About
A collection of thoughts, notes, tidbits, and ramblings about everything related to my CCNA studies including challenges, triumphs and… challenges?
A little bit of background about myself: I call myself Aragoen Celtdra (name is an anagram of my true name.) I have been in the IT industry in different and varying capacities for about 9 years now. My path towards this industry did not arise from a conscious decision to pursue technology but rather, more of a response to a trend that we all infamously call the dotcom era. I graduated college in 2000, and not knowing what to do with my life, and still “searching” for my “true calling”, I found it very easy to land a job in the technology field. Back then anyone and everyone who can say “comp-yu-ter” could easily get their foot in the door. And so that’s what I did. With a minimal experience working as a PC technician in my university computer store, I had lined up 3 jobs with dotcom companies 2 months before I even graduated. My first job was a dsl installer. I was a dsl “cable guy”. 
I didn’t know anything about telecom or networking back then, so they trained me.
Fast forward to today, I still don’t know anything. So, that brings us to the overall purpose of this web/blog page. I plan to train myself with more advanced knowledge with a goal of landing a higher level position in this industry we love and hate - maybe I’ll post a little something about this love/hate dichotomy. 
My plan is to take over the world. Not really. Truth be told, I’ve been more or less relegated to what you equate to “mop up” duties in my support position. I’ve been doing tech support for over 7 years now and yet there doesn’t seem to be a way out for me. It’s not that I don’t have any technical acumen or anything - I created this website just by thinking it, didn’t I? It’s just that I’ve never really set out to pursue a deliberate and stated goal or purpose. I was always content where I was. No, change that. I was always content about complaining where I was. Then I decided it’s time to stop complaining and bitching and start doing something. Most of what happens in our lives are not caused by other people’s actions or influence. Where we are in life is usually a result of our thoughts, decisions, and actions. I decided to change that. I’m no longer going to be a lowly tech. I’m gonna be a rock star of tech. And it begins with this journey….
March 18th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Arageon,
and very hopefull! ;what are your plans dude??
i read your inrto pretty cool! me too i am a assistant network admin for a credit union. dead end job though
i get barely 35k a year and dont get to do too much;
my boss vendors everything out. but i am finishing my BS degree will be done in 2010 and have my ccna done too way by then maybe my ccnp I HOPE
and i will be catching the enormous BABY BOOMER era! my theory is to get as much certs and much experience before the baby boomers retire. people in their 60s in IT positions retiring. by then I willl have my
BS CS and my CCNA and hope CCNP and bam! land me a big job (big job would be 50k to 70 k) would be nice and hopefully be top of food chain! i am pushing! hard
robert
June 4th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
hahaha! Yeah, where did I get my toplogy hahah! Ahh! I don no??
haahhaha
yeah, I can do everything with my Cisco Netviz 7 except
good luck to you Aerogan. when do yo take your exam ICDN2?
etherchannels and STP root bride (force election commands)
BOSON cannot do it either. So I am going to use my home lab.
Well I am trying to build Sim templates blank or half way there
so I can hammer out lab after lab without having to reset everything up again. For practiciing my routing I am making
sim routing labs for my OSPF, EIGRP, and RIPv2. Trying to cut down on rebuilding and resetting up time to templates already
ready to build. It is easy to tear down just takes time. Ijust want to build build build! my CCNA SIM cities!!!!! over and over again. getting nervous…man I had better pass damn it! 7 Aug 08. I should the skill sets are getting easier and sticking in my memory well. I plan on taking a few days off beofre my exam to do a memory dump.. I have a crap short term so I have to do a 3 day mem dump of of memory skills like VLSM, Subnetting classful and classless..and theory mem stuff like CDP times and the OSI/TCP models and what protocol goes with what.. I know some but want to be in memory fresh when I walk in. I feel good about it and I have like under 60 days to go!
June 4th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
” No, change that. I was always content about complaining where I was. ”
this statement of yours kills me! been there doing that! hahhaa
ahahhaha you are such a funny dude!
June 6th, 2008 at 7:56 am
dude you should be an instructor, I bet you get like 999 on the CCNA ICDN2 exam. you are very very detailed. Me I just get the jist so I will just pass, but big A, you will blow that puppy away. Great labs you have very complete…nice idea to blog study..makes you have a purpose and drive to focus on the details next week I kick my CCNA studies in HIGH gear! Just finishing a college class (history - yuk!) and am taking my 50+ days to hammer ccna so my blog will be hot from my posting all the time and I will try to make them as professional as yours (NOT) but close hee hee! great job man you will be a CCIE with your habits! Good luck dude and you are in control!
