diff --git a/consumer.go b/consumer.go
index 06c2219..fcc5f89 100644
--- a/consumer.go
+++ b/consumer.go
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@ package consumer
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
-	"io/ioutil"
 	"log"
+	"os"
 	"sync"
 
 	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go/aws"
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ type Checkpoint interface {
 
 type noopCheckpoint struct{}
 
-func (n noopCheckpoint) Set(string, string) error { return nil }
+func (n noopCheckpoint) Set(string, string) error   { return nil }
 func (n noopCheckpoint) Get(string) (string, error) { return "", nil }
 
 // Option is used to override defaults when creating a new Consumer
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ func New(app, stream string, opts ...Option) (*Consumer, error) {
 		appName:    app,
 		streamName: stream,
 		checkpoint: &noopCheckpoint{},
-		counter: 	&noopCounter{},
+		counter:    &noopCounter{},
+		logger:     log.New(os.Stderr, "kinesis-consumer: ", log.LstdFlags),
 	}
 
 	// set options
@@ -86,11 +87,6 @@ func New(app, stream string, opts ...Option) (*Consumer, error) {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// provide default logger
-	if c.logger == nil {
-		c.logger = log.New(ioutil.Discard, "", log.LstdFlags)
-	}
-
 	// provide a default kinesis client
 	if c.client == nil {
 		c.client = kinesis.New(session.New(aws.NewConfig()))
@@ -197,6 +193,8 @@ loop:
 				if err := c.checkpoint.Set(shardID, lastSeqNum); err != nil {
 					c.logger.Printf("set checkpoint error: %v", err)
 				}
+
+				c.logger.Println("checkpoint", shardID, len(resp.Records))
 				c.counter.Add("checkpoints", 1)
 			}
 
diff --git a/examples/consumer/README.md b/examples/consumer/README.md
index 39de3b9..f946797 100644
--- a/examples/consumer/README.md
+++ b/examples/consumer/README.md
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@ export AWS_SECRET_KEY=
 
 ### Run the consumer
 
-    $ go run main.go -a appName -s streamName
+    $ go run main.go --app appName --stream streamName
diff --git a/examples/producer/README.md b/examples/producer/README.md
index 3c8e027..87d1606 100644
--- a/examples/producer/README.md
+++ b/examples/producer/README.md
@@ -17,4 +17,4 @@ export AWS_SECRET_KEY=
 ### Running the code
 
     $ curl https://s3.amazonaws.com/kinesis.test/users.txt > /tmp/users.txt
-    $ go run main.go -s streamName
+    $ go run main.go --stream streamName