Just a couple of minutes ago, I (just) found about Juniper's fast track certification program. And guess what? They have extended it! The question left in my head was: where have I been since I landed in here? Have I just gone missing in my newly found life, jobs, etc? Seemed like it!

The last two weeks has also been a tickle in my head: where am I heading next? I have landed the job in the place that I dreamed before, so there should be a better catch after I'm here. But what???

That's the point that I tried to change my mind back to the 'how to' method again. Which is pretty much 'how to find my next path?'

Well, with this fast track, I am eager to find out how fast I could run; while pursuing several certifications to keep my mind in training ;)

It's been two days that the project at work considered 'completed' from my end.

Just today, I received a 'good news' that there will be new projects coming in ;)

My ex-colleague from RMIT will be spending his time up here from Sunday. I think I could only accompany him on that day. We'll see what's on his plan while he is here ;)

This week, other than improving my test bench's content, updating certain scripts and other tidy-up work; I was a little bit overwhelmed on various information that I received. ... and ... whoa! it's a lot more to learn and do!!! *yippie!*

I could also see that the upcoming days will be filled with some scripting and (hopefully) coding that I have left off for couple of months

Btw, this entry is also the trial of the new platform for nanoblogger

Is it a tough job? Well, every job has its own challenges anyway.

So what happened with me in the last 5 months? Whats hot, whats not, whats up and whats down?

Overall, it is up and up :)
I managed to get a car, which is listed in my long-lost dream list. Furthermore, the car is even newer and a lot better than what I have dremaed of before ;)

I am now living in a rented apartment shared with my mate. It is located around 10-12 minutes drive from where I work. Technically, it should only be 6 minutes drive, but on average, I could only make it in 10 (thanks to traffic lights and other cars filling in the road every work days).

I think, I haven't tell about the SSN 'incident' haven't I?
Two weeks after the last blog entry, I just found out that the SSN that I got from my employer is wrong (d'oh!). Furthermore, I traced back the origins of my given SSN and found out that the one I held was merely there for employee database initialization purposes (d'oh!)
There I went, rushingly set all my paperwork to SSA office. I was there at 07:30 in the morning (bloody cold morning). The office opens for business at around 9-ish, so I managed to squeeze in as the first 'customer' of the day (where is my reward pin??? ;) )
Several days later, I checked out the SSN and they gave me the appropriate one. From then on, all SSN-related matters has been sorted ... expect my pay stub (d'oh!)
Luckily sorting the SSN in paystub is quite 'smooth' (with some barking at the HR team, I pity them that I barked at the officer. I should have barked at the person who enters my data! Which I never knew who is that hero in the shining armor that I want to kick his butt). Nough draggin'

So SSN matter's sorted, mobile phone done, rent check has a little hiccups because me and my house mate don't have a credit history, cars ok even with some credit-history-check trouble, etc.

One thing that I noticed is: similar in Australia, in order to get a credit you must have a credit (dang!!!). How on earth can I obtain a credit if there is no one willing to give me with that condition.

well, luckily there is always a mobile phone service provider that is the 'gate' to start building your credit. For those patience enough to wait, it will take up to two years to build a good credit standing. Only then you can apply: credit cards, loans and some other credit-requirements application (including utility bill) with lesser interest or no security deposit.

As for my case, I have to be willing to sacrifice paying a little extra for either interest or security deposit. I don't mind security deposit as it will be returned after one year. As for interest ... hmmm ... kinda hard to bargain.

Thus, for credit interest, I could only bear with it and ask for refinance in the future. Not much, but after one year, I believe all interests imposed to me will be 'affordable' ;)

If some of you wonder why on earth I accepted the job in US while they are facing some financial turbulance, my answer is simple: it only happens at this time, I believe it will be better soon :)
Too optimistic? You bet, but I am playing my part to be an extraordinary human being that makes the changes (not waiting for the change)

Till then ...

