Brilliant designers, I need a logo for my software company

Software Things

After 10 years of working for other startups, I'm doing my own thing now. I'm an engineer at heart and love writing software, designing and building high-availability systems, and working with startups. I live in Indianapolis and am primarily working here for clients here but am planning to grow outside of the midwest in the next year.

I am currently only working with startup companies. These startups all have technology and software development needs. My goal is to be a trusted advisor to the founders of these companies, and provide a solid technical foundation for their business that can be built on for years to come. The entrepreneurs are cost conscious, business savvy, risk takers who are trying to have a vision come to light.

Want the logo to represent the company. The company name itself (Software Things) is a bit tongue in cheek, and an ideal logo would be fun/bold.

The logo will be used in many different ways:
0. Company website
1. Company blog
2. Our Google Apps domain
3. Our freshbooks domain
The designer should think about using a pallet that is portable.

I would like the logo to be clean/sharp, easy to read, not cartoonish or too garish and simple. The following concepts are ones I use when thinking about the business: fun, trust, startup/entrepreneur, software/technology.

What do you think about some kind of character/creature looking out from behind the text? The 'things' in software things might be monsters, etc. Just thinking.

When I'm thinking about this logo I'm currently thinking about incorporating it into a site design similar to this: http://99designs.com/static/images/

Fun, interesting, but a solid logo. A lot of the designs I'm seeing feel very 'corporate' to me.

Examples:
Bad: http://thelogocompany.net/images/po…atiuon.jpg
Very busy, lots of detail, lots of colors.
http://thelogocompany.net/images/po…selogo.jpg
Busy, not sure what the company is/does.

Better: http://thelogocompany.net/images/po…pelogo.jpg
Not too many colors, good typography, but feels kind of generic
http://thelogocompany.net/images/po…rslogo.jpg
What I like in the above is the 'M' image. Nice because it can be reused in a number of contexts. Ideally a logo isn't just words.

Please feel free to experiment with colors.

The files we will require are:
Print file format - .ai (CMYK)
Web file format - .png and layered .psd (RGB)

Please do not use any stock images or clip art in the log