So, as the test gets closer, am I getting more nervous?  No.  I’m actually feeling better and seriously looking forward to this experience.  I shit you not.

I can’t wait to see just what this test is going to be like.  It’s been a great mystery to me so far.  No one who’s taken the lab will discuss the specifics in any online forum.  Cisco is pretty serious about their NDA and no CCIE is going to risk his number just to give some noob a few tips.  I think I’m ready for this test, but I won’t know until I’m there.  I can’t fucking wait!

So I’ve also decided that all this hard work deserves some type of reward.  I’m going to treat myself to a new home theater when I pass.  Flat panel HDTV and audio system.  The works.  And then I’m going to buy myself a new car.  My piece of shit Honda Civic is just about done.  It’s served its purpose, which was point A to B, with air conditioning, and cheaper than the Jeep on gas.  But now it’s about to flip 160k and who knows how long it’ll last.  So sometime in the next 6 months or so, it’s got to go.

But first:  The exam.

This weekend is the beginning of the final push.  For the next three weeks, I’ll be living and breathing Cisco Voice.

This weekend was a bust as far as studying goes.  I just couldn’t concentrate.  So instead of agonizing over it, I just said “fuck it”.  If I can’t study, then I’ll relax to the fullest.  So I spent a lot of time watching football, which should have been relaxing.  Instead I had to suffer through what could have been the Bulldogs worst loss in 25 years.  We pulled it out in the end, but damn.  My stomach was all knotted up after dealing with that.

Despite the wasted weekend, I still feel really good about the upcoming test.  As it gets closer, my focus should sharpen, and I’ll really be able to make the most of my study time.  I’m also looking forward to the week long boot camp.  I’ve got a really good shot at passing this fucker.

Let me direct your attention to my Flickr page.  I’ve put up a few photos from my sister’s wedding that I went to last weekend.  Not too many, but enough so you could at least see the family.  It was fun!  Meg has some awesome pictures that we need to develop from a disposable camera that we bought at a gas station.  Our digital camera was dead and we were about to ride through the mountains on skyline drive.  So those should turn out pretty good.

Ok, so I’ve had a few days off from studying.  I went to my sisters wedding in West Virginia this past weekend, and have been busy as hell with work since then.  But it seems to be tapering off, so I can get back into my studying routine.

I have one month to go before it’s time for the test.  The closer I get, the less nervous I am.  I’ve been sleeping better.  No more strange dreams about getting into the test and forgetting everything I know.  I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m more confident in my abilities.

I still give myself a 50% chance of passing the first time.  But I may revise that upward.  The big key is not how much knowledge I can cram into my head.  As long as I understand all the fundamental concepts and have some lab time implementing them, I’ll be ok.  The key thing is the documentation CD.  It’s my only weapon against the unknown.  For the next 2 weeks I’ll be using it exclusively to troubleshoot the lab manual.  The goal is to learn the locations of every key topic that I might see on the exam.  If I can find the information quickly, then my chances of passing the test increase dramatically.

Think about it like this.  You are going to take the AP exam for physics.  The exam could cover any topic that falls under a specific concentration of physics, like quantum physics.  The only thing you are allowed to bring in to the exam with you is a physics textbook that literally has all the answers in it.  But there’s no index in the book, and the pages aren’t numbered.  You simply have to know where the answers are ahead of time.  It’s sort of like that.  This way Cisco ensures that if you have to look something up, you already are intimately familiar with the text and you aren’t just guessing.

The doc cd has sample configs in it as well.  These can be adapted to just about any scenario, so I don’t have to worry too much about memorizing a bunch of complicated commands.  But I do have to understand what the commands do, because Cisco will have very specific requirements for how the devices are to be programmed.  You can’t just paste in a sample and expect to pass.

I am feeling pretty good about it.  My goal is to be prepared for the exam by the 15th of October.  That week I have a week long boot camp to prepare.  If I’m completely ready by then, I can use the week to get comfortable with the mental aspects of taking the test.  I don’t want nervousness or stress to play a role in whether I pass or fail this exam.

Time for more studying.  Soon enough, I can go back to a work/life balance that includes something other than studying!

