The Power of Beliefs is Real

I went to the mosque. " I need to take lunch rapidly and get back to the office, because Marouene needs me for something". It was closed. "What"?". Very strange. At this time doors must be open and muslims must be coming in groups. Where are they?

I looked around me. Nobody is bothered by my stupefaction. I looked at my watch again. 11:50am. I'm sure, it's time! Is there a problem with the mosque??

Then a memory flash of a conversation hit me

" -Sofiane, we need to hurry up, today is Friday and I need to be ready for the prayer.

- No Wassim, don't fool me :) it's Thursday, not Friday.

- Stop kidding me and let's continue. "

So it was Thursday ! Why did I thought it was Friday? It was so intense that undoublty thought it was Friday.

Waw. I realize now the power of beliefs. Imagine I have the same thoughts about myself, my skills, my selfconfidence. How my world would be?...

Happy new year 2010

What's the difference? a year has gone, another year has come. If I keep doing the same mistakes, feeling the same, behaving the same, then I don't see what 2010 could be any better.

As I read my success journal at work on December 29 of 2009, I realized that I was a big dreamer and a better goal-oriented man on May 2008. It's obvious. One year has passed and little improvement occured. In 2009, I also see that my goals weakened. Instead of my 2008 dreams and goals, I set for more comfortable and less challenging ones. I took less and less action. I got comfortable with my situation. I got stuck in the daily routine and worrying each single night about my goals. I was also doubting my abilities and my dreams. There were a lot of questions in my head, as if somebody was whispering "you can't get that. Get realistic!".

What is "real"? How do you define "real"?, Morpheus said.

Is it what I see each day around me? Is it the people that have plenty of time for themselves and their beloved ones? Is it the men who enjoy the company of a beautiful wife? Is it the financially-independant guys who do what they love daily? Or is it a life of killing routine, of stress, of no challenges, of no personal fulfillment? When I thought about this, and compared it to myself and to my actions, I sometimes felt so depressed that I went to bed at 8pm, tears in my eyes.

I'm not being pessimistic here. Maybe I'm wrong in the eyes of some of you. The truth here is I'm fed up with explaining the facts with false truths. I'm fed up with mere hopes like many people. "I hope things will get better for me... I hope I'll be CCNP by the end of this year.."

So it's time to see the facts as they are. It's time to measure to which degree different areas of my life suck as I'm watching the movie and recognizing myself as the main protagonist.

May Allah make this year full of conscious and consistent life-improving actions for me and all of you.

Happy new year 2010.

Sometimes We Need not Judge Faces

Sometimes people fake the truth, mutilate reality, lie and hide feelings with logic. Sometimes you think that somebody is bad, untrustful. But you discover by yourself that he wants to help and that he's innocent.

I'm worried these times about my transition to the new job. It's not about the job itself, but about making peace with my employer. These times I'm discovering people who are willing to give advice. I'm making new images of them in my mind and heart. Thank you guys.

Almost Finished BCMSN first review

I have read and practiced almost all subjects. Now I need to review the ones I forgot. Yeah I am conscious that I've forgotten many concepts and configuration commands. So I need a second and maybe a third and fourth review.
At the same time, I'm fed up with my job. No real challenges. I'm impatient to see who's going to take my place as part of the current contract.

MSTP Notes

• I configured VLANs, assigned ports to them, configured VTP domain to be the same on both switches, configured trunks, configured MST region with its name, revision number and vlan-to-instance mapping... but I couldn't see changes when I issue spanning-tree mst {instance} root primary :

• then I found the problem: I didn't choose MST as the spanning-tree mode!After that, previous "root primary" configuration takes effect.
  
• to check results: show spanning-tree mst configuration, show spanning-tree mst {instance}

"It's Who You Know". But I'm OK with That

"What's her background? she studied at INSAT? ok, I have a friend at Divona Telecom. I'll suggest her to him and we'll see what happens". This is a pattern I hear a lot.
I remember myself, struggling to have a job after I graduated from college. I remember being the Sys Admin of a small company. I remember how I used to go upstairs and downstairs all day long trying to "fix" everything related to computers, printers and Internet. Funny memories. I remember one day I woke up very tired and told my boss "I have a huge headache, I can't come to work", haha.
It's ok if people less competent get better positions. Sooner or later, the best people get rewarded, if not by their current employer, it will be by other ones. The best people in IT have radiant positive reputation that flows through the IT cloud. I saw competent people being grabbed from their current positions to better ones.
Let me correct that. "It's who you know, when you're positively known, that matters".

It's About to Change

I signed a new contract with an emerging bank, the one I talked about in previous posts. The IT infrastucture is still basic: no routing yet, no VLANs, no IP Telephony. work late most days, with an experienced IT team, being one of the few first people who built the network... I'm going to be the network engineer. It sounds so interesting.
However, my current employer doesn't want to release me before March. So I told them that I won't be able to stay after january 15. This may lead to further complications and even to paying some compensation to the company. I'm psychologically ready for this. It's a price to pay, and, if it's one step further towards my goals, I'll do it and accept the consequences.
Why am I taking this road? Because I'll have the opportunity to "see" a large network growing from the start. I'll be able to deal with switching, routing and IP Telephony on a daily basis. I'll learn how to document. I'll learn some project management skills. I'll be able to gain specialized networking/VOIP skills.
It will take time.