diff --git a/emacs.org b/emacs.org
index dca9361..8c91b8b 100644
--- a/emacs.org
+++ b/emacs.org
@@ -562,15 +562,64 @@ Turns out that someone wrote this exact thing already. Yay get to drop my own cr
   )
 #+END_SRC
 
-*** spaceline theme
+*** mode-line setup
 
-Just use the silly spacemacs smart modeline theme cause I'm lazy.
+Using some hacked together minimal mode line stuff now, spaceline too too much
+oomph with all the crap it did.
 
-#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp :tangle no
-(use-package spaceline :ensure t :init (progn (require 'spaceline-config) (spaceline-spacemacs-theme)))
+#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
+(defun my-flycheck-lighter (state)
+  "formats the mode-line fycheck error/warning/note junk"
+  (let* ((counts (flycheck-count-errors flycheck-current-errors))
+         (errorp (flycheck-has-current-errors-p state))
+         (err (or (cdr (assq state counts)) "?"))
+         (running (eq 'running flycheck-last-status-change)))
+    (if (or errorp running) (format "•%s" err))))
+
+(use-package quelpa-use-package :ensure t)
+
+(use-package mini-modeline
+  :ensure t
+  :after quelpa-use-package
+  :diminish
+  :quelpa (mini-modeline :repo "kiennq/emacs-mini-modeline" :fetcher github)
+  :config
+  (mini-modeline-mode)
+  :custom
+  (mini-modeline-face-attr '(:background "white" :weight normal :box (:line-width 2 :color "#ffffff")))
+  (mini-modeline-display-gui-line nil)
+  (mini-modeline-r-format '((:eval
+                             (when (and (bound-and-true-p flycheck-mode)
+                                        (or flycheck-current-errors
+                                            (eq 'running flycheck-last-status-change)))
+                               (concat
+                                " "
+                                (cl-loop for state in '((error . "#FB4933")
+                                                        (warning . "#FABD2F")
+                                                        (info . "#83A598"))
+                                         as lighter = (my-flycheck-lighter (car state))
+                                         when lighter
+                                         concat (propertize
+                                                 lighter
+                                                 'face `(:foreground ,(cdr state))))
+                                )))
+                            "%e %b %c"
+                            (:eval (if (use-region-p)
+                                       (if (eq (point) (region-beginning))
+                                           (format "%%l … %d" (line-number-at-pos (region-end)))
+                                         (format "%d … %%l" (line-number-at-pos (region-beginning))))
+                                     ":%l"))
+                            (:eval
+                             ;; TODO: on click `set-buffer-file-coding-system'
+                             (if (not (member buffer-file-coding-system
+                                              '(utf-8 utf-8-unix)))
+                                 (symbol-name buffer-file-coding-system))
+                             mode-line-misc-info)))
+  )
 #+END_SRC
 
 *** yasnippet
+
 #+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
 (use-package yasnippet
   :diminish yas-minor-mode