This site is chock full of useful tips related to CCIE Voice problems.  I don’t know how many of these are directly related to the exam, but each of the posts contains facts or questions that a CCIE Voice would find interesting.  Thanks to Kenny for pointing it out.

I paid for my CCIE lab exam today.

What that means is, in my mind, there’s no turning back.  I technically have up until the 25th of September to decide to keep my test timeslot.  I’ve decided not to even go there.  It’s better if I just pay for the damn thing, schedule it, and know that there’s no other option than to be ready for the test.  So that’s what I’ve done.  I have about a month left before I fly to San Francisco.  Once I’m there, I’ll have a week of practice tests before I sit for the real thing.

At this point, I give myself a 50% chance.  I’ll probably be revising it upward as I get closer to the day.  But I doubt it’ll go much over 65%.  Not without knowing what I’m actually in for.

I was living in Erie Pennsylvania with Meghan.  I’d gotten up fairly early (for me anyway), and was taking a shower.  When I got out of the shower, I walked over to the living room and saw Meghan watching the news.  I was standing there completely naked, watching footage of the first plane hitting the tower.  While I was standing there, the second plane hit.  I think I stood there for about half an hour before I thought about putting any clothes on.

Time to break out the Terrible Towel and start slugging back Yuengling.  It’s Steelers time again!

Last night we put a good old fashioned defensive ass whipping on Miami.  I love Joey Porter.  I’m not a big fan of showboating, but when he sacked Daunte Culpepper and did the Joey Porter kick, it was great.  And then after he intercepted him and ran it in for a touchdown, he friggin kissed Bill Cowher on the neck.  Genius.

So we won last night without Ben Roethlisberger, who is sidelined recovering from an emergency appendectomy.  Charlie Batch is a kick ass backup quarterback.  Big Ben should be back in time for the next game.  Hope he does well!

I frickin love NFL football.

Tomorrow I’m flying to West Palm Beach to finish up some work for a customer.  I’m looking forward to completing that job.  It’s always good to get the monkey off your back.  The down side is that I have to fly there.  I’m really disliking flying lately.  It’s not approaching a phobia yet, because I’m able to ignore it and get on with life, but it adds to my stress.  In fact, I think that my overall stress level is making these types of things seem worse than they are.

Hopefully I won’t get stuck in a hurricane while I’m down there.  I should be back Saturday morning, just in time to watch the Dogs clean Spurrier’s clock for him.

From my vantage point in the window seat at ERC, I could see some sort of protest at the Arch.  I could see a bearded guy strumming on a guitar and could hear bongos.  Looks like there were about 20 people there.  There was a guy with a megaphone, but I couldn’t hear him through the glass.  I can only assume it was some sort of Labor Day thing.  Although there’s an equal chance it was a “Bush Sucks” rally too.  Anyone have a clue what it was about?

So the weight of the CCIE lab exam is finally getting to me.  I have about 6 or 7 more weeks to go before I sit for the test, and I’ll admit, the preparation is driving me crazy.  In order to make certain I am ready for the test, I have to study a lot.  for example, next weekend I have two 12 hour practice labs scheduled.  In order to be ready to take full advantage of those, I need to do a lot of reading during the week after work so that I don’t waste any time on the weekend.

That’s all great, but the big problem is that while I’m doing this, things around the house aren’t getting done.  It’s not fair to Meghan that I don’t pull my weight around the house.

The solution, as I see it, is to extend the days to 48 hours.  And somebody needs to hook me up with those pills that the French Foreign Legion was testing that enabled them to work for a week straight with no sleep and no apparent side effects.  I think that would solve my problem right there.

So I need some stress relief.  And I don’t see it happening until I have a CCIE number added to my resume.

I’m sitting downtown at the usual spot, trying to get some studying done.  No lab scheduled today but I have some reading to do.  Three day weekends are nice.

I’m not actively following cycling anymore, but it’s still nice that George Hincapie won the US Pro Championship.  The race was held in Greenville SC, which is where George lives in the off season.  The race actually went up the road to his house.  So needless to say, he knew the terrain.  He won and Levi Leipheimer came in second.

OK back to reading, then I’m going to eat lunch downtown somewhere.