweets.each do |twt|
     text = twt
-    text.gsub!(/\#[\w\d]+/, '')  # remove hashtags
     markov.add_text(text)
   end
   
   tweet = nil
   
-  5.times do
+  10.times do
     tweet = markov.generate_sentence
 
     if rand(3) == 0 && tweet =~ /(in|to|from|for|with|by|our|of|your|around|under|beyond)\s\w+$/