From: Snow, Tim (timothy.snow@eds.com)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 23:45:44 GMT-3
I apologize for the lenght of this "story" but I was bored and sitting in
the airport with a hangover. Been two years in the making...
First off, I'd like to thank myself. Because without me, none of this would
have been possible. I'll
thank the others in the following story....
I sit in the Raleigh RDU airport as a CCIE. CCIE #12042 to be exact. The
odd thing is that I haven't
seen the email from cisco stating so, yet I've verfified my status on line
and it is true. W00t!!!
I walked into the test feeling pretty confident as I know that I've hit all
the major areas and even
did a deep dive into areas that most likely weren't going to be on this test
but I knew they'd help
in my career. That's how I was using the motivation factor of this test, to
learn as much as I could
about routing and routing protocols in general. Not for the test but for
myself and my career. I met
the requirements of the lab yet I know there is a bunch of stuff that I
don't know. Am I proficient in
BGP? Yes, enough for cisco to say so. Am I a routing wizard when it comes
to BGP? Well, Yes *grin*.
Enough to be dangerous. That's the point, your being tested on a small
portion of that they're gear
can do. You just have to be able to do the requirements of that lab. So you
could take your chances
and be really good at certain things and not at others. If you get the test
that maps well to your
studies than your all set.
I showed up at building 3 at 0720. Was told that I was late. Guess the
other two folks were there at
0715. Hmph. No biggie. Walked in and started my lab at 0730.. Read the
whole thing over once,
mentally noting areas that I could be bitten on. At 11:30, the proctor
said it was lunch... I was
nearing the end. Almost done I thought? Guess so...
Went to lunch. I looked over the food. A mexican chicken and rice type of
dish. I scooped some onto
my plate, noting that it looked a little spicy. Had a peice of chocolate
cake as well. Not full, but
content. It appears that spicey stuff wasn't sitting well in my stomach.
Ahh well. Lunch ended but
I bounced outside for a quick smoke. Came back in and sat down to finish
this beast. Now 12:00
45 minutes later, I felt that I was done..... Time for review #1. 35
minutes later (now 1320)
Picked up a couple of mistakes that I had made (typos mainly, fixed a couple
of glitches). I began
review #2 and that took another 30 minutes. I thought to myself. I can't
leave at 1400 can I? Went out
for a smoke again. I did review #3, that brought me up to 1420. I "played
around" for a bit.
Sat away from the keyboard and read my test, making sure I watched out for
any plays on words that I
might have missed. I left at 1500 back to the hotel.
Back in the room, I brought up the doc cd and looked over some areas that
were on my test. I got hit
with the "did I do that right" Did I set the priority higher or lower on
that question? Did it work?"
Sat in the room looking over the doc cd, feeling pretty confident yet I
looked over in the
ashtray and it appears that I had smoked a bunch so obviously I wasn't as
confident as I had thought.
Closed the notebook out of anger and clicked on the TV. Boy, it's amazing
what 1 hour of Super Mario
Bros will do.
Went out looking for a steakhouse.. Not to be found. Went back to the hotel
to see what kinda food I
could find online. Ended up order chinese and a couple (4) beers from
downstairs. Food arrived and
I had put down a couple of beers already. Feeling better now. I decided
that I need to go out and
find myself something to do. I went driving around for a bit, found a
sports bar type of place. Parked
the car and went in. I'm not sure what time I got in but I do remember
calling a Taxi. I won't get
into all the details of the night but I had a good time *grin*
Woke up at 0920 with a pounding headache. Opened up the laptop, and I
noticed 18 new emails (mostly
groupstudy) but there was one that jumped out. The heading "Congrats
12042" and it was from Peter at
cyscoexpert. I didn't see anything from cisco.com. Hmmmm, I thought. I
opened up the email from
peter and it read something like "Congrats Tim. #12042. We knew you could
do it".... I quickly
went over to the cisco.com verification tool and verified that he was
pulling my leg. It's True!!!!
I am #12042. I inquired about not receiving an email from cisco. It
appears that the email was
sent to my home email address. Doh! Looked over that minor detail... hehe.
I called worked and
spoke to a couple co-workers. It was a great feeling!!!
The funny this is, I promised myself a new pc if/when I passed this thing.
Funny part was that the
night before my test (while waiting for my pizza to arrive) I spoke to a
couple friends online and
one mentioned a deal online on a new dell pc. Not thinking, I ordered it.
Once the order was placed,
I thought, I sure as sh... hope I didn't just jinx myself. HA!
Now, for the good stuff. Hope most of you skipped all that story stuff and
jumped down here.
I did a large portion of the commerical labs out there. Good preparation,
mostly for the different
types of setups that you may run into. My take on them is as follows.
Hello Computers. Not worth the money at all. Same topology, terrible
wording, incomplete answers,
the first 3 pages of every lab is the EXACT same thing as the lab before.
Ipexpert. Very good labs. Taught me a bunch. Different topologies every
time, different addressing,
kept me on my toes every time. Worth the money.
#1 I can't say enough about the guys at Cyscoexpert. Brian, Bahram, Peter,
et al. You guys ROCK!
I went to their class I suppose for a different reason that most. I went
to make sure that I had
done and prepared for all the things that I thought would be on there. Not
to have them teach me the
stuff. They showed me tricks to do certain common tasks, as well as easier
ways to tackle others.
The labs I encountered during those days in chi-town were tougher than what
I went through yesterday.
Their techniques are strong, their dedication is unsurpassed, and their
willingness to teach in unmatched.
I left their class feeling like I was in great shape. I kept focus on some
other obscure technologies that
I didn't want to get bitten by.
I also have to say thanks to the guys on #cisco. Chi, you my friend, really
helped me during those late
night study sessions. Although not a partner per say as you had already
gotten your number, you helped
me drill down and get very granular on certain topics. Thanks bro. The rest
of the guys, Fudamak, Geoffz,
JC, Stu, pete_i, georgeb, Peli, rocky, lewisX, and the rest of the guys...
And girl *Zukee*... Thank you..... Security IE next?
Thanks to groupstudy, and Paul in particular for hosting such a great forum.
One thing, y'all need to stop
posting questions to the group when you get back from the lab. Naughty
Naughty....
To the guys at work. Thanks a bunch to you all to. Sure did help me keep
focus.
Thanks to my mom, for being so supportive. She believed in all the time.
To the 10k other ccie's in this fine world, see you at the Security Lab!
Timothy Snow
CCIE #12042
EDS - Network Operations
MS 3B
1075 W. Entrance Drive
Auburn Hills, MI 48326
* phone: +01-248-754-7900
* mailto:timothy.snow@eds.com
pager: 888-351-4584
www.eds.com
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