diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d19f34f..dd8be37 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Features
    - Twitter lists
    - Timelines
    - User avatar URL
-   - and anything found in `the docs <https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api>`_
+   - and anything found in [the docs](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api)
 * Image Uploading!
    - **Update user status with an image**
    - Change user avatar
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ Installation
 Usage
 -----
 
-Authorization URL
+###### Authorization URL
 
 ```python
 from twython import Twython
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ print 'Connect to Twitter via: %s' % auth_props['auth_url']
 
 Be sure you have a URL set up to handle the callback after the user has allowed your app to access their data, the callback can be used for storing their final OAuth Token and OAuth Token Secret in a database for use at a later date.
 
-Handling the callback
+###### Handling the callback
 
 ```python
 from twython import Twython
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ print auth_tokens
 
 *Function definitions (i.e. getHomeTimeline()) can be found by reading over twython/twitter_endpoints.py*
 
-Getting a user home timeline
+###### Getting a user home timeline
 
 ```python
 from twython import Twython
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ t = Twython(app_key=app_key,
 print t.getHomeTimeline()
 ```
 
-Get a user avatar url *(no authentication needed)*
+###### Get a user avatar url *(no authentication needed)*
 
 ```python
 from twython import Twython
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ print t.getProfileImageUrl('ryanmcgrath', size='bigger')
 print t.getProfileImageUrl('mikehelmick')
 ```
 
-Search Twitter *(no authentication needed)*
+###### Search Twitter *(no authentication needed)*
 
 ```python
 from twython import Twython
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ t = Twython()
 print t.search(q='python')
 ```
 
-Streaming API
+###### Streaming API
 *Usage is as follows; it's designed to be open-ended enough that you can adapt it to higher-level (read: Twitter must give you access)
 streams.*
 
diff --git a/twython/twython.py b/twython/twython.py
index e5d268c..3405c2f 100644
--- a/twython/twython.py
+++ b/twython/twython.py
@@ -27,12 +27,7 @@ except ImportError:
 # table is a file with a dictionary of every API endpoint that Twython supports.
 from twitter_endpoints import base_url, api_table, twitter_http_status_codes
 
-
-# There are some special setups (like, oh, a Django application) where
-# simplejson exists behind the scenes anyway. Past Python 2.6, this should
-# never really cause any problems to begin with.
 try:
-    # If they have the library, chances are they're gonna want to use that.
     import simplejson
 except ImportError:
     try:
@@ -40,7 +35,6 @@ except ImportError:
         import json as simplejson
     except ImportError:
         try:
-            # This case gets rarer by the day, but if we need to, we can pull it from Django provided it's there.
             from django.utils import simplejson
         except:
             # Seriously wtf is wrong with you if you get this Exception.
@@ -110,21 +104,11 @@ class Twython(object):
         self.authenticate_url = self.api_url % 'oauth/authenticate'
 
         # Enforce unicode on keys and secrets
-        self.app_key = None
-        if app_key is not None or twitter_token is not None:
-            self.app_key = u'%s' % (app_key or twitter_token)
+        self.app_key = app_key and unicode(app_key) or twitter_token and unicode(twitter_token)
+        self.app_secret = app_key and unicode(app_secret) or twitter_secret and unicode(twitter_secret)
 
-        self.app_secret = None
-        if app_secret is not None or twitter_secret is not None:
-            self.app_secret = u'%s' % (app_secret or twitter_secret)
-
-        self.oauth_token = None
-        if oauth_token is not None:
-            self.oauth_token = u'%s' % oauth_token
-
-        self.oauth_token_secret = None
-        if oauth_token_secret is not None:
-            self.oauth_token_secret = u'%s' % oauth_token_secret
+        self.oauth_token = oauth_token and u'%s' % oauth_token
+        self.oauth_token_secret = oauth_token_secret and u'%s' % oauth_token_secret
 
         self.callback_url = callback_url
 
@@ -146,8 +130,7 @@ class Twython(object):
                                signature_type='auth_header')
 
         if self.client is None:
-            # If they don't do authentication, but still want to request
-            # unprotected resources, we need an opener.
+            # Allow unauthenticated requests to be made.
             self.client = requests.session(proxies=proxies)
 
         # register available funcs to allow listing name when debugging.
@@ -181,11 +164,16 @@ class Twython(object):
         '''Internal response generator, no sense in repeating the same
         code twice, right? ;)
         '''
-        myargs = {}
         method = method.lower()
+        if not method in ('get', 'post'):
+            raise TwythonError('Method must be of GET or POST')
 
         params = params or {}
 
+        # In the next release of requests after 0.13.1, we can get rid of this
+        # myargs variable and line 184, urlencoding the params and just
+        # pass params=params in the func()
+        myargs = {}
         if method == 'get':
             url = '%s?%s' % (url, urllib.urlencode(params))
         else:
@@ -207,10 +195,6 @@ class Twython(object):
             'content': content,
         }
 
-        # Python 2.6 `json` will throw a ValueError if it
-        # can't load the string as valid JSON,
-        # `simplejson` will throw simplejson.decoder.JSONDecodeError
-        # But excepting just ValueError will work with both. o.O
         try:
             content = simplejson.loads(content)
         except ValueError:
@@ -382,8 +366,6 @@ class Twython(object):
 
             e.g x.search(q='jjndf', page='2')
         """
-        if 'q' in kwargs:
-            kwargs['q'] = urllib.quote_plus(Twython.unicode2utf8(kwargs['q'], ':'))
 
         return self.get('https://search.twitter.com/search.json', params=kwargs)
 
@@ -398,7 +380,7 @@ class Twython(object):
                 for result in search:
                     print result
         """
-        kwargs['q'] = urllib.quote_plus(Twython.unicode2utf8(search_query))
+        kwargs['q'] = search_query
         content = self.get('https://search.twitter.com/search.json', params=kwargs)
 
         if not content['results']:
@@ -436,7 +418,7 @@ class Twython(object):
         return self._media_update(url,
                                   {'image': (file_, open(file_, 'rb'))},
                                   params={'tile': tile})
-    
+
     def bulkUserLookup(self, **kwargs):
         """Stub for a method that has been deprecated, kept for now to raise errors
             properly if people are relying on this (which they are...).
@@ -446,7 +428,7 @@ class Twython(object):
             DeprecationWarning,
             stacklevel=2
         )
-    
+
     def updateProfileImage(self, file_, version=1):
         """Updates the authenticating user's profile image (avatar).
 
@@ -458,7 +440,6 @@ class Twython(object):
         return self._media_update(url,
                                   {'image': (file_, open(file_, 'rb'))})
 
-    # statuses/update_with_media
     def updateStatusWithMedia(self, file_, version=1, **params):
         """Updates the users status with media