Results tagged “fun” from Logos Bible Software Blog

Aaaah, summertime! Fourth of July, the Mid-Summer Classic (MLB’s All-Star game), and, of course, your favorite pie! Today, eleven employees treated the Logos office to one of the sweetest lunches ever—for the Logos Pie Bake-off! As soon as you stepped foot into the kitchen, it smelled like a sweet-factory . . . too bad you can’t capture smell and taste in a photo.

The pies were so good, and the competition so close, that there was a tie for third until a straggling voter cast his last-minute ballot pushing Brittany Young’s Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Shortbread into third place. But that was not the only close call. Marketing’s very own Sarah Knepper just barely edged out Kyle Anderson’s Family Peanut Butter Pie with her Pavlova—by only two votes!

Sarah has graciously made her Pavlova recipe available, so after enjoying a few photos, give her Pavlova a try for your next summer party!

Most Americans celebrated the 4th of July by watching fireworks, but five Logos employees celebrated by spending more than 80 hours working outside—in temperatures approaching 100 degrees in the afternoon—putting on a massive fireworks display for others to enjoy. Customer Service representatives Justin Kooy, Debbie Mickens, Kat Hutchison, and Christy Powell and software developer James Van Noord joined three others to put on a fireworks display at Fort Spokane over the July 4th weekend.

All but one of the Logos pyrotechnicians have done professional displays in the past, and Justin will be getting his official pyrotechnics license later this summer. We thought you’d enjoy seeing how some of the people behind the product spent their 4th of July.

Here’s a slideshow of some of the pictures—courtesy of James Van Noord.

A congratulations is definitely in order to Justin Kooy, who proposed to his now-fiancée Katie during the fireworks show (see the second to last picture). Congratulations, Justin and Katie!

With National Bike-to-Work Day coming up next Friday, we thought we’d take a moment to share with you a little corner of the Logos offices that you might not know exists—the bike shop.

Equipment purchases at Logos typically include laptops, servers, and networking gear. So Bob was a little surprised to see an IT department purchase request that included everything necessary to set up a bicycle repair shop, but he supported the project from the get-go.

When asked about the bike shop, Bob said, “It was a great idea. Many of our employees bike to work, and others go for rides during the day. Having a fully equipped bike shop on site is a great way to encourage healthy habits that are good for the environment, too.”

The bike shop is equipped with everything you would find in your local bike shop. With so many specialty tools, thankfully we have a number of avid bikers and former bike shop employees—including our IT Manager, Jim Straatman—who are more than willing to lend a helping hand to employees who aren’t sure what to do.

Hopefully we’ll see a big response from employees next Friday, and lots of folks will bike in to work. For added motivation, that Friday will also be the day of our annual Chili Cookoff. Now we can all enjoy an extra helping of chili, knowing that we can bike off the extra pounds on our way home from work.

The Champ Is Crowned
From the start of the final round it was clear that Schaeffer was going to be the run-away winner of the 2009 Logos March Madness tournament. Having made it through a field of 64 titles, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer is now available at 75% off using the code MMCHAMP at checkout.

Runner-Up
While it isn’t the champ, The Existence and Attributes of God performed well in every round of the competition and, as runner up, is now available for 50% off using the code MMTWO at checkout.

Everyone Is a Winner!
During the course of the Logos March Madness tournament, we have received numerous emails and comments from people who found out about the contest after it started or forgot to check the site and missed out on one of the many spectacular deals we offered. After some consideration, we decided to give everyone one last chance to reap the benefits of our first Logos March Madness tourney. That said, we have re-opened ALL the discount codes used during the tournament. All discount codes are good between now and midnight (PST) April 12th. Below is a list of all the titles and their discount codes.

Important Purchasing Note:
The Logos checkout system can only accommodate one discount code per purchase. So, if you want to buy titles that have different discount codes, you will need to make them as separate purchases.

After five rounds of competition with almost 40,000 votes cast, we’re down to the championship game of the 2009 Logos March Madness book tournament. There have been some close-fought battles and surprising upsets along the way.

