diff --git a/cmd/server/main.go b/cmd/server/main.go
index 8bb7d8a..2280878 100644
--- a/cmd/server/main.go
+++ b/cmd/server/main.go
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 
 func main() {
 	// grab the environment variables from the runtime environment
+	// unfortunately since its before we configure the loglevel, we cannot use slog logging in those functions
 	env := utility.GrabEnvironment()
 	// configure the logger so we have nice json
 	level := utility.ParseSlogLevel(env.LogLevel) // defaults to Info
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ func main() {
 	slog.SetDefault(logger)
 
 	// print our running environment variable set
-	slog.Debug("environment", "env", env)
+	slog.Debug("displaying environment", "env", env)
 
 	// TO DO, allow cmd args parsing
 
diff --git a/internal/utility/environment.go b/internal/utility/environment.go
index 41f1470..f2154e2 100644
--- a/internal/utility/environment.go
+++ b/internal/utility/environment.go
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ func GrabEnvironment() Environment {
 		// Basic server configuration
 		Version:  safeStringGrab("VERSION", "0.0.1"),
 		Codename: safeStringGrab("CODENAME", "Magical Anomaly"),
-		LogLevel: safeStringGrab("LOG_LEVEL", "info"),
+		LogLevel: safeStringGrab("LOG_LEVEL", "debug"),
 
 		// GIN API configuration
 		DataDirectory:    safeStringGrab("DATA_DIR", fbBase),