Steel Products

Working here at LogicMaze, I find myself having to learn about a lot of things that I generally would know nothing about. Right now, it's steel products compliments of Haven Steel. I'm having to get a little info on all sorts of things from hot forming, hot forging and jargon like "quench and temper." It's mind blowing.

There are even some things that sound kind of scary, like ripper shank and cultivator shank. Turns out these are just things for cultivating needs. But they sound kinda terrifying, don't they?

For more information about Haven Steel and their products and services about which I know less than I should, go to their site.

Skills USA

Tamara, Cody and I were co-chairs and judges at a Skills USA web design contest held at HCC yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and truly an honor to be involved in.

A huge help to us in that endeavor was Marisa Honomichl of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. She was nice enough, not only to join us in judging the competition, but to participate in the crazy scheme we cooked up for the project to give to the children. We sincerely appreciate it.

Just in case any rumors get started because of the project we gave the contestants to work on; no, there is NOT an Area 51 display at the Cosmosphere with real alien bodies in it.

That would be pretty cool, though.

Crappy job of keeping content going.

We have really done a crappy job of keeping content going here on our little blog.
That will change starting today!!

Sorry bout that,

Cody

Evermark, a sign of ingenuity

I used to have a lot of roommates.

At one point, there were seven of us living in one huge house. It was kind of cool, I got to hang out with my buddies all the time. Surprisingly, nobody killed anybody else. One major problem with the situations was boundaries, though. It seemed like nothing was sacred. My food, my drinks, my special loofah - none were safe from the grubby mitts of my roommates.

The most obvious solution would be to just write on the aforementioned items with a marker. Something to the tune of: "Mitchell's. Don't touch." I did just that, to no avail. I don't want to call my friends stupid or imply that they're illiterate, but ... come on ... seriously? Something about the marker method seemed sort of old hat. My friends were obviously desensitized to it to the point of not even recognizing my written request to not touch my things.

I needed something with more of an air of authority. Evermark Signs to the rescue!

Evermark manufactures clip-on marking signs that are super easy to use and reuse again.

That's more like it. I come home at night with a doggy bag from a restaurant, toss it in the fridge, drive a T-post into it, then clip on one of these bad boys:






Frickin' problem solved. They take it seriously, and my food remains in tact.

Thanks, Evermark.

Me, Scissors, Glue, and Embellishments

I was invited to go along with a group of friends to a place where I could use scissors, glue, and those embellishment thingys. Evidently, these Scrapbooking Places are all over the United States, and they are women's answer to boys only fishing trips. You know, the ones where there's a whole lot more story telling and beer drinking than fishing.

-------------------------
Logicmaze has just launched Kansas Keepsakes Retreat. It is a Scrapbooking Retreat, located in Lyons Kansas. Betty and her daughter Dee Dee are your hostess for the weekend. They have plenty of beds and space for big groups, or if you want to come by yourself, you can make new friends.

Their cropping room is large, with over 1100 square feet of work area – built especially for scrapbookers. Each guest gets a full 8-foot table all to herself.

If you have been searching for a fun place for you and your girlfriends to go for a girls weekend retreat, Kansas Keepsakes Retreat is the perfect spot. Scissors, Glue and those Embellishment Thingys and YOU.

37 Signals

Several months back, we at LogicMaze revolutionized how we manage our projects when we started using Basecamp. Since we started using it, it's made all of us more organized and made my job a good deal easier.

Not a day has gone by where anyone in this office has doubted the positive impact Basecamp and Highrise (another product of 37 Signals) have had on our business. And I can't think of any hurtles in project management that the two programs combined couldn't easily help us jump. If there were any insurmountable project management issues for which we couldn't find a solution in Basecamp or Highrise, well there's Backpack and Campfire, which we don't use here, but I'm sure are just as useful.

Last Friday, something we haven't seen in the entire time we've used Basecamp: it went down. Any previous lapse in service has lasted a matter of minutes. 10 minutes of downtime, then you're back up and running with a message at the top of your dashboard explaining what happened. They don't need to do that, but they do. Why not? It only takes a minute to let your clients know what's up when you've got a way to send the message to everyone at once.

So on Friday, Basecamp went down for something like 2 and a half hours. No big deal. Kind of a bummer, but honestly, an excuse to be slightly less productive for a little bit.

