Month: February 2015

Life

Rest In Peace, Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)

Written by Brian Landis February 27, 2015March 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

Leonard Nimoy died today after a long and fruitful life. I didn’t know him. I knew his work and the characters he so richly brought to life.

He helped shaped my world view through his portrayal of Spock, and I’m a better person for it.

“Popularity is the very crumbs of greatness,” he quoted in a commencement address he delivered in 2012. He was a great actor and a fine human being, and I feel small today from the knowledge that he is gone. The world is a bit darker today.

LLAP, Mr. Nimoy. Thank you.

Health, Life

Random Friday: So Cold

Written by Heather Landis February 27, 2015March 20, 2019 9 Comments

Because this week has been one of those weird busy/not-busy periods, I woke up yesterday convinced it was Saturday. Thus, Thursday was a huge bummer. This short post is a sample of the resulting cranial rampage.

Technology, Writing

Tech Tuesday #003: Making a Basic Table of Contents in Microsoft Word

Written by Heather Landis February 24, 2015March 20, 2019 3 Comments

Many of us use Microsoft Word in our day-to-day work. If you create lengthy documents on the regular, you’ll need a Table of Contents (TOC) at some point. In this week’s Tech Tuesday post I’ll show you how quick and easy it can be in Word 2010-2013.

Business, Technology

SimpliSafe: Taking Care of Business

Written by Brian Landis February 22, 2015June 30, 2020 3 Comments

For this edition of Taking Care of Business, we’ll look at another example of a company that went out of its way to show that the customer is valued with pain-free policy and a great support team. Read on to see how SimpliSafe gets it right.

Business, Life

Remoteness

Written by Heather Landis February 20, 2015March 20, 2019 14 Comments

Working from home has become a polarizing issue as more companies adopt the practice (or rescind it… I’m looking at you, Yahoo). After seeing an endless stream of articles intended to help more sociable employees take the plunge successfully, I decided to post my own take on the subject: from the perspective of an introvert.

Tech Tuesday #002: Protect Your Work (Word)

Written by Brian Landis February 17, 2015March 20, 2019 1 Comment

Everyone who works in an office where others have access to your files knows the pit in your stomach you feel when you open your prized proposal, presentation, or spreadsheet, only to realize Ted saved his grocery list over it five minutes before the big meeting.

For this installment of Tech Tuesday, we’ll be looking at some simple methods to protect your Microsoft Word files. Many workplaces use Microsoft Office, so that’s what we’ll focus on, but the suggestions still apply to other programs. Only the implementation will be different.

Life, Writing

Qualifiers

Written by Heather Landis February 16, 2015March 20, 2019 16 Comments

Featured Image: A Page Out of Time, by Heather Lee (Creative Commons License)

I am a writer.

That sentence is difficult to say because I always try to qualify it with something like, “I want to be a writer.” I’ve been writing since I learned how to put pen to paper. You can ask my mother; she still has all the stories I left around the house for her to find when I was little. I wrote for school assignments, I wrote between classes, I wrote during the summer, I wrote for fun. And then I stopped.

CableOne: (Not) Taking Care of Business

Written by Brian Landis February 14, 2015June 30, 2020 Leave a Comment

Sometimes a company goes out of their way to make sure you know how little they value your business. My latest dealings with CableOne are a perfect example of how not to do business if you care about your customers.

Life

Get Up!

Written by Heather Landis February 12, 2015March 20, 2019 1 Comment

Featured Image: Winter Sunrise, by Heather Lee (Creative Commons License)

After my post on routines, a few people asked me how I managed to go from sleeping 14 hours a day to watching the sun rise every morning. The short answer is time, obstacle removal, and orky help. The long answer is below.

Tech Tuesday #001: How to Deal With a Tech Scam

Written by Brian Landis February 10, 2015June 30, 2020 3 Comments

The Microsoft Support tech scam isn’t new, but it’s becoming more prevalent in areas where it hasn’t been seen much- in this case, Oklahoma. Here’s what you can do to spot and respond to one of these scam calls.

Welcome to a (hopefully) recurring series of posts on OrksandCats.com. Since I’ve worked in IT throughout my entire adult life, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that I wanted to share with you all. I had a few ideas for what I wanted this first post to be, but a coworker’s experience made me change my mind at the last moment.