Who will rise to the top and become the Logos March Madness champion?

The final match is between The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer by philosopher and apologist Francis Schaeffer and The Existence and Attributes of God by Puritan Stephen Charnock. The winner will be awarded a 75% discount, and the loser a 50% discount.

Voting begins today and runs through Sunday night, at which time the champion will be decided. You will then have until the following Sunday night (April 12) to take advantage of the discounts. Head on over and place your vote now for your favorite title!

By the way, the two titles that got knocked out in the Final 4 round are currently available at 45% off using coupon code MMFF. The code is good through Sunday night (April 5).

• The Life and Work of St. Paul (2 Vols.) by F. W. Farrar
• The Prophecy of Isaiah by J. Alec Motyer

A week and a half ago we announced the Logos–Facebook Photo Contest and invited you to take pictures of yourself with Logos Bible Software and upload them to Facebook. The response to the contest was super. Nearly 900 new people connected with us on Facebook, and close to 400 photos were uploaded and tagged.

The deadline for entering was Sunday, March 1, but we allowed all photos submitted by the time we picked the winners yesterday afternoon. With so many creative and cool entries, it was very difficult to pick the winner for each category, but here’s what the judges came up with.

Most Creative

There were several really creative photos, but the award for most creative goes to Richard Flink.

Oldest Logos Stuff

The oldest actual Logos product in any of the pictures we saw was Logos 1.6, which I believe came out in 1993. (There were some pictures of CDWord from 1989 and 1990, but that was before CDWord became a Logos product, so we had to exclude them.) Five people had Logos Bible Software 1.6 pictured, but only three included themselves in the photos. So we had a three-way tie between Mike Monroe, Stephen Hustedde, and Dennis Martin.

Congratulations to these faithful, longtime users!

Coolest Setup

The coolest setup went to Tyson Heyn who has Logos running on an Intel Cord 2 Quad Q9550 CPU with 8GB of RAM and four monitors!

Most Unique Location

The coolest location was especially difficult to pick, but after much deliberation we decided to award it to Raymond Minot for his picture of Bible study on the balcony of a monastery overlooking the Swiss Alps. (Click through to see some nice shots of the Alps.)

Most Logos Stuff

The award for the most Logos stuff goes to pastor and Logos user Andrew Rappaport, who has accumulated over 325 disks and 4,585 digital resources! Wow!

Congratulations to all of you! If you were one of our seven winners, you may call 800-875-6467 to use your $100 unlock credit whenever you’d like on any downloadable books at Logos.com.

And a big thanks to all of you who participated. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the pictures of you and Logos!

If you haven’t yet seen them, go take a look at all of the entries.

Our Logos–Facebook Photo Contest is off to a great start. We’ve made hundreds of new connections with Logos users around the world, and we’ve seen some really cool photos. If you haven’t yet entered any pictures of you and Logos, you still have a few more days left. But remember, the deadline for entering your photos is this coming Sunday, March 1, so don’t miss out. And don’t forget to tag both yourself and “Logos Bible Software” so we get notified and include you in the contest. See the previous post for all of the details.

If you’re looking for ideas of what to do, how about taking the “extreme ironing” approach. (Extreme ironing involves taking pictures of yourself ironing in some of the craziest conceivable locations, like on the top of a mountain, on the beach, under water, while skiing or jumping off a cliff, etc.)

Just grab your laptop, water bottle, coffee mug, or Logos t-shirt and head to a cool location, like . . .

The Center of South America

The Grand Canyon

The Mall of America

The Hockey Hall of Fame

Disney World

Cabela’s

Your Favorite Hunting Spot

If you live in a unique, beautiful, or famous area, you have the perfect opportunity to enter to win $100 worth of Logos books. Are you a missionary in a picturesque or notable location? Why not give your fellow Logos users a glimpse into your part of the world?

We’re looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!

Like free Logos books? Get your cameras ready! Starting now and running through the end of the month, we’re having a Logos–Facebook Photo Contest. Here’s how it works. You take pictures of yourself with Logos Bible Software, upload them to your Facebook account, and tag yourself and Logos in the pictures; and we’ll award the owners of the five best photos with $100 unlock credit to use on downloadable titles at Logos.com.