As soon as Basecamp was back up and running, 37 Signals posted a message letting everyone know what was up. They also posted a message on their blog.

... we still want to compensate anyone who felt they were negatively affected in their work because of this outage. Please write support(at)37signals.com (and include your application URL) and we’ll get that taken care of.

Pretty classy. For a two-hour outage. We're not talking about being out of commission for an entire day.

Cody emailed them and replied:

I want you guys to tell everyone who actually wants compensation to sit and spin and bcc me on the emails. Ha just kidding, this product has revolutionized our business and if the worst thing that comes from it is we have to play with our remote control helicopters for 2 hours on a Friday then I should be paying you more. (Ok that was just kidding as well, I don't really want to pay you more!!!!!

Thanks for everything.

Shortly after that, he received a personal email reply (they personally dealt with each email that came in about the outage):

Thanks Cody. You are awesome.

I'd still love to comp your account for a month of service. What's your URL?

- Sarah

Thank you, Sarah. We really appreciate it. We gave her our URL and got our comped month. But she did one better and saw that we had a Highrise account and credited that too!

Why? She didn't have to since we were already (and still are) very satisfied customers. She did it because she (and the whole 37 Signals team) understand the importance of taking care of all of your customers. Make the angry ones happy again and keep the happy ones even happier.

That's how you turn customers into evangelists. We at LogicMaze already were evangelists. We've suggested the 37 Signals arsenal to anyone that would listen and will continue to do so. What happened last week just gave us even more reason.

See you at the Metro.

My band has decided to play another show after deciding to have a break during the beginning of summer. This show is going to be a good one with a good cause as well. You can find out more by checking out Wednesday's Hutchinson News paper, front page.

Show is at the Metropolitan Coffee shop. 17th and Lorraine. The show starts at 7:00 PM.

Tim and Emilio
Jon Dennis
John Depew
and special performance by Cassie J

There is a $3 suggested cover charge, and 100% of all monies raised will go to support to work of Hutch Tenants' Association.

You can give us a listen if you want by checking our myspace at

http://www.myspace.com/timandemilio

Or you can just video google "Tim and Emilio" and watch one of the many videos of we have.

Immediate Job Opening

LogicMaze has an immediate opening for a php/mysql programmer. This is an in-house position.

Full benefits available after trial period (90 days), Salary negotiable and based on knowledge/experience. Quarterly bonus potential.

Fun, laid back work environment with progressive company.

Send resume to jobs@logicmaze.com. Just give it a shot, what could it hurt?

Downed Lines=Downtime

The entire LogicMaze staff would like to thank all of our friends, family and clients for the amount of understanding we have received over the last few days.

We lost all power to our offices on Tuesday night. Three of our staff members also lost all power to their homes. We moved our equipment to a residence Wednesday morning and almost immediately lost power to that residence. We were able to stay connected by laptop and Alltel broadband card just enough to troubleshoot and keep everyone's websites running. We are completely back up and functional as of this morning (Friday, Dec 14th) but we will probably not be back on schedule with project work until Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Thanks again, and our thoughts are with everyone out there who had a rough go with this weather.

Got Stuff? Who doesn't. See J-JAK Warehousing & Material Management

Hi. My name is Dave. I'm a packrat. Sorta.

There are surely worse cases than mine. My home isn't filled with refuse to the point where I have to carve out tunnels from room to room. And I don't have an apartment filled with empty Bud Light cans. But it is true that, for the space I have available to me, I have too much stuff. I'm an American and it seems to come with the territory.
This is linked to my own pet theory as to the true driving force behind the colonization of our fair country. We get it from our ancestors.
Europe was getting pretty crowded (a few good plagues will drive that point home nicely), so people needed to find more room for their crap (*ahem* sorry.... Eurocrap). Rumors had been spreading for awhile of a place where there was a LOT of room to be had on the cheap and whose current inhabitants usually packed pretty light. Next thing you know you've got boatloads of people bringing their stuff here. But I digress.

