I almost forgot to write a year-end summary for 2006.  Apparently, I completely forgot about 2005, too.  Anyway, here goes 2006:

Work

Never a dull moment; lots of new assignments, toys, training, and project schedules that routinely made people cry.  I'm definitely still enjoying the work, and especially the promotion I received this year.  I suppose that's one good result of becoming a workaholic.

Exercise

Due to excessive amounts of pudginess, I started swimming again.  I picked up a metro pass from the local YMCA, and started swimming there at least two times per week, mostly in the evenings.  During the summer months, I used the pool in my development in the mornings, before work.  I fell into the routine of swimming around 1800-2000 meters (72-80 laps) in 30-40 minutes.

Website

I redid it, finally.

The old white-on-black design was getting really old, and the code behind it was completely unmanageable.  It wasn't even HTML 4.01 compliant, and looked fairly ugly.

The new site is cleaner, prettier (c'mon, don't you think so?), standards complaint (XHTML 1.0, CSS 3 draft), and much easier to maintain.  The photo galleries are now standardized on a customized version of picscript, and I've finally instituted a simple method of defending against comment spam.

Books

I've picked up reading, once again.  Previously, excuses included: no time, lack of interest, and ADD.  These didn't seem to be valid, anymore.  Among others, I read:

• OSPF and IS-IS: Choosing an IGP for Large-Scale Networks, Doyle
• The Da Vinci Code, Brown
• Iran: The Coming Crisis: Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat, Hitchcock

I actually met Jeff Doyle this year, during an IPv6 presentation he did at work.  Too bad I didn't bring any books for him to sign :(

Travel

I managed to stay in the US this year, traveling around a little bit:

• Las Vegas, NV
• The Grand Canyon (Tuscyon, AZ)
• Washington D.C. (SANSFIRE 2006!)
• Atlanta, GA
• Sarasota, FL

According to my director, I might be taking a few more work-related trips in 2007.  Fun!

Networking Foo

I extended my network a little bit, tore down some long-dead Xicada connections, and started a little Cisco and Juniper lab with the following:

• 4x emulated Cisco 7206VXR routers
• 1x Cisco PIX 506 firewall
• 1x NetScreen 5GT firewall
• 1x Juniper M40 (Olive) router

The lab is currently linked together with FastEthernet and simulated Packet over SONET interfaces.  All devices (except for the PIX) are dual-stack IPv4/IPv6, and running OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 routing protocols.  The Cisco and Juniper routers are also running MPLS with LDP.

I picked up the JNCIS FWV Juniper certification, and plan to get the JNCIS router certification sometime in 2007, mostly just for fun.

Computers and Code

Aside from some additions to the code section, I really haven't written any large amounts of non-work code, lately.  A couple fairly large applications I put together for work obviously can't be distributed :)

With the exception of a dead computer (replaced with a brandy new cheap Dell Dimension 2350!), I really haven't upgraded anything, lately.  I have inherited some antique equipment, though, which include an old HP 9000 and Sun Ultra 10.  The Ultra 10 is in almost mint condition, and works well (Solaris 10).  The HP 9000 was initially borrowed, and then inherited.  It's a little beat up, and running a six year-old version of HP-UX.  I've yet to find a use for this, or reason to scrounge around for a newer version of the OS.

Conclusions

Not a very eventful year.  Not exactly boring, though…

New comments are currently disabled for this entry.