fixed several potential nullptrs

code cleanups
logging enhancements (memory/cpu)
reduced log footprint (diskspace)
fixed some potential layout issues
added comments

.idea/vcs.xml

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <project version="4">
   <component name="VcsDirectoryMappings">
-    <mapping directory="$PROJECT_DIR$" vcs="Git" />
+    <mapping directory="" vcs="Git" />
   </component>
 </project>