Cisco Cafe - now open for business

[Leo Laohoo]

Right-o.  Here are the Club rules:

1.  Welcome mat is outside the door and it reads, "Leave your pride outside".
2.  No work-related stuffs here.  Whinging is acceptable.
3.  No religious topic/debate.
4.  No political topic/debate.
5.  No harassing and definitely no "below-da-belt" stuff.
6.  Jokes are welcome.  Just be sensible and have a good sense of humour.
7.  English language (`nuff said!) or provide translations.
8.  Aussie slangs and jargons exempted.  He he he ...
9.  Invites to your birthday party very much welcome, and a big thank you!
10.  Remember the explitive-filter-engine.  You've been warned.
11.  Giving points is optional ... it’s all up to you. 
12.  HAVE FUN!

Message was edited by: leolaohoo

[Kimberly Adams]

Leo,

I saw which company said to disable the messages and CDP!  WOW...still shocks me!

Kimberly

[burleyman]

Well long time no talk....I hope this finds everyone good.

Well here is my latest blunder....chuckle

A couple weekends ago I was doing some network upgrades and re-patching of cables to prep for our final office VoIP roll-out. I had to replace all the Sups and modules and update the IOS on everything, reconfigure all the gear, plus re-patch all the closets with 800+ drops.....myself. Well lets see....19 hour day on Friday, 13 hour day on Saturday, and 14 hour day on Sunday, and be in the office by 8:00am Monday....so it was a long weekend. Well Monday all heck broke loose as the paperwork that the local people provided me to re-cable the closets was not very good so a lot of people ended up in the wrong VLAN and could not work and some ended up not connected. Also on Monday I had to configure up the last switch and get it running and help with the other mess all before I have to leave....so it was a little crazy. Now for my bone head move.....notice I gave all my excuses before I got to this... Well I got the switch all configured and grabbed a cable and connected it up, and nothing...no connections no nothing. I checked and rechecked the configs and all was good so I swapped out the cable thinking bad cable right...still nothing. So in my great wisdom, even though I was 100% sure the config was good I wiped the config and re-did it and still nothing. So again I was thinking bad cable so I swapped it again...still nothing. As I am walking past one of the local support people I tell him my plight and he has the nerve to say to me after I have done all this work... "you did use a cross-over cable right?" How dare he even suggest such a thing because of course I did not!!! So I went down to the closet put a cross-over cable between the switches and all was good with the world. I soon left the office with all this work I have done and I should have felt a great sense of accomplishment but no the only thing I can remember was ..... damn cross-over cable!!!!

Mike

[Leo Laohoo]

We are but human ...

Remember, "to err is human but to forgive ain't a company policy".

By the way, has anyone heard of Maria lately?

[burleyman]

Thanks Leo...

No I have not heard from Maria. I was thinking the same thing. She stopped posting right around the time all the things were happening in Greece with the violence. I hope nothing happened to her. I even removed her from my friends list to see if I would get a responce and nothing. I fear something bad may have happened.

Mike

[marikakis]

Hello friends,

Sorry I got you guys worried. However, something bad happened indeed, and I was therefore not in the mood to post for some time. Besides, this thread is about fun and I could not participate. One of my brothers got suddenly very ill by the end of April and especially May was pure horror for us. Thankfully he seems to have responded to medication, he is doing much better now and so am I.

I failed my CCIE lab at the end of June, but felt nothing because it was expected considering my preparation (or lack thereof) and there are obviously worse things than failing a test. I went there only because I had paid for everything and couldn't cancel. So, I guess that makes it all cisco's fault!
(-Yeah, blame cisco! -Yeah, why not? Everybody likes to blame cisco. Why shouldn't I? )
So, I didn't get the hmmm "idi0tic" certification. Is this good or bad news for my intelligence? I guess "it depends" on how someone sees it!

Anyway, Santa Clara is heaven on earth and San Francisco a nice city. Americans are generally very polite and cheerful. Of course, big cities have many faces and I was nervous in a couple of occasions after it got dark. I've never seen so many people living on the streets. Another thing I've noticed is that advertising can be very aggressive sometimes. For example, inside a train I saw a poster about a protein milk you guys should drink to develop lots of muscles (so you can rack mount high-end cisco routers on your own like one of the cisco experts of this forum ). The poster was saying something like "Go from non-existent to OMG"!!! Advertising in Greece is more discrete and you wouldn't get too far with such tactics.

BTW: Things in Greece are not good as far as the economy is concerned, but sometimes the media selectively over-emphasize some events and under-emphasize others depending on the message they want to get across. Things are not out of hand (yet ), but they are not very optimistic if you are looking for a job (as I am). We'll see. In the meantime, I'll be preparing for my next lab attempt. It is true that in the lab you should "be quick or be dead"! Anyway, at least I have completed my CCIP certification.

And at the moment things started to get better, I learn from Mike himself that he removed me from his friends!!! FYI: There is no automatic notification sent if you do a cruel thing like that! I guess the AI of the new site realized I couldn't handle the news! Anyway, he seems to have regretted it. Should I accept the friend request? Hey Mike, just kidding!

