diff --git a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/__init__.py b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/__init__.py
index 0c5bc4e..095d1da 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/__init__.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/__init__.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ version_info = (
     9,
     3,
     "beta",
-    2)
+    3)
 if version_info[3] == "final": __version__ = "%d.%d.%d" % version_info[:3]
 else: __version__ = "%d.%d.%d%1.1s%d" % version_info[:5]
 
diff --git a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
index a2e805b..bf32ec8 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/connections.py
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
                 u = unicode
             conv[FIELD_TYPE.STRING] = u
             conv[FIELD_TYPE.VAR_STRING] = u
+            conv[FIELD_TYPE.BLOB].insert(-1, (None, u))
         self._make_connection(args, kwargs2)
         self.converter[types.StringType] = self.string_literal
         if hasattr(types, 'UnicodeType'):
diff --git a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
index 9451aea..82f7abc 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/MySQLdb/converters.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ MySQL.connect().
 """
 
 from _mysql import string_literal, escape_sequence, escape_dict, escape, NULL
-from constants import FIELD_TYPE
+from constants import FIELD_TYPE, FLAG
 from sets import *
 from times import *
 from string import split
@@ -132,6 +132,10 @@ conversions = {
     FIELD_TYPE.DATETIME: DateTime_or_None,
     FIELD_TYPE.TIME: Time_or_None,
     FIELD_TYPE.DATE: Date_or_None,
+    FIELD_TYPE.BLOB: [
+        (FLAG.BINARY, char_array),
+        (None, None),
+    ],
     }
 
 
diff --git a/MySQLdb/_mysql.c b/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
index f3c9228..c519936 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
+++ b/MySQLdb/_mysql.c
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#define version_info "(0,9,3,'beta',2)"
+#define version_info "(0,9,3,'beta',3)"
 #define __version__ "0.9.3"
 /*
 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
@@ -362,6 +362,38 @@ _mysql_ResultObject_Initialize(
 			fun = Py_None;
 			Py_INCREF(Py_None);
 		}
+		if (PySequence_Check(fun)) {
+			int j, n2=PySequence_Size(fun);
+			PyObject *fun2=NULL;
+			for (j=0; j<n2; j++) {
+				PyObject *t = PySequence_GetItem(fun, j);
+				if (!t) continue;
+				if (!PyTuple_Check(t)) goto cleanup;
+				if (PyTuple_GET_SIZE(t) == 2) {
+					long mask;
+					PyObject *pmask=NULL;
+					pmask = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(t, 0);
+					fun2 = PyTuple_GET_ITEM(t, 1);
+					if (PyInt_Check(pmask)) {
+						mask = PyInt_AS_LONG(pmask);
+						if (mask & fields[i].flags) {
+							break;
+						}
+						else {
+							continue;
+						}
+					} else {
+						break;
+					}
+				}
+			  cleanup:
+				Py_DECREF(t);
+			}
+			if (!fun2) fun2 = Py_None;
+			Py_INCREF(fun2);
+			Py_DECREF(fun);
+			fun = fun2;
+		}
 		PyTuple_SET_ITEM(self->converter, i, fun);
 	}
 	return 0;
@@ -2370,7 +2402,7 @@ init_mysql(void)
 	PyObject *dict, *module, *emod, *edict;
 	module = Py_InitModule4("_mysql", _mysql_methods, _mysql___doc__,
 				(PyObject *)NULL, PYTHON_API_VERSION);
-
+	if (!module) return; /* this really should never happen */
 	_mysql_ConnectionObject_Type.ob_type = &PyType_Type;
 	_mysql_ResultObject_Type.ob_type = &PyType_Type;
 #if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x02020000
diff --git a/MySQLdb/setup.py b/MySQLdb/setup.py
index f6ebc14..144b308 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/setup.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/setup.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ embedded_server = (mysqlclient == 'mysqld')
 name = "MySQL-%s" % os.path.basename(sys.executable)
 if embedded_server:
     name = name + "-embedded"
-version = "0.9.3b2"
+version = "0.9.3b3"
 
 # include files and library locations should cover most platforms
 include_dirs = [
@@ -88,10 +88,10 @@ long_description = \
 MySQLdb is an interface to the popular MySQL database server for Python.
 The design goals are:
 
--     Compliance with Python database API version 2.0 
--     Thread-safety 
--     Thread-friendliness (threads will not block each other) 
--     Compatibility with MySQL-3.22 and later
+ - Compliance with Python database API version 2.0 
+ - Thread-safety 
+ - Thread-friendliness (threads will not block each other) 
+ - Compatibility with MySQL-3.22 and later
 
 This module should be mostly compatible with an older interface
 written by Joe Skinner and others. However, the older version is