Re: Long Journeys

Really Amazing I Can Feel ur each and every situation by heart. U done
very well. Have a good rest take ur family on holiday. It's ur
honeymoon time so just chill who knows u might go for 2nd one

My blessind and prayers to all those who r on same journey including me

Sunny the Best bunny

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

On 12/03/2010, at 5:46 AM, Scott Morris <smorris_at_ine.com> wrote:

> Congratulations! Great story! And I'm sure your wife is quite happy
> as well! :)
>
> Scott Morris, CCIEx4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713,
>
> CCDE #2009::D, JNCIE-M #153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al.
>
> JNCI-M, JNCI-ER
>
> evil_at_ine.com
>
> Internetwork Expert, Inc.
>
> http://www.InternetworkExpert.com
>
> Toll Free: 877-224-8987
>
> Outside US: 775-826-4344
>
> Knowledge is power.
>
> Power corrupts.
>
> Study hard and be Eeeeviiiil......
>
> laidlaw_at_consecro.com wrote:
>
> I am going to apologize up front for this long story and thank
> everybody
> who makes it to the end.
>
> Like many other on this forum, I have read many letters like this
> one.
> For me, it seemed that sometimes the goals you set seem just
> outside your
> grasp. Slowly that goal becomes just a dream you had once. For me,
> taking a CCNA level class from then to-be CCIE Dave Genton got me
> hooked
> on Cisco and networking in general, and the goal was a CCIE. CCNA in
> '99, CCNP in 2000 but soon family and life began to take hold and
> thing
> didn't come so easily after that. Like many others, failing the
> first
> time, in '02, was an eye opening experience and I learned first
> hand just
> how high the bar was set. Later in '03, I half-heartedly tried to
> get
> back into study mode but I failed to keep an eye on the calendar and
> didn't drop my date before the old 30-day mandatory pay period. At
> the
> time, my wife and I were expecting our second child and some
> complications forced me to forfeit my seat. It was an expensive
> lesson
> to say the least. I lost all motivation as my goal seem farther away
> then when I started (in addition to $1250 more expensive). Paying
> for a
> lab that I never got to take drained my motivation and I lost all
> desire
> to continue.
>
> In '07 I got my first taste of MPLS and I was again hooked on new
> technology. With a group of very motivated coworkers, we all set off
> down the service provider track. I was fascinated by the
> technology and
> I quickly re-found my motivation. I passed the metro-ethernet
> written
> right before Cisco consolidated the written exams and took my first
> attempt at the SP lab 3 months later. Although I thought I was
> ready,
> the lab proved otherwise. My only consolation was a 100% on the MPLS
> section, which at the time didn't seem like much. Work quickly
> took all
> my available time and once again, policy got the best of me. I
> knew you
> had 18 months from the date you passed the written to attempt the
> lab,
> but I didn't pay any attention to the fact that you must attempt
> the lab
> again within 12 months. Having only been 15 months since I passed
> the
> written, my mind was somewhere else when it expired. Again upset at
> policy, I shelved my dream and went back to work.
>
> A 1200 mile move, 2 jobs and 2 years later, I found myself back in
> the
> hunt. Armed with addition preparation materials, courtesy of the
> extremely generous Antonio Soares, I was back on my way. After
> retaking
> the written, 4 months of hard study, I was back in RTP taking the
> lab.
> Things were going so smooth through the first couple of sections.
> That
> is when I should have known better. I did my usual prep and read
> ahead
> to identify land minds. 45 minutes into the test and getting to the
> PPPoE section, I noticed that the client-side config was already
> there.
> Up to that point I was just configuring things so I hadn't noticed
> but I
> knew there was no way any of the PPPoE stuff would be preconfigured
> and I
> notified the proctor. Looking back it was certainly worth a laugh,
> but
> Howard informed me that the grader failed to reset my lab and I had
> someone else configs on my rack. The rack wasn't even setup for the
> topology I had been given. Howard, being the cool guy he is, kept a
> smile on his face, started the reset procedure and let me sit and
> read
> the lab while things restarted. Now this by itself is highly
> unusual and
> hopefully not something that most people get to experience, but it
> takes
> close to 45 minutes for the rack to fully reload. If you thought
> it was
> tense doing the lab, imaging sitting in there with nothing to do
> but look
> at your test booklet and listen to the clock tick by. So Howard
> comes by
> letting me know I can restart the test but all my work to that
> point was
> gone because the restart obviously clears everything, so I have to
> restart from the beginning.
>
> I gave it a good go. Howard let me work through lunch (not sure I
> would
> have eaten anyway) and I skipped time consuming sections for the low
> hanging fruit in a crazy race against time. I came close to
> finishing
> but knew it wasn't good enough. A 3am score report email confirmed
> what
> I already knew, another swing and a miss.
>
> Now my wife and kids have been really good sports to this point but 9
> years and 3 attempts seemed like long enough and I was ready to
> give it
> up for good. After telling the crazy lab story to my wife and a few
> coworkers, I finally had enough prodding to open a support case with
> Cisco. Several days later, unexpectedly, I received a voucher to
> retake
> the test. 2 very big projects took up most of the next 8 months
> and in
> December I finally started looking for lab dates. I was very
> surprised
> that there was nothing for almost 6 months in any location and I
> began to
> get very nervous. My last lab was March 24th, my voucher would
> expire in
> early April and with the 90 day window, I had only 8 days to find a
> lab
> seat before I would be almost totally SOL. On December 21st, with
> only 3
> days left, a seat opened in RTP for March 9th. Now looking back and
> knowing what I know now, it must have been a scheduling glitch but
> that's
> OK, I like glitches in my favor.
>
> Despite bad weather and delayed flights, I made it to RTP in one
> piece.
> The morning started early because I suck at finding my way around RTP
> despite the fact that I had almost spent enough time there to
> qualify as
> a NC resident. I arrived on-site at 7am and met the new RTP proctor,
> Kelly (I am sorry if I got your name wrong, I was too focused on
> the lab
> and I suck with names). Due to the proctor change and the lab seats
> being locked out (really glad the system glitched and let me
> schedule),
> there was me and one other guy taking the lab that day and it was a
> little different being almost by yourself. I still started out by
> double
> checking that there was nobody else's configs loaded and after a
> clean
> bill of health, away I went. I walked out knowing I gave it my
> best and
> thankful nothing weird happened. This was it though, win lose or
> draw,
> the final attempt.
>
> I think the worst part of the test is between roughly 3:30 and when
> you
> get your score. I had flown all the way home and had been driving for
> about 10 minutes when the email came in. I couldn't decide if it was
> good or bad to get a score that soon. I thought, "Did so bad it
> didn't
> take long to fail, huh?". I called my wife and had her deliver the
> bad
> new. CCIE #25959.
>
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Received on Sun Mar 14 2010 - 02:56:02 ART