Kind Regards,
Maria

p.s. So, I left you guys alone for a while and you started the ratings talks again! I won't object to those discussions, 'cause this is Dan's favorite topic after all and I wouldn't like to spoil his fun! However, I feel like saying that sometimes we put our moods (and therefore our mental health) at risk and get stressed for things that are just not worth it. There is nothing more important than mental health...

p.s.2 Hey Leo, so you missed me, ha?

[Daniel Bruhn]

Maria,

I'm glad to hear your brother is doing better.  You're the first person CSC has ever called out for going MIA.  Goes to show how important you are to the community.

Cheers,

Dan

PS: Ratings are really my favorite ;-)

[Leo Laohoo]

p.s.2 Hey Leo, so you missed me, ha?

Us "gang" members look out for each other.  He he he ...

Glad to hear your brother is responding positively to medications.   I'm also very pleased that the Cafe and Kara0kee club hasn't "revoked" your membership status due to the accumulated absences. 

Darn, this beer is too strong.  Where did Igor get his hands on this stuff!

[marikakis]

Thank you all for your responses.

Rob, you are right of course about the small things. Just so you know, I had seen a ratings discussion some months ago, I held my head in despair and at that point I realized I should not be posting. I also thought that since you guys could care about the ratings that meant you are doing good! Isn't it also weird that the small things can get us more frustrated than the big ones? Anyway, maybe an idea is coming to me about the ratings. I'll shape it up and let you know. Maybe we just need to deal with the issue with cold heads once and for all!

Mike, I believe you used the equivalent of the "shut/no shut" method to restore communication and you are right that it worked! Only problem was that it took you some time to issue the "no shut"!

Dan, now that you mention it: I personally miss Harold Ritter from the Hall of Fame. He hasn't been around for a while, but he certainly had been back in the days were ratings awareness was low and people didn't explicitly ask for them. His thousands of points were not easily earned (compared to the present). I remember I used to silently rate some of his posts every now and then to encourage him to keep posting!

Leo, I'm a bit confused 'cause you avoided to explicitly say that you missed me like Rob did. You mean the only reason you asked was so you know you can revoke my membership? And what about the drinking part? You mean you asked were I was because you were drunk and didn't know what you were doing? Or did you get drunk in order to forget how much you missed me? Ok, I shouldn't be teasing you like that, but I couldn't resist! My only excuse is that I missed you too!

Kind Regards,

Maria

[Leo Laohoo]

Leo, I'm a bit confused 'cause you avoided to explicitly say that you missed me like Rob did.

To be honest to you and everyone else, it's because person we hired to replace you with the singing sounds like a cat being strangled.

You mean the only reason you asked was so you know you can revoke my membership?

Actually we're holding interviews (singing) to replace you.

And what about the drinking part? You mean you asked were I was because you were drunk and didn't know what you were doing?

We were all drinking to your health and we realized we need stop soon as the supply of beer (or whatever is the poison of our choice) was running low.

Or did you get drunk in order to forget how much you missed me?

Ran out of drinks because no one was coming in.  No one was coming in because the person we hired to replace your singing sounds like a cat being strangled.

My only excuse is that I missed you too!

Ok, ok, ok.  The cat's out of the bag.  We all miss you.  Including me.  Now get up on the stage `cause there'a mic with your name (written in gold letters and cleaned/wiped with "Smooth" Rob's anti-bacterial cream) on it.

[Rob Huffman]

Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Maria is back

Thank you-know-who!

We have all missed you Maria, and as you can see this thread really

cooled off without you here to brighten up all of us. I'm sorry to hear about

your Brother, but thankfully, both of you are OK!!

Like you said, things like this make us focus on what's important in life

Great to see you here again!

Cheers!

Huff

PS: Don't sweat the small stuff

[burleyman]

Maria,

Very sorry to hear about your brother and I hope for full recovery.

I would never remove you as a friend, I only did it to see if you were still out there....and it worked..

Sorry about your CCIE, you clearly have the smarts so keep plugging away.

Your Friend,

Mike

[paolo bevilacqua]

I jump in this late with apologies. I did not saw the thread, really!

Be assured I am not antisocial or anything like that (doc at the ward told me so).

As soon I have some decent story to tell I will post it here.

My day today? "diff & patch, after 15 years", wow.

[marikakis]

Hi guys! See who's here? Welcome to the Cafe Paolo!

So, Paolo, you're not antisocial, ha? We all read your thread about facebook, remember?
Just kidding. I'm not a particular facebook fun either. Or, I'm antisocial too. Whatever.

BTW: Did you know there are user guides for facebook being sold in bookstores? I guess the average user might need some admin skills to rate limit all these friend requests coming out of the blue. And why people like having hundreds or thousands of friends that are obviously not their friends? I just don't get it.

Anyway, here we are professional friends, which is, in my opinion, the best type of friends one can make online.

So, Leo, can we have a beer or something for Paolo to get him a little bit drunk, so he forgets about the 1 ratings for a while?

p.s. I hope we do have some drinks left and Leo hasn't consumed them all again!

[Leo Laohoo]

Welcome Paolo.  Have "drink".  Maria's footing the bill. 

[Leo Laohoo]

p.s. I hope we do have some drinks left and Leo hasn't consumed them all again!

Ran out of funds because no one was coming in.  No one was coming in because the person we hired (temporarily) to replace Maria (because she went AWOL) sounds like a cat being strangled.