diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 31f690ffc00..c7292b783a3 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -220,6 +220,7 @@ Release 0.20.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-1397  Better distribution in the PerformanceEvaluation MapReduce
                when rows run to the Billions
    HBASE-1393  Narrow synchronization in HLog
+   HBASE-1404  minor edit of regionserver logging messages
 
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HLog.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HLog.java
index 7c3b7733f4b..52748e18152 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HLog.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HLog.java
@@ -545,6 +545,11 @@ public class HLog implements HConstants, Syncable {
           }
         }
       }
+      long took = System.currentTimeMillis() - now;
+      if (took > 1000) {
+        LOG.warn(Thread.currentThread().getName() + " took " + took +
+          "ms optional sync'ing HLog");
+      }
     }
   }
   
@@ -730,7 +735,7 @@ public class HLog implements HConstants, Syncable {
         // Check for possibly empty file. With appends, currently Hadoop reports
         // a zero length even if the file has been sync'd. Revisit if 
         // HADOOP-4751 is committed.
-        boolean possiblyEmpty = logfiles[i].getLen() <= 0;
+        long length = logfiles[i].getLen();
         HLogKey key = new HLogKey();
         HLogEdit val = new HLogEdit();
         try {
@@ -807,7 +812,8 @@ public class HLog implements HConstants, Syncable {
             fs.delete(logfiles[i].getPath(), true);
           }
         } catch (IOException e) {
-          if (possiblyEmpty) {
+          if (length <= 0) {
+            LOG.warn("Empty log, continuing: " + logfiles[i]);
             continue;
           }
           throw e;
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
index bec6c36dfc0..a93a94cd325 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
@@ -309,11 +309,6 @@ public class HRegion implements HConstants {
     
     // Add one to the current maximum sequence id so new edits are beyond.
     this.minSequenceId = maxSeqId + 1;
-    if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
-      LOG.debug("Next sequence id for region " +
-        Bytes.toString(regionInfo.getRegionName()) + " is " +
-        this.minSequenceId);
-    }
 
     // Get rid of any splits or merges that were lost in-progress
     FSUtils.deleteDirectory(this.fs, new Path(regiondir, SPLITDIR));
@@ -328,7 +323,7 @@ public class HRegion implements HConstants {
     this.writestate.compacting = false;
     this.lastFlushTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
     LOG.info("region " + this + "/" + this.regionInfo.getEncodedName() +
-      " available");
+      " available; sequence id is " + this.minSequenceId);
   }
 
   /*
@@ -742,8 +737,8 @@ public class HRegion implements HConstants {
               return splitRow;
           }
         }
-        LOG.info("starting " + (majorCompaction? "major" : "") + 
-            " compaction on region " + this);
+        LOG.info("Starting" + (majorCompaction? " major " : " ") + 
+            "compaction on region " + this);
         long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
         doRegionCompactionPrep();
         long maxSize = -1;
@@ -1315,8 +1310,9 @@ public class HRegion implements HConstants {
       byte [] row = b.getRow();
       // If we did not pass an existing row lock, obtain a new one
       Integer lid = getLock(lockid, row);
+      long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
       long commitTime = b.getTimestamp() == LATEST_TIMESTAMP?
-        System.currentTimeMillis(): b.getTimestamp();
+        now: b.getTimestamp();
       Set<byte []> latestTimestampDeletes = null;
       List<KeyValue> edits = new ArrayList<KeyValue>();
       try {
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemcacheFlusher.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemcacheFlusher.java
index 881ed63e87e..18c15f12b05 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemcacheFlusher.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/MemcacheFlusher.java
@@ -222,16 +222,18 @@ class MemcacheFlusher extends Thread implements FlushRequester {
    * not flushed.
    */
   private boolean flushRegion(HRegion region, boolean removeFromQueue) {
-    // Wait until it is safe to flush
+    // Wait until it is safe to flush.
+    // TODO: Fix.  This block doesn't work if more than one store.
     int count = 0;
     boolean triggered = false;
     while (count++ < (blockingWaitTime / 500)) {
       for (Store hstore: region.stores.values()) {
-        if (hstore.getStorefilesCount() > this.blockingStoreFilesNumber) {
+        int files = hstore.getStorefilesCount();
+        if (files > this.blockingStoreFilesNumber) {
           if (!triggered) {
             server.compactSplitThread.compactionRequested(region, getName());
-            LOG.info("Too many store files for region " + region + ": " +
-              hstore.getStorefilesCount() + ", waiting");
+            LOG.info("Too many store files in store " + hstore + ": " +
+              files + ", pausing");
             triggered = true;
           }
           try {
@@ -243,8 +245,7 @@ class MemcacheFlusher extends Thread implements FlushRequester {
         }
       }
       if (triggered) {
-        LOG.info("Compaction completed on region " + region +
-          ", proceeding");
+        LOG.info("Compaction triggered on region " + region + ", proceeding");
       }
       break;
     }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
index 07245659859..041c17cdb69 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
@@ -204,10 +204,6 @@ public class Store implements HConstants {
 
     // loadStoreFiles calculates this.maxSeqId. as side-effect.
     this.storefiles.putAll(loadStoreFiles());
-    if (LOG.isDebugEnabled() && this.storefiles.size() > 0) {
-      LOG.debug("Loaded " + this.storefiles.size() + " file(s) in Store " +
-        Bytes.toString(this.storeName) + ", max sequence id " + this.maxSeqId);
-    }
 
     // Do reconstruction log.
     runReconstructionLog(reconstructionLog, this.maxSeqId, reporter);
@@ -699,9 +695,9 @@ public class Store implements HConstants {
       // Move the compaction into place.
       completeCompaction(filesToCompact, writer);
       if (LOG.isDebugEnabled()) {
-        LOG.debug("Completed " + (majorcompaction? "major": "") +
-          " compaction of " + this.storeNameStr +
-          " store size is " + StringUtils.humanReadableInt(storeSize));
+        LOG.debug("Completed" + (majorcompaction? " major ": " ") +
+          "compaction of " + this.storeNameStr +
+          "; store size is " + StringUtils.humanReadableInt(storeSize));
       }
     }
     return checkSplit(forceSplit);