diff --git a/export-brain.pl b/export-brain.pl
index d7285d3..944e553 100644
--- a/export-brain.pl
+++ b/export-brain.pl
@@ -18,9 +18,12 @@ my $redis = redis();
 my $p = config("redis_prefix");
 my @keys = $redis->keys("$p:chains:*");
 
-print "# shithead-ng file (version 0)\n# this file cannot be used by other markov chain programs, without modification.\n# do not remove the first line, as it is used by the import script to determine whether the file is a standard irc log or a shithead-ng specific file.\n\x1c";
+say "shithead-ng file (version 0)\nthis file cannot be used by other markov chain programs, without modification.\ndo not remove the first line, as it is used by the import script to determine whether the file is a standard irc log or a shithead-ng specific file.";
 
 for (@keys) {
+  # mark the beginning of the record
+  print "\n\x1c";
+
   my $prefix = quotemeta $p;
   my $k = $_;
   $k =~ s/$prefix:chains://;
@@ -28,5 +31,5 @@ for (@keys) {
   my @words = split ",", $k;
   push @words, @{ $redis->lrange($_, 0, -1) };
   @words = map { $_ eq '___end___' ? "\x1d" : $_ } @words;
-  print join("\x1f", @words), "\n\x1c";
+  print join "\x1f", @words;
 }
diff --git a/import-brain.pl b/import-brain.pl
index ceee247..ec5a5f7 100644
--- a/import-brain.pl
+++ b/import-brain.pl
@@ -16,18 +16,19 @@ close BRAIN;
 # open it again from the top
 open BRAIN, $brain_file or die $!;
 
-if ($line =~ m/^#\ shithead-ng\ file\ \(version\ .+\)$/) {
+if ($line =~ m/^shithead-ng\ file\ \(version\ .+\)$/) {
   # shithead-ng specific file
   while (<BRAIN>) {
     next unless $_ =~ m/^\x1c/;
     $_ =~ s/^\x1c//;
-    my @words = split "\x1f", @words;
+    chomp;
+    my @words = split "\x1f", $_;
     @words = map { $_ eq "\x1d" ? "___end___" : $_ } @words;
 
     # Write to redis
     my $p = config("redis_prefix");
     my $redis = redis();
-    $redis->lpush("$p:chains:".shift @words.",".shift @words, @words);
+    $redis->lpush("$p:chains:".shift(@words).",".shift(@words), @words);
   }
 } else {
   # generic irc log file