diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 3e76c19..c4f1ba4 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -11,10 +11,7 @@
     <!-- this makes maven-tools not bump us to snapshot versions -->
     <stabilized>true</stabilized>
     <!-- Fill these in via https://dev.twitter.com/apps -->
-    <consumer.key>TODO</consumer.key>
-    <consumer.secret>TODO</consumer.secret>
-    <access.token>TODO</access.token>
-    <access.token.secret>TODO</access.token.secret>
+    <output.directory>out</output.directory>
   </properties>
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
@@ -49,6 +46,7 @@
             <argument>${consumer.secret}</argument>
             <argument>${access.token}</argument>
             <argument>${access.token.secret}</argument>
+            <argument>${output.directory}</argument>
           </arguments>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
diff --git a/src/main/java/edu/georgetown/cs/ir/hbc/NorthAmericaFilter.java b/src/main/java/edu/georgetown/cs/ir/hbc/NorthAmericaFilter.java
index 29607cf..d53cc33 100644
--- a/src/main/java/edu/georgetown/cs/ir/hbc/NorthAmericaFilter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/edu/georgetown/cs/ir/hbc/NorthAmericaFilter.java
@@ -26,14 +26,29 @@
 import com.twitter.hbc.httpclient.auth.Authentication;
 import com.twitter.hbc.httpclient.auth.OAuth1;
 
+import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
+import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
+import java.io.Writer;
+
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
 import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
+import java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream;
 
 public class NorthAmericaFilter {
+    String outDir = null;
+
+    public NorthAmericaFilter(String outDir) {
+        this.outDir = outDir;
+
+        File f = new File(this.outDir);
+        f.mkdir();
+    }
 
     public void oauth(String consumerKey, String consumerSecret, String token, String secret) throws InterruptedException {
-        BlockingQueue<String> queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<String>(10000);
+        BlockingQueue<String> queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<String>(100000);
         StatusesFilterEndpoint endpoint = new StatusesFilterEndpoint();
 
         // add bounding box for US + Canada (erring on the side of including extra regions)
@@ -53,26 +68,54 @@ public void oauth(String consumerKey, String consumerSecret, String token, Strin
             .processor(new StringDelimitedProcessor(queue))
             .build();
 
-        // Establish a connection
-        client.connect();
+        Thread t = spawnOutputThread(outDir, queue);
 
-        // Do whatever needs to be done with messages
-        for (int msgRead = 0; msgRead < 1000; msgRead++) {
-            String msg = queue.take();
-            System.out.println(msg);
-        }
+        client.connect();
 
+        t.join();
         client.stop();
+    }
+
+    public Thread spawnOutputThread(final String outDir, final BlockingQueue<String> queue) {
+        Thread t = new Thread() {
+                public void run() {
+                    try {
+                        // create a new compressed file every 400k messages
+                        while (true) {
+                            long time = System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000L;
+                            String fn = outDir + "/" + time + ".gz";
+
+                            Writer writer = new OutputStreamWriter(new GZIPOutputStream(
+                                                                       new FileOutputStream(fn)), "UTF-8");
+
+                            for (int i=0; i<400000; i++) {
+                                String msg = queue.take();
+                                writer.write(msg);
+                            }
+
+                            writer.close();
+                        }
+                    } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
+                        System.err.println("Thread interrupted:" + ie);
+                    } catch(Exception e) {
+                        System.err.println("Thread exception:" + e);
+                        System.exit(3);
+                    }
+                }  
+            };
+
+        t.start();
 
+        return t;
     }
 
     public static void main(String[] args) {
-        if (args.length != 4) {
-            System.err.println("usage: <consumer key> <consumer secret> <token> <secret");
+        if (args.length != 5) {
+            System.err.println("usage: <consumer key> <consumer secret> <token> <secret> <output directory>");
             System.exit(1);
         }
 
-        NorthAmericaFilter naf = new NorthAmericaFilter();
+        NorthAmericaFilter naf = new NorthAmericaFilter(args[4]);
 
         try {
             naf.oauth(args[0], args[1], args[2], args[3]);