Signs of Life

It's been a few months since my last posting.  Some may have been aware that in December 2011, I was going to give the R&S Lab another shot.  Unfortunately for me I didn't end up achieving my number at that time.  Unlike my other attempts where the troubleshooting component was my bugbear, this time I was able to pass that section,  I'm sure that the Cisco 360 labs in that regard definitely helped me to get over that hurdle.  This time however it was the config section where I dropped my game.  To say it was a little discouraging is not wrong, however at the very least I came out finally getting the TS curse of my back - it just needs me to be able to pass TS and Config at the same time, which I will do at some stage.

After that lab attempt, with my focus primarily being on work and study for quite a period of time, I knew I needed a bit of a break but also my very supportive wife needed to get to know me again.  It doesn't by any stretch mean that I have given up, actually I have been still playing around with routers (I do a bit of that in my day job) and I've been keeping my studies up for non-Cisco related certs.  In actual fact I strongly believe the study that I have done for the CCIE helps regardless of the vendor because generally the protocol operation is the same across equipment, its more the CLI syntax is a bit different.  Recently I passed one of the exams that will contribute to me getting the Alcatel-Lucent 3RP with only 1 more exam left to obtain that.  Also my Juniper JNCIS-M is expiring in a few months and since the M/T series track has been superseded with the SP track, I'm considering upgrading to the JNCIP-SP since this exam is now a computer based rather than a hands on exam.

So I'm not 100% sure exactly when I will get back on the CCIE Lab horse but perhaps around April.