Here’s what you need to do, step by step:

1. Log in to your Facebook account. (If you’re not already a member, you can sign up for free.)
2. Become a friend of Logos Bible Software on Facebook, if you aren’t already.
3. Take as many pictures as you want of yourself and Logos Bible Software.
4. Upload as many of those pictures as you want to your Facebook account.
5. Tag both yourself and “Logos Bible Software” in all of the photos that you uploaded. (Note: you won’t be able to tag “Logos Bible Software” properly until we accept your friend request. We’ll try to respond ASAP.)
6. Check the Logos blog on March 3 to find out if you were one of the five winners of the $100 unlock credit for Logos.com.

On Monday March 2 we will choose five winners, one for each of the following categories:

1. Most Creative
2. Oldest (disk, box, logo, version of Logos running, etc.)
3. Coolest Setup (could be your computer setup or your setup of Logos stuff)
4. Most Unique Location
5. Most Logos Stuff

The following day, Tuesday March 3, we’ll post the top five photos, announce the winners, and award the $100 unlock credit.

Here are some additional details:

1. What counts as Logos in a picture? Anything that is identifiably Logos Bible Software, like Logos running on your computer, a Logos box, disk, t-shirt, mug, etc., or the Logos logo sticker on your computer.
2. How many photos can I enter? Enter as many photos as you want. The more you enter, the greater chance you have of winning!
3. How long do I have? The deadline for entering is March 1, 2009.
4. Why can’t I tag Logos in my photos? You won’t be able to tag “Logos Bible Software” properly until we’ve accepted your friend request. We’ll do our best to respond ASAP.

Have any other questions? Drop a note in the comments, and we’ll answer them.

Need help getting some ideas? Check out Ryan’s picture below. But don’t just copy what he did. Be creative. Come up with something that you think will set you apart from the competition!

Share the fun with others. Click on the Facebook icon to the right (may not work in your feed reader—visit the post) to let others on Facebook know about the Logos–Facebook Photo Contest. Of course, feel free to share it on your blog, on Twitter, and wherever else you’d like.

Oh, by the way, if you’re not a fan of Logos or in the Logos user group yet, don’t forget to do that too.

When I travel, I almost always take my laptop with me. Being able to read and study the Bible and Christian literature without having to pack print books is perfect for flying, especially now that many airlines charge extra for your luggage. I've heard that some airlines have even considered charging by weight.

But Logos is more than just a Bible study tool. It's great for fun and games too. I'm sure most of you are aware of the Word Find. You can find it under Tools > Bible Puzzles > Word Find. I've used it on a couple of occasions while traveling. It's not just for kids.

During my last trip to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with my wife's family, I found a couple of new uses for Logos when we were playing games around the kitchen table.

First, I was introduced to a word game called Boggle. The goal is in three minutes to come up with as many words as you can that no one else comes up with—the longer the word the better. As you can imagine, you often have to come up with words that are uncommon. This sometimes involves a bit of guessing, which in turns requires that a dictionary be handy.

I pulled up Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which comes in most of our base packages, and the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, linked them together, and had fun looking up and learning many new words.

My brother-in-law tried to use a traditional paper dictionary, but I don't think he even got to the right section of the dictionary before I had looked the word up in two dictionaries. I highly recommend using Logos the next time you need a dictionary for family game time. Less waiting and more time having fun.

Second, another game we played with Logos was one I made up myself. I would read a random verse of Scripture after performing a Bible Speed Search, and the first person to guess the book it was found in would get a point. (You get only one guess until everyone has guessed.) If you could guess the full reference, you'd get a bonus point. This one was a lot of fun, but a little lopsided since my oldest brother-in-law is a pastor and was winning most of them.

These are just a couple of examples that illustrate how Logos is more than just a Bible study tool and can be a great addition to family game time.

How about you? What creative ways have you found to use Logos for more than just Bible study?