From: g.duncanson (g.duncanson@pindar.com)
Date: Fri Aug 01 2003 - 05:52:34 GMT-3
Congratulations Tim!
Gary
On 8/1/03 3:45 AM, Snow, Tim <timothy.snow@eds.com> wrote:
>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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>
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>
>
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