Christmas has been and gone
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And the kids are back to just being themselves. The threat of being on Santa’s naughty list has since long gone, so they needn’t be on their best behavior. It didnt come natural to them, but it was good to have a laugh at their expense as they put up their best act.
This week we lost another work colleague on our team to a job cut. That really sucked. He was based out in New York, but we worked pretty frequently together on a number of things. Another team out in the midwest lost 4, so dont know if I can say our team was lucky. Either way, its another reality check that things are far from being over. Is it any wonder that people on the streets find it harder to crack a smile at a stranger now that the whole festive season is over ! I keep my faith in God over my job.
This year I also got to crank up my CCIE Security pursuit. Time flies. I remember when I had just passed my written exam back in July, the 18 months I had to make a first attempt at the lab exam seemed a long time. Now its down to about 12 months and I sometimes feel I've made little progress towards doing my prep lab work. I should be onto that sometime next week anyways. I've more or less wrapped my Internetwork Expert's Advanced Technologies Classes and I'm now ready to start working my way through their Lab Workbook Volume I. Since I barely have that many routers, switches, firewalls or even an IPS sensor available in my mini lab at work, paying for Internetwork Expert's rack rental is the next best thing. May work out cheaper too than buying second-hand Cisco kit on eBay.
Anyway's enough of that. I'm probably only making sense to myself or the others that are familiar with Cisco's CCIE certification tracks. If not, then forget the greek.
Ah, and finally, with January comes the start of the NFL playoffs and the Super bowl in a couple of weeks too. I'm definitely looking forward to the start of the playoffs tomorrow.
Seeing that my lovable Oakland Raiders are not in contention AGAIN, I’m free to watch every game, stress-free about the outcome. I'd like the Eagles win it though, but the San Diego Chargers do look like the team to beat in the Super bowl. We'll see. My preferred outcomes for this weekend’s Wildcard Playoffs though are: the Philadelphia Eagles over the Dallas Cowboys and the Baltimore Ravens over the New England Patriots. Don’t have a preferred outcome for the Packers-Cardinals or the Jets-Bengals games.
This January’s wildcard playoff games all look too close to confidently call. But just for the fun of it, I'll pick this weekend's winners as the Cowboys (even though I want the Eagles), the Patriot, Cardinals and the Jets.
Will check back in with you at the end of the week with how I did on those calls.
Have a blessed 2010 everybody.