Let's pretend that instead of just one guy with too much stuff (Okay, it's not useless stuff... it's mostly books, art supplies, and tools, okay. Drop it already.) I am really a corporation which manufactures and sells widgets. But the widget market is a fickle mistress. Depending on whether it's widget season I may sell an incredible amount or hardly any at all. To stay on top of that peak demand I have to continually manufacture widgets year round. But then I have to find a place to store all my widgets until the season rolls around and the orders come flooding in. So my dilemma is - do I build my own widget warehouse (Widget Warehouse will be my next band name, by the way.) or do I rent the space I need. Who could possibly have that much space to suit my needs? And what about when the widget season has ended and my stores of widgets have all been sold? Will I have to continue to pay for storage space I'm not currently using?

Well, whether you need to store widgets or just about anything else, the answer to all of these problems is J-JAK Warehousing & Material Management located in South Hutchinson, KS. With 50,000 square feet of storage space, this company can store your widgets and the products for several thousand other companies. And they only charge for the space that you use, so you never end up renting unused space.

As an affiliate company of American Packaging, these folks know how to treat small and medium companies with the same service usually reserved for huge corporations. And they offer a number of other key services as well. J-JAK also acts as a complete receiving solution, provides complete and customized inventory management for all of your items, and offers fulfillment services such as off-site assembly and "pack-out" for final distribution. They can also handle direct-to-customer distribution via UPS or other common carriers.

Now if only they would let me carve out a measley 2,000 square feet for my own personal apartment/gymnasium/go-kart track - I'd be set. Until the Europeans hear about it, that is.

My name is Emilio.

I am a new member to the LogicMaze team, I guess I will share some info about me.

*I am a middle child in my family. No sisters just an older and younger brother.

*My grandpa is Jim P. Martinez (first Hispanic mayor of Hutchinson)

*I am currently going to college at HCC for Visual Communications.

*I am a artist, more interested in the graffiti art. The walls in my room are covered in Graffiti.

*I listen to all sorts of music, I am a musician. Currently I am in a project called "A Lifetime Of..." its an electronic/pop/experimental project. In the other bands I have been in such as "Tim and Emilio" we have put out a E.P. and have played plenty of shows in Wichita and Hutchinson. Lifetime Warranty was my first real band we put out a full length CD and music video which can be found on Youtube.

I hope I sound interesting.

I'm glad to be working at LogicMaze.

Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce

When the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce sent out a request for proposal, they expressed interest in a more interactive back-end that would allow them to easily control the large amount of content on their site as well as disseminate that information to all of their members. Guess who they chose to help them with this.

... No idea?

THEY CHOSE US!

We now have the task of redesigning their website for improved visual appeal as well as overall functionality. Both of those things just so happen to be our specialty.

This is a huge project for us, both in workload and profile. We couldn't be more ecstatic that the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce has shown their confidence in us being able to tackle it.

Right now, the Hutchinson Chamber of Commerce exists in three sites: hutchchamber.com, visithutch.com and hutchecodevo.com. Our goal is to make it easier for members of the Chamber to maintain all three of these sites with an admin panel. We've got designers and programmers chomping at the bit to make this happen.

We can't wait to get started.

A truly brilliant ad campaign

This is brilliant.

Every City, Town and neighborhood in the country is trying to get people to move to their space. Louisville has realized that they don't want everyone in the world to move to their city. Really if 1% of the people that watched these videos checked out the possibilities of moving to Louisville, this campaign would be a huge success.

I love ads that get really close to crossing the PC line but don't create an ad just for that purpose. Remember the Quiznos ads with the little rats? No kidding I have not eaten at Quiznos since!

Defending Kansas Drivers

If you've gotten into a little bit of trouble and gotten your drivers license suspended, you can find yourself facing quite a pain in the rear to get your suspended Kansas license back. There is a lot of red tape and hassle involved just to get yourself back on the road.
Luckily for you, there's Defending Kansas Drivers to help you out. Richard Oswalt is here to help you wade through the confusion and get on the right track to getting your Kansas license reinstated. It's good to have someone on your side that knows the ins and outs of the arduous task of getting your license reinstated.
Be sure to check out his site today for more information if you're in that very predicament.

