Ok so, the hard work is done, at least thats what I thought. It seems that the best is yet to come.

As most of you know i’ve been training in Amsterdam for the last 6 months. Since coming here I’ve been doing all kinds of things from presentation workshops to time management trainings. That is the user-friendly side of the course, the technical side of things is really focused in on different technologies used both on the internet and to access the internet. I’ve trained to solve the most complicated problems that a company might have in their IT infrastructure (more specifically their connectivity to the internet and various sites).

Now I face the hardest challenge yet, the CCIE. For those that don’t know it, it is considered the hardest examination in the computing world <LINK>. Many have tried (and continue to try) and fail. The exam consists of two stages, the first a 2 hour (100 question) multiple choice exam and the second an 8-hour hands on lab in one of 7 locations worldwide. The written piece is considered a pre-requesite to take the lab exam and is the ‘easy’ part of the process. The lab exam has beaten even the smartest of people with about 15% of people passing on their first attempt, and the average attempts required to pass being approximately 3.

Ok so that was all the bad stuff, now the good stuff – Given the difficulty of the exam, along with the title comes instant recognition and respect for any successor. Logically enough this results in better pay and increased job opportunities. I however would just like the challenge and hopefully the feeling of beating the odds/spread.

Anyway now for the prep, the next few months will consist of a plethora of labs from Internetworkexpert.com and other training providers. My employer has been kind enough to provide me with all the resources so I am one of the lucky ones, I will have my own rack of the latest equipment and a lot of existing CCIE qualified people to ask the questions to.

Eleven random phobias (number 6 is my favourite):

11. Ornithotakuphobia – Fear of having a bird fly into your house and take a crap on your Anime figurines and toys.

10. Hypnojediphobia – Fear of being victim of Jedi Mind Tricks.

9. Rectoriaaphobia - Fear of being financially ruined by an file-sharing lawsuit.

8. Seplopizzaphobia – Fear that the year-old pizza that’s decaying in the corner will become sentient.

7. Chrometoramophbia – Fear of spending too much money on RAM.

6. Megaduophobia – The fear of any number other than 0 or 1.

5. Codexplodaphobia – Fear that the one line of code you changed will completely screw up the program or entire application.

4. Wipadiskaphobia – The fear of erasing your holiday photos from the camera before you copied them to PC.

3. Scrudbywinnaphobia – The fear of Windows crashing before get a chance to save.

2. Russophobophobia – In Soviet Russia, phobias fear you!

1. Botanophagophobia – Fear of eating vegetables or plants, unless they’ve been deep-fried beforehand.

My compliments to http://www.intelliot.com/blog/archives/2004/10/24/geek-phobias/

So finally wordpress.org realised that nobody wants their blog to be hosted at yourblogname.wordpress.org so they finally have added a feature allowing me to redirect my markmckillop.com domain to the wordpress one (it seemed they put a lot of effort into preventing any workarounds from doing the same thing).

Anyway, given its a new year im going to try and start as I hope to proceed – first join the gym and secondly to keep blogging (its quite therapeutic), although im not sure how interesting a narration of my life really is?!?

So in the past few months I have been training with Cisco in Amsterdam. Since August im sure ive sat through more training than a lot of people do in their working career, and we haven’t reached the halfway point yet. In the past few months i’ve taken the new Cisco CCNP track as well as having passed CCDA and CCDP.

It’s going to be an interesting year, with a lot of travel involved so im looking forward to seeing a bit of the world. In January ive been given the opportunity to help out at the Cisco Networkers event in Cannes, France (http://www.cisco.com/global/EMEA/networkers/2007/index.shtml). Following this I will be working with Cisco in the UK for 3 weeks in February/March and again in May time.

In the summer time I will be spending a few days in Vegas before hopefully moving up the coast to San Francisco for a few days. Who knows this year might be the year I finally get to stand on the slopes of L’Alpe D’Heuz and watch the Tour De France (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHJErrp4eOw). I’ve been dying to try this climb for so many years but currently I think I could possibly die as the fitness levels are pretty low.

Ok so, I finish uni in two weeks (never again will I need to attend boring friday afternoon lectures!!). Its such a relief, but given my constant need for achievement I certainly wont be lying about this summer.

Given that I will begin my new post with Cisco Systems in August I was hoping to get clued up on some other technologies before I become emerced in Cisco hardware for the forseeable future.

I have previously obtained MCSE: Security (2000) status and will be working over the summer to try to upgrade this to 2003 and additionally get the Messaging suffix.

So… Bottom line is in about 12 weeks im going to aim for the following Microsoft exams:

 - 70-292: MCSA 2000->2003 Upgrade Exam
 - 70-296: MCSE 2000->2003 Upgrade Exam
 - 70-298/299: MCSE 2003 Security Requirements
 - 70-284/285: MCSE 2003 Messaging Requirements

Oh and in addition to this as soon as I finish uni (24th May) im gonna do the last exam to obtain my CCNP, the CIT exam.

I told y’all I was a certification addict – Next challenge coming soon (CCIE in a year?!?!?!?!?) Impossible I hear ye say!

Those of you who know me will already be aware of my various money making ‘ventures’ or schemes as I like to call them. Given my interest in computers, a few years back I decided to begin providing computer sales/consultancy in my local area.

A few years later now and the business is looking pretty decent for something that I just run alongside my uni studies. I must say for anybody thinking about taking the plunge and going solo, its definitly a fairly relaxing way to live.

Over the past few weeks I have been working on the company website which you can find at www.glenscomputers.com or .co.uk. Although I am moving away soon, I recently used the company as part of a group project at uni. The basic outline of the project was to startup and run a company providing some sort of service to the public – the lesson to be learned is obviously how difficult it is to run a business.

The project was handed in today and I think should raise a few eyes with the kind of money earned for the small number of hours involved. For the few hours of work I do a week I end up making a considerable amount more than my friends doing part-time work in local shops, plus who knows what might happen in the future, as the constant success of the company means the size jobs are getting bigger and bigger.