diff --git a/binarycpython/utils/HPC.py b/binarycpython/utils/HPC.py
index f91807df133c41928b91f34a6e66622cab8679f9..6fc011d3a8e3f8f3ce348720fed5a800b3c81450 100644
--- a/binarycpython/utils/HPC.py
+++ b/binarycpython/utils/HPC.py
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ class HPC(condor,slurm):
         """
         id = self.HPC_jobID()
 
-        if id.startswith('None'):
+        if id is None or id.startswith('None'):
             t = [None,None]
         elif self.HPC_job():
             print("JOBID",id)
diff --git a/binarycpython/utils/grid.py b/binarycpython/utils/grid.py
index bcd8861a76fec580071f7ed0e60e802fe11f1f7d..75dc6439d9e1c8fccbfdbc36d6c924257eb425f3 100644
--- a/binarycpython/utils/grid.py
+++ b/binarycpython/utils/grid.py
@@ -1340,7 +1340,7 @@ class Population(analytics,
         self.verbose_print(
             "Process {} started at {}.\tUsing store memaddr {}".format(
                 ID,
-                datetime.datetime.now().isoformat(),
+                self.now(),
                 self.grid_options["_store_memaddr"],
             ),
             self.grid_options["verbosity"],
@@ -2250,7 +2250,7 @@ class Population(analytics,
                 3,
             )
             
-    def now(self,style=None):
+    def now(self,style=None,specifier=None):
         """
         convenience function to return a string of the current time, 
         using the format "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S"
@@ -2258,15 +2258,16 @@ class Population(analytics,
         Args: 
             style : if "nospace" then return the date/time with the format 
             "%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"
+
+            specifier: if set, uses this as a specifier rather than whatever is set by default or in the style variable
         """
-        if style == 'nospace':
-            return datetime.datetime.strftime(
-                datetime.datetime.now(),
-                "%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"
-            )
-        else:
-            return datetime.datetime.strftime(
-                datetime.datetime.now(),
-                "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S"
-            )
+        now = datetime.datetime.now()
+        if not specifier:
+            if style == 'nospace':
+                # special case
+                specifier = "%Y%m%d_%H%M%S"
+            else:
+                # our default
+                specifier = "%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S"
         
+        return datetime.datetime.strftime(now,specifier)