diff --git a/jrnl/util.py b/jrnl/util.py
index 9c8aaa40..ecddddce 100644
--- a/jrnl/util.py
+++ b/jrnl/util.py
@@ -2,10 +2,8 @@
 # encoding: utf-8
 import sys
 import os
-from tzlocal import get_localzone
 import getpass as gp
 import keyring
-import pytz
 import json
 if "win32" in sys.platform:
     import colorama
@@ -24,12 +22,14 @@ STDOUT = sys.stdout
 TEST = False
 __cached_tz = None
 
+
 def getpass(prompt="Password: "):
     if not TEST:
         return gp.getpass(prompt)
     else:
         return py23_input(prompt)
 
+
 def get_password(validator, keychain=None, max_attempts=3):
     pwd_from_keychain = keychain and get_keychain(keychain)
     password = pwd_from_keychain or getpass()
@@ -49,9 +49,11 @@ def get_password(validator, keychain=None, max_attempts=3):
         prompt("Extremely wrong password.")
         sys.exit(1)
 
+
 def get_keychain(journal_name):
     return keyring.get_password('jrnl', journal_name)
 
+
 def set_keychain(journal_name, password):
     if password is None:
         try:
@@ -61,40 +63,51 @@ def set_keychain(journal_name, password):
     elif not TEST:
         keyring.set_password('jrnl', journal_name, password)
 
+
 def u(s):
     """Mock unicode function for python 2 and 3 compatibility."""
-    return s if PY3 or type(s) is unicode else unicode(s.encode('string-escape'), "unicode_escape")
+    if PY3:
+        return str(s)
+    elif isinstance(s, basestring) and type(s) is not unicode:
+        return unicode(s.encode('string-escape'), "unicode_escape")
+    return unicode(s)
+
 
 def py2encode(s):
     """Encode in Python 2, but not in python 3."""
     return s.encode("utf-8") if PY2 and type(s) is unicode else s
 
+
 def prompt(msg):
     """Prints a message to the std err stream defined in util."""
     if not msg.endswith("\n"):
         msg += "\n"
     STDERR.write(u(msg))
 
+
 def py23_input(msg=""):
     STDERR.write(u(msg))
     return STDIN.readline().strip()
 
+
 def py23_read(msg=""):
     STDERR.write(u(msg))
     return STDIN.read()
 
+
 def yesno(prompt, default=True):
     prompt = prompt.strip() + (" [Y/n]" if default else " [y/N]")
     raw = py23_input(prompt)
     return {'y': True, 'n': False}.get(raw.lower(), default)
 
+
 def load_and_fix_json(json_path):
     """Tries to load a json object from a file.
     If that fails, tries to fix common errors (no or extra , at end of the line).
     """
     with open(json_path) as f:
         json_str = f.read()
-    config = fixed = None
+    config = None
     try:
         return json.loads(json_str)
     except ValueError as e:
@@ -113,6 +126,7 @@ def load_and_fix_json(json_path):
             prompt("[Entry was NOT added to your journal]")
             sys.exit(1)
 
+
 def get_text_from_editor(config, template=""):
     tmpfile = os.path.join(tempfile.mktemp(prefix="jrnl"))
     with codecs.open(tmpfile, 'w', "utf-8") as f:
@@ -126,10 +140,12 @@ def get_text_from_editor(config, template=""):
         prompt('[Nothing saved to file]')
     return raw
 
+
 def colorize(string):
     """Returns the string wrapped in cyan ANSI escape"""
     return u"\033[36m{}\033[39m".format(string)
 
+
 def slugify(string):
     """Slugifies a string.
     Based on public domain code from https://github.com/zacharyvoase/slugify
@@ -141,6 +157,7 @@ def slugify(string):
     slug = re.sub(r'[-\s]+', '-', no_punctuation)
     return u(slug)
 
+
 def int2byte(i):
     """Converts an integer to a byte.
     This is equivalent to chr() in Python 2 and bytes((i,)) in Python 3."""
@@ -151,4 +168,3 @@ def byte2int(b):
     """Converts a byte to an integer.
     This is equivalent to ord(bs[0]) on Python 2 and bs[0] on Python 3."""
     return ord(b)if PY2 else b
-