Archive for the 'Professional Development' Category

Don’t plan the plan if you can’t follow through

I’m going to do a splattering of topics on this entry. Okay, if you get where the above quote is from, then you can skip the first bit.

If you haven’t seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, stop reading this right now, and go watch it. I’m serious. Go. Now. I’ll still be here. Honestly, this is one of the best put together and funniest mini-series I’ve seen. It’s by Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, etc.) and stars Nathan Fillion (Mal Reynolds) among others. Oh my is it funny. I don’t buy DRM’d stuff, but I bought all the videos on iTunes, as well as the soundtrack (which has no DRM!). If you like satirical and/or slapstick humor, you will like this.

On the work front, I’ve taken on a couple new projects, including building out a new test lab. We had one, but since our last round of upgrade work, it needs to be put back together from scratch. We have example equipment of stuff from all over our network, and I get to play around with it and get it back up and running. It’ll help all of us when working on certs and stuff to be able to test out things with a set up that we can break, rebuild, and then break again.
I’m also starting on some Juniper certifications. I’m working on JNCIA-EX right now as I have a free voucher. Should be a good place to start. JUNOS (the Juniper routing OS — their version of IOS under Cisco) is actually very versatile, and more logically configured than a lot of things in IOS. I’m really hyped and interested in this stuff, so it’s good.

And lastly, I’m going to Australia. I know, holy crap. Tickets booked, visa is had, all those kind of good things. I’m taking 20 days off of work, and flying from Vancouver to Melbourne. So excited. It’s gonna be my first overseas trip, and I’ve got a large chunk of time to explore. I’m just going to backpack it and stay with friends while down there. Solo geek taking on Aus. I can’t wait! I leave mid-November, and am back first week of December. This all from a guy who has taken like.. 4-5 days off total in the last 3 years.

Lots of busy and exciting things happening!

Paperwork

Well, I’ve earned another piece of paper to hang on the wall. I’m officially a Cisco Certified Network Associate. I’m quite thrilled about this one, as it’s the first one specific to the networking field (and inherently, my current job!). I’m now all smart and stuff. Finally, someone other than me is recognizing it. ;)

My next project is going to be finishing off my MCSE. I’m not really using this knowledge (especially considering I haven’t used Windows in over 6 months), but I’m only 2 exams (in a 7 exam series) away from getting it, so I might as well finish it off. It’s still a really beneficial piece of paper to have, and a safety net is always good.

Last.fm

Xbox Gamercard