My first week was filled with paper work and paperwork ... oh and .. paperwork. It is part of the progress as one of the newly hired. It was all sorted out two days ago and boy I feel a lot better knowing that at least those administartion process were all a clear-go.

While doing the paperwork, I am also catching up with lots of things: my study which helps a lot with this new job.

This week I am staying with a lovely married couple, they are one of the best host that I have ever lived with. Plus, I still can help them do the cooking. Well, at least preparing for the cooking. MOTH (Man of the House) has been well known for his cooking, so does his wife. Even though they have different cooking style, I feel honored to be able to taste their cooking. And, wow! This adds more points to them as of the greatest hosts, ever!

This week, I was also hunting for rented accomodation. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I am a 'new comer', getting a rent will be a challenge itself. Thus, I could only wait at least 1-2 months before being able to rent by myself. But ... there are always friends looking for rented apartments. The difference is: they are already here and have a good history for being granted rent. Thus, I could only go for the housemate-type of rent with my friends for the time being.

Flashing back a little bit, there were a lot of blessing that I experienced during my way here.

Let's rewind one (to three) week(s) earlier ...

Prior to my departure, the visa was not yet clear. Even though I was sure it will be ok, but before I have it on my hand, it will all be sleepless nights. In the end, I got it ... two weeks before I departed! *phew*

And then came the big and chaotic preparation: luggage, stuffs, etc.

My beloved wife help me with the packing (thanks Love). We managed to squeeze all required 'winter costume' in just two suitcases. Alltogether, I was taking three bags with me: two suitcases and one notebook bag.

Then come one blessing: the TSA lock.

Our friend have a visit and give me the 'good luck' gift of ... notebook bag (I was looking for this type but out of no luck). Thanks folks, it will be used when my wife come around for Christmast this year.

During his visit, he mentioned about using TSA lock instead of ordinary lock. So there I was, shocked that my flight tomorrow will be hunting for the lock. We found it in the airport anyway, and luckily we are being notified a day (night) earlier.

Another blessing comes: one of our friend called up and mentioned that since he was going to his office, why don't I follow him to airport. The silly thing is: my wife and I already bought airport shuttle ticket. We still see it as a blessing because the ticket can be used by the time my wife would lik to visit me.

Another blessing: the airplane was not having many passengers. *yippie!* And I can ... stretch my legs spanning thre seats for 13 hours (hahaha :D )

Then comes another blessing: since I can only stay with my friend up to 30 Oct, I must find a rented place to stay. Surprisingly, there goes another friend asking me whether I have found a place to stay after end of Oct. It turned out that his house-mate had to leave and left him with bigger rented bills that he can't afford until end of the year. So, I agreed to be his housemate for month-to-month basis.

Still another blessing (well, at least for me), my other friend was about to move out from his current place and asked me to look for rented accomodation together.

There goes the update. I believe a lot mroe blessings to come, and a lot more blessing from me to give to people ;)

Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are my last days at my clients and my work place (yes, I worked in two places)

Next week, I will be starting a new role in the place, new country and new environment (literally new environment).

It has been a great 2-something years in Australia, and I will still prefer to set Australia as my home. I loved this country and all its upbringing.

My next job in USA does not have any plan for permanently stays there (yet), but it things turned out alright, then why not have homes both in Australia and USA??? :)

Anyways, I must readjust to the new environment as soon as I started there next week.

The long and tiring days is not going to be over soon, it will just keep coming. Honestly, I enjoyed it (somehow)

Which countdown that I am talking about? Several things ...

First off is countdown to my new steps in California. Yes, I landed a new job over there (yippie???!!!)

Second, I can see that (finally) I might be able to attend the CCIE lab in USA.

The other countdown is close to my departure in a coule of weeks. During which I need to ensure that everything is settled down before I left. I believe it will go smooth as I expected ;)

This is related directly with the new notebook that has so-called the 'latest' device.

As of this writing, none Linux distro installation supports the network card (sigh). Thus, whichever distro that I choose, I must enable the sneaker-net feature before being able to use the latest driver.

