diff --git a/up.rb b/up.rb
index f14dcb4..83492cd 100755
--- a/up.rb
+++ b/up.rb
@@ -15,15 +15,11 @@ ARGV.each do |path|
         # add the dot here, so that if we get a file without dot, we don't have
         # to conditionally add the dot later on
         ext = "." + path.sub(/.*[.]([^.]*)/, '\1') if path.match(/[^.]+[.][^.]+/)
+        # make sure ext isn't nil
+        ext = ext.nil? ? "" : ext
         content = open(path).read
         md5 = Digest::MD5.hexdigest(content)
-        # basically a glorified syntax sugar for (ext.nil? ? "" : ext)
-        begin
-            Net::SCP.upload!(HOST, USERNAME, StringIO.new(content), UPLOAD_BASE_PATH + md5 + ext)
-        # we probably tried to add nil to a string ("ext" could possibly be nil)
-        rescue TypeError
-            Net::SCP.upload!(HOST, USERNAME, StringIO.new(content), UPLOAD_BASE_PATH + md5)
-        end
+        Net::SCP.upload!(HOST, USERNAME, StringIO.new(content), UPLOAD_BASE_PATH + md5 + ext)
         printf("%s\t=> %s%s%s\n", path, LINK_BASE_PATH, md5, ext)
     }
 end