diff --git a/getvods.sh b/getvods.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index ff9c5d0..f16e7a1
--- a/getvods.sh
+++ b/getvods.sh
@@ -1,21 +1,39 @@
 #!/bin/bash
+# TODO:
+#   - save last 5 VODlists and offer replay function to avoid refetching unnecesarily
+
 
 # ${1} (optional) username to search VODs of
 
+[ "${1}" = "-h" ] || [ "${1}" = "--help" ] && {
+  printf "usage: getvods <username(optional)>\n"
+  exit 0
+}
+
 # ${1} is a string with error reason stated
 # ${2} is an optional string to report a different error status
-CFG_DIR="${HOME}/.config/getvods"
-
 on_fail(){
   printf "last ran command error status: %s\n" "${2:-${?}}"
   printf "error: %s\n" "${1}"
   exit 2
 }
 
-# twitch api credentials
-client_id="$(cat "${CFG_DIR}/client_id")"
-client_secret="$(cat "${CFG_DIR}/client_secret")"
+CFG_DIR="${HOME}/.config/getvods"
+[ ! -d "${CFG_DIR}" ] && {
+  mkdir -p "${CFG_DIR}" || on_fail "${CFG_DIR} doesn't exist and couldn't be made (check write permissions to ${CFG_DIR})"
+}
 
+# get twitch api credentials
+[ ! -f "${CFG_DIR}/client_id" ] && {
+  read -p "enter your twitch API client_id >" client_id
+  [ ! -z "${client_id}" ] && printf "%s" "${client_id}" > "${CFG_DIR}/client_id" || on_fail "couldn't write client_id to ${CFG_DIR}/client_id"
+} || client_id="$(cat "${CFG_DIR}/client_id")"
+[ ! -f "${CFG_DIR}/client_secret" ] && {
+  read -p "enter your twitch API client_secret >" client_secret
+  [ ! -z "${client_secret}" ] && printf "%s" "${client_secret}" > "${CFG_DIR}/client_secret" || on_fail "couldn't write client_secret to ${CFG_DIR}/client_secret"
+} || client_secret="$(cat "${CFG_DIR}/client_secret")"
+
+# get access token
 get_token(){
   curl -s -X POST https://id.twitch.tv/oauth2/token -d "client_id=${client_id}" -d "client_secret=${client_secret}" -d "grant_type=client_credentials" > "${CFG_DIR}/token.json" || {
     last_err="${?}"
@@ -29,7 +47,6 @@ get_token(){
   }
 }
 
-# get access token
 [ -f "${CFG_DIR}/token.json" ] && [ -f "${CFG_DIR}/expiration.txt" ] && {
   [ "$(cat "${CFG_DIR}/expiration.txt")" -le "$(date +%s)" ] && get_token
 } || {
@@ -43,20 +60,36 @@ access_token="$(grep -o "access_token\":\"[a-zA-Z0-9]\+" "${CFG_DIR}/token.json"
   on_fail "couldn't get token (token empty)" "${last_err}"
 }
 
-[ ! -z "${1}" ] && login="${1}" || read -p 'type in username >' login
+# get the username to search for
+declare -i retries=0
+[ ! -z "${1}" ] && {
+  [ "${#1}" -ge "4" ] && [ "${#1}" -le "25" ] && grep "[a-zA-Z0-9_]\{4,25\}" <<< "${1}" >/dev/null && {
+    login="${1}"
+    break
+  }
+  printf "username must be between 4 and 25 characters long\n"
+  printf "username may have only characters a-z A-Z 0-9 and _\n"
+  retries+=1
+}
+[ -z "${login}"] && {
+  while :; do
+    read -p 'type in username >' login
+    [ "${#login}" -ge "4" ] && [ "${#login}" -le "25" ] && grep "[a-zA-Z0-9_]\{4,25\}" <<< "${login}" >/dev/null && break
+    printf "username must be between 4 and 25 characters long\n"
+    printf "username may have only characters a-z A-Z 0-9 and _\n"
+    retries+=1
+    [ "${retries}" -ge 3 ] && on_fail "exceeded max retries" "1"
+  done
+}
 