-Robert
June 6th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Yo yo Daddy! What’s going on? Thanks for the encouragements bud. I don’t know about the 999.:D But I AM studying pretty hard. I’m a very bad test taker and I recognize that. While others study for 1 month and ace a test, it takes me three times the effort. When it comes to this test, I’ve decided that what I lack in skills, I’ll compensate with hard work. In the end it should balance out.
I’ve been looking at your posts and been getting a lot of information. There’s a lot of information there, I hope your not killing yourself. At the same time, make sure that they are sticking. I spend a lot of time writing my posts. It helps me think about the concepts and fundamentals a little bit more. I’m far from CCIE level but I’m trying to develop the mindset and discipline as if I’m going to take the CCIE exam. I should be ready by the time June 28 rolls around.
If not, thank God for second chances
June 15th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Yo famous routemyword dude hahaa…I suck at taking tests myself..it looks like you are studying hard..me too it takes me longer but oh well we are young and as long as we have focus..yeah I would like to reach ccie by the time I am 45 which is in 4 years. I think it is attainable if I am steady. You are still young man you will make it easy! No I am slacking this week but watch soon. I am posting a bunch of post this week. Like hard areas like EIGRP, OSPF, STP IPV6 is a big one. These I will post what I have learned this week to my blog. I feel good about my study system. There is so much shit to study. I am just focussing on the main stuff and the last week do small stuff like banner MOTD stuff and easy detail stuff. But I want t have master switching/routing/ospf/egirp/acls/nat/stp/ipv6/subnettting and vlsm. if I master these I figure the exam will focus on these areas hard and will give me a higher percentage. Yeah I would love to get a high score but you know damn it a PASS is a PASS! who gives a rats ass. I think some of those guys like on t their score and maybe even taking the exam..we don’t know these guys personally and I have read their posts and man I know more than they do and if they can pass, shit why cant I. I hate exams. But my new system is sweet.
check it out i break it down into categories and alot time for each. M-F is labs till I puke; sat and sun is Q/A drills, cold and practice. Q/A drills are question database like from bryant advantage to get focus. cold is memory stuff like timers for eigrp/ospf/rip/cdp etc..and subnetting stuff and Ipv6 cold you have to have down cold. then practice crap like subnetting and vlsm; gonna have it down pat! so i can just look at it and jam! when i get to the test i dont want to freeze. I want to laugh all the way through it (hahah yeah right) but I saw by tracert command where you host your new website you enspire me G so I want to try to host my blog at home on my home servers. that way i force myself to learn it. Good luck man on your exam Jun 28. I say a prayer for you. you can do it man! Mine is 7 aug 08..I am going to be ready!
And just be aware there are some questions on the exam we might not know but you will be able to pass that boy! you can do it..and like you said. thank God for 2nd shot. I am taking that to if I need it. I am not stupid! hee hee SO focus on the main stuff like I mentioned cause that will carry you through the exam. I read you posts they are very very detaily..dont spend too much time on the way way details focus more on a broad areas. I really feel my breakdown is perfect for everyone. (practice/cold/labs/quest/answer drills)
bam! PASS!!!!!!!!!! Yeah when I pass I will take like a 2-3 weeks off of study and just play and do some things I wanted to do was set up my c831 SOHO as my home router and setup my VPN to home and my ssh into my c831 publically and my website hosted on my home servers, you know do stuff to get my home lab like a real production LAN. But good luck. you can dot.
-Robert
I do like your posts very pretty.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Its funny, your experience, your circumstances, your study habits, study techniques, study books, motivations and goals, are almost identical to mine, haha! I’m only about 2 months away from where you are in your studies (assuming I pass ICND2, + I need a month off, to move back stateside) Hopefully I can catch up, and we can compare notes and errata =)
Greets
Ciscogeek
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for the add! Look forward to checking in on your progress to the next level!
September 25th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
First thanks for the comment on my blog! I’m a usaul reader of your blog, congratulations for your work, you’ve here a great blog, with excellent posts and note, so keep up with the good work
After I read your About, in particular the last phare, my mind went immediately to a very wise words taken from the Randy Pausch Last Lecture, that I will never forget:
«Brick walls aren’t there to stop you, they’re there to prove how bad you want something»
September 25th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Sorry… I’ve forgotten to thank you for adding my blog to your blogroll!
September 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Hey Ric,
So you’re a fan of Randy Paush too, huh? It’s a bit sad that many of us discovered him only after his death. He had such moving wisdom that you can’t help but “buy in” or espouse his philosophy.
Thanks for stopping and good luck with the CCIE. I”ve added you to my RSS reader so I’ll be following your journey.