Majority of Linux kernel used in distro installer are in the range of 2.6.19 - 2.6.21 (I might be wrong, but several distro that I have tried shown that range. I have not got time to try all distro though, so my apology for incomplete conclusion in here). The latest network driver supportd is available after 2.6.22 (beta eh???), which mostly available *after* the distro installation.

It is a catch-22 situation: in order to get the driver running, I must use the latest kernel; and in order to obtain the latest driver, I must obtained it through network.

But, hey ... don't forget sneaker-net! Copy the kernel in removable media, move it to the box and install it from within. Voila! there goes network! :)

It turned out that sneaker-net is still proven to be the old-fashioned-yet-works solution.

As of this blog writing, I am still building the gcc instance of the Linux box. This is also having similar situation like above: they need to use gcc 4.x and gcc 4.x requires several other dependencies. Those dependencies will not compile without the presenc of gcc (dang!!!)

Solution: use the old pal gcc 3.x (I use gcc 3.4.5 anyway, which had saved me a lot of gcc dependency-loop many times).

Off I go now, waiting for this gcc to complete and then I can pickup the installation process.

In case you are wondering, yes I am using Gentoo (no comment please, I just like using it ;) ).

The spec is good, the performance is good, ample storage, good processing power (is there 'enough' for power???).

Anyway, the windows vista running in there is fine. I might have planned to upgrade to Vista Ultimate whenever I have a chance (and spare money, anyone willing to spare me a change or vista cd???).

The next part is the Linux part. I have been a big fan of Gentoo linux. Reasons: a lot! Especially for my own use :) Kernel fine tune, system tweaking, detailed customization, etc is just some of the long list of reasons why I use Gentoo.

Now, the latest Gentoo installation release only up to kernel 2.6.19, where the latest broadcomm 59xx nor Intel AGN wireless network card is supported in the kernel. Therefore, even though I could run tons of utilities to confirm the network link, there is no way the NIC is able to work above layer 1 :(

After several attempts to run live CD from Gentoo and other distros, I ended up manually set the installation by hand using 'sneaker net' (or 'usb net'??? Where the file transfer happen to go through USB drives).

I recalled having a USB NIC of Compex (using RTL chipset), but at the moment it is with my friend that is still using it.

The next round of update will be coming soon after I managed to put the gentoo box up and running. Till then!

The remaining 10% happened right after the last blog entry. It was to run a script check that all web content, etc is still intact after I migrated the web hosting into the new environment. That's all, but that 10% determines the completeness of security, etc. and it has been confirmed that the security is intact (and better) than before the migration happened.

Now, what had happened since then?

A lot of exciting things had been done:

• I managed to complete the dreadful 'missing link' documentation in one of my client that had been mysteriously gone. That doco is critical since I had to complete the big picture and I have faced a lot of road block in finding the details.
• Because of the doco completion, then I can happily discuss the next strategic direction with the client on how and when they would like the improvement to take place. (I know the answer is ASAP, but it is better to have fall back plan don't it???)
• I have my own notebook!!! With ample spec of proc, mem and hdd. Oh, I will start enjoying my virtual CCIE lab once again :D

All in all, it has been a good and exciting progress.

I also must face the fact that the initial idea of this blog is to provide fact and my real experience in life (while keeping anonymity of several parties ;) ). Thus, inline with my believe in 'the balance': "there is always ups and downs". I must accept the possibility that not all things in my life is a 'good' or 'bad'. I just enjoy life with that balance happening.

Till then (and some part of this blog will also updated through my CCIE blog)

The main reason is the upgrade of my server into more and proper environment. It is now up and running but still can be considered 90% functional compared with the last one.

I am just porting the old data to the new server and tested it. The new server is ok and better in a certain way but also requires several fine tune before it can be a fully functional server.

So, if you have trouble accesssing several page, please email me and I will look into sorting the problems out while I am completing the transition.

Cheers!