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Wow, is it already the middle of August? Time really flies when you’re having fun or just working really hard. We’ve just completed our Accessibility and UI Consistency test passes, which I hope explains my absence from the blogsphere.

Here are some previews of upcoming blog posts:

  • I lost the admin’s cart – the missing chapter of Microserfs: Yep, I know you Microsofties are gasping as you’re reading this. “Who would have ever imagine that your success at Microsoft depends on whether you can return a 50 dollar Rubbermaid cart back to your floor,” quoth Aaron, my partner in crime.
  • How my screen reader testing methodology is wrong: I’ve recently learned that it is so much more important to test with AccEvent than it is to test with AccExplorer. AccExplorer is P2 (priority 2) whereas AccEvent is P1 (highest priority). I’ll share my algorithm on how to test with screen readers, which I now believe will provide everyone a rock-solid way to verify whether an issue is against your application or whether it is against the screen reader.
  • What I learned by failing Search and Rescue Training: Last November, I decided I was going to do Search and Rescue, having never camped out in the Pacific Northwest. Remember, I’m from New Orleans, so anything under 60 degrees is considered “freezing,” and yet, there I was trying to sleep in one of those mummy-like sleeping bags in 23 degree weather. Who would have thought hiking boots could actually freeze without water? <grins>
  • Lance Armstrong is my hero: He has been my hero since 1996 where he won his first Tour de France stage. I was an exchange student in France at the time, and I had this magazine in French that showed Lance winning that first stage. It is probably still hanging up on the wall in my bedroom at my parents’ house. BTW, what is up with those OLN announcers? Is that what happens when you’re only a sports announcer once a year?
  • Bad karate fighter, no cookie: I got so busy with work that I didn’t test last week for my second brown belt. But then again I reminded myself that the reason I was doing karate was to get back into shape and to relieve stress, and not to get stressed out over getting my black belt. I’ve been invited to participate in a karate competition down in Las Vegas, so I will start training, and blogging, about that.
  • SaraF is heading back to the N’awlins homeland for the first time in 3+ years: My grandmother had 12 kids on my mom’s side, and the youngest is turning 50 this year. They are having a family reunion for her birthday. One thing to note about my family is that they are a little different. In high school, I once wrote a short story about Thanksgiving at my house, and it won 3rd place in the state of Mississippi among high school students in the FICTION category. I think Mississippi didn’t want to admit that we come from there.