 # get user id
 [ ! -f "${CFG_DIR}/userlist.txt" ] || [ "${login}" != "$(grep "${login}" "${CFG_DIR}/userlist.txt" | awk -F ":|," '{print $4}')" ] && {
   user_response="$(curl -s -G -X GET "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/users" -d "login=${login}" -H "Authorization: Bearer ${access_token}" -H "client-id: ${client_id}")"
-  [ "${?}" -gt 0 ] && {
-    last_err="${?}"
-    on_fail "couldn't get user_id (curl error)" "${last_err}"
-  }
-  parsed_user_response="$(grep -o "id\":\"[0-9]\+\",\"login\":\"[a-zA-Z0-9]\+" <<< "${user_response}")"
-  [ "${?}" -gt 0 ] && {
-    last_err="${?}"
-    on_fail "couldn't get user_id (user_id empty)" "${last_err}"
-  }
+  last_err="${?}"
+  [ "${last_err}" -gt 0 ] && on_fail "couldn't get user_id (curl error)" "${last_err}"
+  parsed_user_response="$(grep -o "id\":\"[0-9]\+\",\"login\":\"[a-zA-Z0-9_]\{4,25\}" <<< "${user_response}")"
+  last_err="${?}"
+  [ "${last_err}" -gt 0 ] && on_fail "couldn't get user_id (user_id empty)" "${last_err}"
   unset user_response
   sed 's/\"//g' <<< "${parsed_user_response}" >> "${CFG_DIR}/userlist.txt"
   unset parsed_user_response
@@ -64,11 +97,67 @@ access_token="$(grep -o "access_token\":\"[a-zA-Z0-9]\+" "${CFG_DIR}/token.json"
 user_id="$(grep "${login}" "${CFG_DIR}/userlist.txt" | awk -F ":|," '{print $2}')"
 
 # save json with first 20 videos tied to the user id we just got
-curl -s -G -X GET "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/videos" -d "type=archive" -d "user_id=${user_id}" -H "Authorization: Bearer ${access_token}" -H "client-id: ${client_id}"\
- > "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json"
-sed -i 's/^{"data":\[\|}],"pagination":{"cursor":"[a-zA-Z0-9]\+"}}$//g' "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json"
-unset client_secret client_id user_id last_err
+vodlist="$(curl -s -G -X GET "https://api.twitch.tv/helix/videos" -d "type=archive" -d "user_id=${user_id}" -H "Authorization: Bearer ${access_token}" -H "client-id: ${client_id}")"
+last_err="${?}"
+unset client_secret client_id
+[ "${last_err}" -gt 0 ] && on_fail "couldn't get VOD list (curl error)" "${last_err}"
+parsed_vodlist="$(sed 's/^{"data":\[\|],"pagination":{\("cursor":"[a-zA-Z0-9]\+"\)\?}}$//g' <<< "${vodlist}")"
+unset vodlist
+[ -z "${parsed_vodlist}" ] && on_fail "vodlist empty (no VODs found for ${login})"
+printf "%s" "${parsed_vodlist}" > "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json"
+unset parsed_vodlist
 
-# TODO:
-#   - read title, duration and url of last 20 VODS and present them to user
-#   - get a choice from user and save the url of that selection to the clipboard
+unset user_id last_err vodlist parsed_vodlist
+
+utf-16-surrogate-pair-decode() {
+  # shamelessly stolen from stackoverflow
+  local out="$1"
+  local remain=""
+  local regexp='(.*)\\u[dD]([0-9a-fA-F]{3})\\u[dD]([0-9a-fA-F]{3})(.*)'
+  while [[ "${out}" =~ "${regexp}" ]] ; do
+   # match 2 \udxxx hex values, calculate new U, then split and replace
+   local W1="$(( ( 0xd${BASH_REMATCH[2]} & 0x3ff) <<10 ))"
+   local W2="$(( 0xd${BASH_REMATCH[3]} & 0x3ff ))"
+   U="$(( ( W1 | W2 ) + 0x10000 ))"
+   remain="$(printf '\\U%8.8x' "${U}")${BASH_REMATCH[4]}${remain}"
+   out="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+  done
+  printf "%s%s\n" "${out}" "${remain}"
+}
+
+printf "VODs of ${login}\n"
+
+declare -a titles
+declare -a duration
+declare -a urls
+
+declare -i j=0
+while IFS= read -r i; do
+  titles[${j}]="$(utf-16-surrogate-pair-decode "${i:9:-2}")"
+  j+=1
+done < <(grep -o '"title":"\(\\"\|[^"]*\)*",' "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json")
+
+j=0
+while IFS= read -r i; do
+  duration[${j}]="${i:11:-1}"
+  j+=1
+done < <(grep -o "\"duration\":\"[a-z0-9]\+\"" "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json")
+
+j=0
+while IFS= read -r i; do
+  urls[${j}]="${i:7:-1}"
+  j+=1
+done < <(grep -o "\"url\":\"https://www\.twitch\.tv/videos/[0-9]\+\"" "${CFG_DIR}/streamarchives.json")
+unset j
+
+for i in {0..19}; do
+  printf "%s:\t%s %s\n" "$((${i}+1))" "${titles[${i}]}" "${duration[${i}]}"
+done
+
+declare -i retries
+while :; do
+  read -p "choose a video from the list (type 1-20) >" choice
+  grep "[0-9]\{1,2\}" <<< "${choice}" && [ "${choice}" -ge 0 ] && [ "${choice}" -le 20 ] && break
+  printf "%s is not a number from 1-20\n" "${choice}"
+done
+printf "%s\n" "${urls[$((${choice}-1))]}" | xclip -selection clipboard