Scuba Diving

Cody really pulled a fast one on me today. He sold me passes for Kansas scuba diving. Like an idiot, I bought them.
Scuba diving in Cheney lake wasn't that horrible, I suppose. I got a chance to see a lot of catfish and white perch. The downside is that I've got this smell on my that I just can't wash off. It's kind of a cross between a toilet and anything within a five-block radius of Long John Silvers.
The trip actually peaked my interest in scuba diving, though. I've since gone to Adventure Sports in Wichita to buy all sorts of really cool scuba diving equipment so that someday when I get to take a vacation, I can go somewhere worth seeing. Adventure Sports will help me with that part of it too. They specialize in setting up scuba trips.
Anything would be better than Cheney lake.

Hydroseeding

I live in an upstairs apartment, so I don't have any yard to speak of. But my best friend is planning on tilling up his yard and planting new grass before it gets too cold. I've suggested a few times for him to use a hydroseeder from Kincaid Equipment.
I think he's softening up to the idea.
We'll see if I can persuade him and swing his business toward Kincaid Equipment.

Soccer Goals Needed

All the excitement surrounding the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China has got me wanting to buy that soccer goal that my daughter has been begging me for.

I have been watching for updates regularly on the team after watching the NIKE Ads, where they brag about "The Greatest Team You've Never Heard Of". They are definitely worth watching, if you can have someone tivo it for you.

We've been clearing some of our property out to set up a mini-soccer field, and mini-football field, depending on which kid wants to use it that day, and we needed a neat way to mark off the field lines. I found this Spray Paint Line Marker at Future Pro. If you are concerned about safety, they have these great Soccer Goal Padding (something I didn't think was necessary right up until my daughter filled in as goalie a couple weeks ago, and dove for a ball, and ran her head right into the soccer goal).

Future Pro carries all kinds of sports items, go online to their website and check them out. They have made alot of customers VERY happy with their low prices and reasonable shipping rates.

The Sequel!!!

Monday I posted this!!

Today I found this!!

The second link above from Web Worker Daily is a much better expression of my sentiments about Seth's blog than I could have done, read them both and let us know what you think!!

Seth Godin

If you are in business or just trying to succeed in life you should really read Seth Godin's blog here. I read a lot of blogs and really feel like post in and post out he is the guy I agree with and learn from the most. Until today... My Google Reader had this post at the top of my marketing folder today and I have to say this is the first time I think Seth is off target. Good Enough is always Good Enough!

Here's my explanation:

It's is about redefining your definition of good enough, not trying to continuously make a project better. Campaigns and Strategies have to be remarkable true, but is remarkable good enough? Well yes, most of the time it is. Creative people are the ultimate example. Creatives can look at a first draft and tear it apart, usually a good idea, unfortunately they can look at they 400th draft and tear apart as well. Sooner or later a plan or strategy has to be "GOOD ENOUGH" and then executed violently. The success of any project just depends on what your definition of "GOOD ENOUGH" is!!



A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.
George S. Patton

Obviously this is all subjective semantics, don't worry Seth I will keep you in my Google Reader!!!

Winter Park Vacation

My Motto - Work hard, play hard | That's my motto since "Work like a Farmer, Party like a Rockstar" is already taken.

In late July, my family and some friends spent a long weekend in Winter Park Colorado at a friends condo. We spent a full day at the Winter Park resort doing all of their summer activities, including;

• The Alpine Slide
• A Giant Maze (fun for adults AND kids)
• Mini-Golf
• Lunch at the mountain top
• Leaps & Bounds Bungee
  
• Hiking
• The GyroXtreme
• The challenging Rock Wall

Winter Park downtown area has this great park called Hideaway Park. We grabbed some blankets, went to Hernando's Pizza Pub and got some pizza, and took it over to the park. They had local musicians there on Thursday night and we ended up buying the c.d.'s from the group that was playing.

We did some sight seeing on some driving trails that were recommended to us by the owners of the condo. The biggest surprise of the evening came when as we were coming back down the mountain trail, we turned the corner and saw a large moose walk into the middle of the road, turn back to look at us and keep walking. It was one of the coolest things that I had ever seen, and I will post our picture as soon as I get it off our camera.

Our condo that we stayed in was like a Home away from home. The large kitchen allowed for many people to cook at once, and not get into each other's way, and the views looking out the windows were stunning. The 3 bedrooms were all very large and laid out well. We look forward to vacationing in Winter Park with family and friends again, and know that we will be headed to Winter Park Lodge -- Check out their website at www.wplodge.com.

