diff --git a/nginx/nginx.conf b/nginx/nginx.conf
index 1e80f7b..cbc1b6d 100644
--- a/nginx/nginx.conf
+++ b/nginx/nginx.conf
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 worker_processes	1;  
+error_log /dev/stderr;
 
 events {
 	worker_connections	1024;
@@ -11,5 +12,7 @@ http {
 	sendfile		on;
 	keepalive_timeout	65;
 
+	access_log /dev/stdout;
+
 	include /etc/nginx/conf/*.conf;
 }
diff --git a/scripts/nginx-run.sh b/scripts/nginx-run.sh
index 104b3c4..e003f1e 100755
--- a/scripts/nginx-run.sh
+++ b/scripts/nginx-run.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-set -x
+#set the DEBUG env variable to turn on debugging
+[[ -n "$DEBUG" ]] && set -x
 
 if [ ! -s /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ]; then
   exit 0