Narcoleptic

Well this is about a month overdue, but yeah, I passed BGP. Easy exam, scored 987, looks like I missed one question.

Studying my ass off for MPLS, and hoping to have it done by the end of the month, even though my deadline isn’t until the end of July

Passed the QoS exam for CCIP. Fairly easy exam, 45 questions, took me ~30 minutes. Think I missed one question on the entire exam. Was nice to deal with actual problems again instead of the trivia of the Design exams.

BGP on deck, pass by goal: 4/30/10

Back about a year and a half ago, I finally upgraded my phone from the world of phone to smartphone.

I originally had wanted a Blackberry. And when I walked into the AT&T store, that’s what I was planning to buy.

Then I made the mistake of sitting and playing with the iPhone on display while waiting for a sales rep to get with me. The 3G’s had just come out. And as I played with it, I said to myself “I want this!”.

But they didn’t have them in stock (well, pink, but I am *NOT* going to carry a pink phone, thank you very much). So I got the Blackberry instead. But I’ve always kind of wanted an iPhone.

Well, add to the mix the iPod Touch. It’s basically an iPhone without the Phone part. Otherwise it’s virtually the same gadget. My only problem with them is that the initial offerings were too small. 8 and 16 gigs wasn’t near enough.

Well, in September, Apple put out the 3rd generation iPod Touches, which also included 32 and 64 gig versions. The 32 gig version was right up my ally, and the month of December has seen fit to have one come into my possession. So now I get pretty much what I wanted out of the iPhone in the first place, and when I go to change over my contract come July to go back to a regular phone (I don’t actually use the data plan with the Blackberry that much, so I don’t like having to pay for it) there will be absolutely no temptation to simply move over to an iPhone instead of just going back to a basic phone and the lowest priced plan they offer.

To keep myself, honest, here are my planned certification goals -

Complete CCIP – July 31st, 2010

This is going to be interesting. I’m pretty sure I can pull it off, but I’ll have t do away with the normal amount of lethargy that usually plagues me. The QoS sections I can’t see a problem with, I’ll probably take and pass it in January (I might try and sneak it in within the next couple weeks.. dunno yet)

The big sticklers will be BGP and MPLS. I’ll have, roughly, 3 months for each topic. Should be enough, but I guess we’ll find out. The order is also pretty much set, as I need new equipment for MPLS that I won’t have money for until later.

Once the CCIP is out of the way, I plan to go full bore CCIE study. I’m going to aim for passing the CCIE Written by January 31st, 2011. But I also plan to study for the Written like I’m studying for the Lab itself. This presents a couple issues, namely that I obviously need to have my CCIE lab completed by the time I pass the CCIP. Somewhere along the line, I’ll also have to come up with the cash for whichever training vendor I’m going to use. I may be setting my goals a little too tight, but I figure I should at least be able to pass the Written if I come up short on funds.

As far as other goals for the year… I think my biggest one is going to be going back to my own apartment. I don’t mind the folks I currently share with (though Lord knows, 5 dogs in the house will try ones patience), but I’m at a point where I’m feeling cramped, and I’d like some privacy, so getting back to being literally on my own is a pretty big priority. Unfortunately, this requires money, like everything else. I figure I probably won’t be able to move until Juneish, but we’ll see. Month to month is how I’m a living it!