Orks and Cats – Page 7 – Things that shouldn't go together well, but do.

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.

Home & Garden

The Garden Begins

Written by Brian Landis February 8, 2015March 20, 2019 2 Comments

It’s a stunning weekend here in Oklahoma, one of many in an astonishingly mild winter. As we get closer to the traditional last-frost date for where we live (typically around March 31^st), it’s time to start really thinking about what we want to plant this year. We actually started thinking about that last summer, since you always have to plan a bit ahead if you want to have any real success with a garden. There is, of course, a small wrinkle.

How to Tweak Your Daily Routine

Written by Heather Landis February 6, 2015March 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working to change my morning routine. The goal is to get up early and sneak in a workout before my day gets rolling and I have to focus on braining for a living. The reality has turned out to be a bit of a challenge.

Business, Technology

Fitbit: Taking Care of Business

Written by Brian Landis February 4, 2015June 30, 2020 3 Comments

Sometimes a company surprises you by showing you that they value your business. This is how Fitbit transformed me from a customer into a cheerleader.

This is part one of a multi-part post about customer service and how to treat your customers like a valued person rather than a line in a database.

Home & Garden, Life

The Great Purges

Written by Heather Landis February 3, 2015March 20, 2019 7 Comments

Photo by Erik Drost/Flickr Creative Commons.

Cleaning out closets doesn’t usually lead to epiphanies. Usually it leads to a vague sense of satisfaction in knowing you won’t have to haul that stuff on a truck the next time you move, but lately for me it’s done more.

It’s made me realize how far I’ve come.

New Digs.

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

Heather and I have lived, loved, and (occasionally) worked along side one another for many years now. In one of those semi-spur-of-the-moment outbursts I’m prone to, after an otherwise innocent comment by her about a minor dissatisfaction with her blog at The Spotted Cat, she woke up Saturday morning to find that I’d spent the night before […]