Recreation

I helped my friend move into a new house over the weekend. Always a good time, believe me.
His new place has a fairly sizeable backyard that would be perfect for all sorts of recreational activities. The only problem is that the grass is all sparse, rough and nasty. I'm trying to convince him that he should contact Kincaid Equipment about a hydroseeder, then we can redo the whole lawn and have it looking good next year. I even offered to help him, despite my lack of knowledge in that area.
Who knows what kind of set up he could have back there with just a little work. Maybe we could get a soccer goal back there.

McPherson Realty Exchange

LogicMaze WebDesigns is proud to release the new and improved website of McPherson Realty Exchange!

McPherson Realty Exchange has been in business since 1974. They are proud to be of service to McPherson, Kansas and the surrounding area of Central Kansas. Whether it's Buying, Selling, Leasing, Managing, or Appraising Real Estate, McPherson Realty Exchange looks forward to doing business with you.

McPherson Realty Exchange maintains it's own Contract Escrow Department for those who sell under contract or Lease Purchase-Option Agreements.

The website offers you an easy way to Browse Listings, Search Listings, View their Featured Property, and Learn about McPherson Realty Exchange and their Agents.

On a more technical note, this website was designed with 100% CSS and follows the XHTML document type. For those of you not technically savvy with web design, let's just say that McPherson Realty Exchange was created with the leading standards. LogicMaze would be happy to do the same for you! If you need a high quality website, excellent online marketing, and terrific customer service look no further! LogicMaze WebDesigns is here for you! Josh Krannawitter Web Designer McPherson, ks Web Design

Job Opening!!!

We need help!

The position we have open is a multi-taskers dream come true. We need an Assitant project manager/Update Designer/administrative assistant.

Sound complicated??? It's not at all!! If you are looking for a place to really get a career started with good pay and full benefits package available after 90 days. Send your resume to jobs@logicmaze.com.

Honestly what we need is someone who is really anxious to work hard, accept a lot of responsibility and be rewarded for their efforts. We are a fast growing company that needs a person who will take a ownership stance and realize that the better LogicMaze does, the better their compensation will be.

The position is open immediately. Again send a resume to jobs@logicmaze.com

I'll get you, my pretty, and your little web designer, too!

Sadly, it has been awhile since my last blog. I would explain myself, but since the whole experience resembles the Wizard of Oz, I suggest just watching the movie and inserting "web designer" in place of Toto.

With that said let's move onto something work related. I hear we have a few new clients since the last time I blogged. At least that's the information that was smuggled to me while i was being held captive by the flying monkeys.

I learned that Future Pro is a supplier of a huge variety of sports equipment and accessories. Good to know. I personally have never needed to purchase bleachers, but I wouldn't mind a nice adjustable basketball goal. Perhaps the Tin Main is up for some one-on-one.

It was also revealed to me that Kincaid Equipment manufactures hydroseeding and straw blowing equipment for landscaping needs. I can't think up a Wizard of OZ related joke here. Let's just leave it at that....

Finally, I learned that Showalter fireworks is the place to go for all things fireworks related. You will be impressed with their professional fireworks shows for weddings, birthdays, etc. Remember it's handy to keep a bucket of water nearby when playing with fireworks or battling wicked witches.

Anyways, I'm back safe in Kansas now. On a serious note, LogicMaze is becoming more and more successful with each passing day. Do you need a website or some excellent marketing? Give us a call today and see what we can do for you!Josh Krannawitter Web Designer McPherson, Ks Web Design

Who's got game?

I don't have game. In fact, I can't think of a single sport in which I could say with a straight face "I'm awesome at that" . . . unless it's followed by ". . .on Xbox."
I'll tell you this: if you want to throw down on some Ken Griffey Jr. Major League Baseball on Nintendo 64, well, get ready to lose. Bad.
Despite my proficiency in simulated sports, I think I'll work on maybe getting into some real sports. I'm thinking about setting up an adjustable basketball goal at home, and practicing some of my uber-awesome slam dunks. Like the one where I do a front flip, then a back flip before takin' it to the hoop. You should see it. It's unreal, man.
One minor snag, though; I live in an upstairs apartment.