Noticed over at Cuba Alabama they had a reprint of a menu from the Chukker, the famous bar in Tuscaloosa. I’ve never been to it, but I have a story of near catastrophe that is directly related to it. It involved Andre the Giant, a brain damaged former med student, and a girl that I was dating at the time. It ended with everyone but me and her in jail. Remind me to tell you guys about it some time.

Wilco last night. It was a great show. It was at the Classic Center Auditorium, which is a big ass warehouse type of venue. The acoustics were interesting. I thought they were great, I could hear every instrument and Jeff Tweedy’s voice was like I was listening to a cd. No distortion. The sound guy from the 40 watt was standing right beside me and all he did was bitch about the sound qualilty. I personally think he must be partially deaf or something (no offense Sonya) because the sound at the 40 watt frequently blows ass.

So I was expecting some rock band diva shit from Jeff Tweedy and was pleasantly surprised. He’s a cynical bastard, but he has a sense of humor. They joked around and did two encores. It kicked ass. Good mix of old and new, soft and hard. Tipsy, you were right about Nels Cline. His shit was tight.

There’s a couple of good shows this weekend as well. Maserati is playing at Caledonia Saturday night, and I just found out that the Gerbils are playing at Little Kings. I’ve never been there, so that might be a good excuse to go.

Tonight, instead of studying, I’m working. I’ll probably be working till the sun comes up at least. Our mail server took a dump today. We’d been planning to replace it in a couple of weeks. We’d already set up the new server. It was a member of the mail organization and a couple of our mailboxes had been moved to it, just for testing.

Well, the time frame has been changed. Since the old server is wheezing it’s last breath, I’m in the process of migrating all of our mail to the new server, and then decommisioning the old one. It’s exciting! Actually, I’d rather be in bed asleep. But what are you gonna do?

Meghan and I have decided to try to eat healthier. See, we have a fast food addiction. It’s not so much the quality of the fast food, which is pure shit, as the sheer convenience of it all. (We’re also lazy).

In an effort to combat the shit food, we decided, based on a recommendation of one of Meghan’s friends, to go to this place called Simply Supper. The concept is pretty simple. Basically you go there, put on a hat and apron, and move around the kitchen stations fixing your meals. We purchased 12 meals for 1-3 people per meal for $130 bucks. Not a bad deal. The recipes are good, the food is fresh, and you fix them all at once. So we came home with an ice chest full of meals. you put them in the freezer, thaw them out, and cook them. It takes about 20 minutes per meal to make. It’s easy, and it’s good. It’s fucking genius. I wish I’d thought of this idea.

Anyway, it’s not much but it’s a step in the right direction of leading a healthy life. My next step is to start riding my bike and make it an essential part of my life. Right now, studying for CCVP is pretty much ruling my existence. I’ve made myself a deal that as soon as I’m done with that, I’m going to start riding. I’m getting soft. All that fast food is catching up to me. My metabolism is starting to slow. I used to be able to digest all that garbage with nary a side effect. No more. So now is the time to turn the tide, or else I’ll end up a sloppy shitbag.

Funny but True

I’ll be honest. I miss my Powerbook. I’m glad we sold it, but damn.

I’ll have one again. Or rather, I’ll have a Macbook, the Intel based equivalent. Running XP and OS X dammit.

There’s a girl sitting at the table next to me. She works here. And she is fucking loud! It’s like she is speaking into a megaphone! SHUT UP!

Screw this. No more studying tonight. I can’t fucking concentrate.

I took my QoS test today and flunked it. I’m not ecstatic by this result, but it was not unexpected. The QoS test is the most difficult of the 5 I have to take for my CCVP. One of the guys I work with had to take it 3 times. While I’m not anticipating having to do it that many times, I was expecting to have difficulties on this one. So, I’m regrouping and hitting the topics that gave me trouble, and I’ll take the motherfucker again.

So I’m back out at the coffee shop, chugging my latte and getting ready to hit the books yet again.

As an aside, I checked out the Cuba Alabama blog based on a reference from the tipsy one, and was overwhelmed with musical esoterica from my original neck of the woods, LA. That’s Lower Alabama for you yanks. Good shit. When I have the time I’m going to give it a more thorough investigation. I might learn something.

