another go at fixing intermittent disconnections

bot.py

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ import irc
 home = os.getcwd()
 
 def decode(bytes): 
-    if not bytes or type(bytes) == str:
+    if type(bytes) == str:
         return bytes
     try:
         text = bytes.decode('utf-8')
@@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ class Phenny(irc.Bot):
 
     def dispatch(self, origin, args): 
         bytes, event, args = args[0], args[1], args[2:]
-        text = str(bytes)
+        text = decode(bytes)
         event = decode(event)
 
         if origin.nick in self.config.ignore: