Well OK. I haven’t been updating. That’s because, I have had so many distractions this week and I haven’t read any new materials since last friday. And it looks like the streak is going to continue – I, with my family, will be going to yet another vacation in San Diego. Now I know, we just went to San Diego a month ago for a vacation, but I wouldn’t really consider it the same thing. First off, the last time we went was on a weekend, so it wasn’t really a real vacation like you would take by taking days off from work. This time around, I’m taking two vacation days from work, which will roll into the weekend as well. Secondly, we’re going to a different part of San Diego. So consider this a continuation of my vacation from last time.

So it doesn’t look like I’m going to be getting a lot of reading and notes done.

Here’s another reason for not having kept up with my readings: Playstation 3. Yup, I’ve got one. A real Playstation 3 right in my home. For the past year and a half, I’ve been begging my wife to let me buy an Xbox 360. She wouldn’t let me me. She thinks I’ll never do anything productive at home if I bought one. Sheeessh! What does she know? Turns out… a lot. Because for the past 5 days, all my precious free time has been spent shooting up terrorists on Call of Duty 4 and Battlefield: Bad Company. What awesome games! And what wastes of time!

Now I didn’t actually buy the console. My best friend from college came over last weekend with his family and brought his system to my house so we can play some. But he decided to leave it with me for an “indefinite” period because it is taking too much of his time when he gets home from work. He is an ER doc so he already works a lot of hours and he needed to give himself a break. In essence, he is leaving with me the device known to corrupt the minds of todays youth.

Did you want another reason excuse for me slacking off? The olympics man! Even when I tivo it, I still watch it during prime time. Why not? It only comes once every four years and you would be remiss if you fail to take part in these historic events being stamped in the pages of olympic lore. Ok, perhaps badminton doesn’t count but it’s still cool to watch. By the way, did anybody see that weightlifter whose elbows bent in a way it wasn’t meant to bend? That was a pretty gnarly sight!

Despite all these, the week wasn’t a complete waste. I have been reading a lot of Cisco docs on IPsec VPN and DMVPN. I’ve also read a few posts from bloggers about the same topics. Right now I’m working out a lab scenario to replicate our company’s site-to-site VPN setup. It is pretty fun and hopefully I can post some of it up in the future. It’s amazing how easy things become when you study them. Before I started Cisco, I only knew a few show and configuration commands such as assigning an IP to an interface. Now I can actually look at all of our routers’ configs and be able to identify what most of the commands do. It is most exhilarating feeling. Ok, it’s not. But it’s still very cool.

I’m still going to continue with the BSCI write-ups and hope to finish up OSPF this week. I’m kinda tempted to go past IS-IS and jump to BGP because BGP just sounds cooler for some reason. But most likely, I’ll stay with the format of the book so I don’t get all mixed up and confused as I already am.

Anyway, my weekend starts in a few hours so I better get the most out of it and come back re-charged for the next 6 months or so