diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 69bf8d7..8c144b5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,22 +1,31 @@
 # telegram.sh, a telegram bot api library in bash
 
-This library aims to make creating quick-and-dirty bots in Bash as easy as possible.
+This library aims to make creating quick-and-dirty bots in Bash as easy
+as possible. To create a basic bot, all you need is the following:
 
 ```
 #!/bin/bash
 source tg.sh
-TELEGRAM_TOKEN=""
+TELEGRAM_TOKEN="<token>"
 
 function _on_msg() {
 	echo "${event[from_username]}: ${event[text]}"
 
 	if [[ "${event[text]}" == "o/" ]]; then
-		tg_send ${event[chat_id]} "\o"
+		tg_send ${event[chat_id]} "$(_escape '\o')"
 	fi
 }
 
 tg_start
 ```
 
-The above example is all you need to create a basic telegram bot.
-The library is currently very WiP. Please proceed with caution.
+Please note how you need to *escape* the text if there are any characters
+which would conflict with the MarkdownV2 standard. If you wish to use MD
+styling, the `tg_send` call could look like that:
+
+```
+tg_send ${event[chat_id]} "[$(_escape "^_^")]($(_escape "https://example.org"))"
+```
+
+Alternatively, if you decide that you don't want to run `_escape` on every
+string, set `ESCAPE_ALL` to `true` after loading the library.
diff --git a/tg.sh b/tg.sh
index b0d1bea..b918912 100755
--- a/tg.sh
+++ b/tg.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,25 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 TELEGRAM_TOKEN=""
 PARSE_MODE="MarkdownV2"
+ESCAPE_ALL=false
 
 # _escape_text(input_text)
-function _escape_text() {
-	sed 's/[][`~!@#$%^&*():;<>.,?\|{}=+-]/\\&/g' <<< "$1"
+function _escape() {
+	sed 's/[`~!@#$%^&*():;<>.,?\|{}=+-_]/\\&/g' <<< "$1"
 }
 
 # _unescape_text(input_text)
 function _unescape_text() {
-	sed -E 's/\\/&lauraiscute/g;s/\\lauraiscute\\lauraiscute\\lauraiscute/\\/;s/\\lauraiscute//g' <<< "$1"
+	sed -E 's/\\/&�Meow�/g;s/\\�Meow�\\�Meow�\\�Meow�/\\/;s/\\�Meow�//g' <<< "$1"
 }
 
 # tg_send(chat, text, file, type, [id])
 function tg_send() {
-	text="$(_escape_text "$2")"
+	if [[ $ESCAPE_ALL == true ]]; then
+		text="$(_escape <<< "$2")"
+	else
+		text="$2"
+	fi
 	if [[ $3 != '' ]]; then
 		local type_snake=$4
 		[[ $4 == '' ]] && local type_snake='document'
@@ -58,7 +63,7 @@ function tg_get_me() {
 
 # tg_get_messages(offset, timeout)
 function _tg_get_updates() {
-	curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_TOKEN}/getUpdates?offset=$1&timeout=$2" | jq -c '.result[]'
+	curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot${TELEGRAM_TOKEN}/getUpdates?offset=$1&timeout=p" | jq -c '.result[]'
 }
 
 function _on_msg() {	
@@ -184,7 +189,7 @@ function tg_start() {
 
 			unset _tmp
 
-			if [[ "$_msg_type" == "forwarded_message" ]]; then
+			if [[ "$_msg_type" == forwarded_message ]]; then
 				_jq_to_array '.message |
 				[.forward_from.id,
 				.forward_from.is_bot,