—EDIT—-

Christ. I examined the man’s blog further and was overwhelmed. that first page is just a few days worth of entries. It goes all the way back to like 2003. And he’s got about 15 other blogs. I believe the word is ‘prolific’. I look forward to reading some more good stuff.

Wilco show on thursday. I’m pretty excited about it but I do have a few misgivings. I haven’t paid any attention to Wilco since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I liked that album, but I admit that I am a bit put off by the direction Wilco decided to go with that. I don’t know if they even have an album out after YHF. I think they do, but I couldn’t tell you one song off it.

So, obviously I’m a bad fan but I don’t care. I think I quit really paying attention after Summerteeth, which is my personal favorite. I hope they do some songs off of that, but I won’t be surprised if they don’t.

So anyone out there who wishes to enlighten me (you know who you are), please feel free.

OK, we’ve been toying with the idea of moving out of our house. We spent today driving around looking at places and talking about our options. Here’s what we’ve come up with:

1. We don’t like how our neighborhood is turning out. But we don’t like most other neighborhoods either.

2. We don’t like being close to people. In fact, let’s just say we don’t like having neighbors that we can see without aid of a telescope.

3. Most new houses are way overpriced, and there seems to be a shit load of them. I’m no expert, but it looks like the real estate market is flooded with new homes. This will make it very difficult to sell our house and come away with any profit, considering how short of a time we’ve been in it.

4. Meghan and I are very picky now about where we choose to live and in what kind of house.

So based on all that, we’ve decided that we are going to stay in our house for a while, save up some money, buy some land somewhere outside of Athens, towards Atlanta, and build our own house. Meggie has been drawing up house plans as a hobby for years, and she’s got a really good one. So we’ll take it to an architect and see what we can do to make it a reality. This way we can get everything exactly the way we want it. And I can get some land where I don’t have to see a soul.

Are you tired of hearing about my Cisco studying? Well, hit the fucking bricks. No one says you have to come here and read this shit. So make like a tree, and get out of here.

So what is the point of all of this certification? Well, more money is a big reason. Bottom line: I go to work to earn money to feed my face, and that of my wife. More certifications = more money in the bank for Chris. The other reasons are that I enjoy learning new shit. There aren’t a lot of people who are capable of doing the kind of work that I do, and I take some pride in being good at my job. But yeah, the money is a good reason too.

Anyway, there are only a couple hundred CCVPs in the Atlanta area, and only a hundred or so CCIE-Voices in the nation. The CCIE-Voice test is a 2 part thing. The first is the written exam, which is actually a computer based exam with 100 or so questions, mostly multiple choice with some simulations. That’s pretty tough but once I’m done with my 5 CCVP tests, I should ace that no problem. The next part is what gives you night sweats. The dreaded lab exam. This is a 9 hour lab test where you are thrown into an existing Cisco Voice network that is subtely and monumentally flawed. You are given a series of tasks to accomplish in order to straighten out the network. Naturally the steps build upon each other, and you are timed. You have to know your shit because you can’t waste any time trying to figure out how to fix it up. It ain’t easy.

The going failure rate for the exam is 2.5 failures for each pass, per person. So the average tech fails it almost 3 times before he passes it. It costs 1250 bucks each attempt, and you have to get yourself to a Cisco testing center to take it. In the data world, if you hold a CCIE certification, you get respect. This can go to someone’s head. Those of us in the industry who deal with CCIEs know that a lot of them are arrogant asses. I personally can’t wait.

OK, so now you know my goal. To get my CCIE so I can be an arrogant ass. I also want to be able to put that number on my business cards. I even told Meghan that you get a little gold badge that you can put in your wallet and flip it open. I don’t think she believed me though.

Back to QoS.

I’m busy as fuck at work. But the great part is that I’m working on QoS, which is what my next Cisco test is about. I’m taking that one on Monday, but I’m also going to visit my mom in Dothan this weekend, so I have to find time to study for it while I’m down there.

Sonya, awesome about the Wilco show. I’d totally forgotten bout that. I’ll see if I can get Matt to go. He may have to work. Hell, he may just quit his job and come anyway.

Back to studying.