Friday, October 31, 2008

Getting back to work!

It's really good be able to work again after a while. Spending your days for lying down in the bed over and over again is a bit too much for me :(. Recovering from my back injury lights my days again for sure :). And today is the first day I back to work as Juniper engineer. Well today, I start it with learning the system my colleagues have built for years. I have not touched Juniper devices for 2 years, concentrating my all for Infovista. Therefore there are many things I need to remember!

InfoVista and Juniper are two different beasts. Both are excellent for creating flawless network infrastructure. And it's really a golden opportunity given to me for I am be able to be acquainted with both products. Well, both have their own complexity that will take your lifetime for sure, but that's really fun, actually!

After finishing this year's InfoVista projects, I decided for taking time for a while. Taking breath from Infovista and rejuvenating my Juniper memory. Of course, next year there will be more exciting projects for InfoVista, but I saw capabilities from my colleagues and I think this is the right time for entrusting them with the full responsibility for InfoVista.

Meanwhile, I will spend almost my entire time for Juniper things. Having been failure two times in JNCIP-M test is not a pleasant experience I endured in the past. And there's still a small fire inside of me that urge me to pass that exam successfully. Well, I think if I am diligent this year and concentrate all for Juniper, I will be able to do it.

Only three keywords I must do from now on : Practice, Practice and Practice!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Car accident...

It's been a long time since last time I wrote in my blogs. Well, this is because in the past few weeks there is an event that change my life direction towards this happening. What is that? You will find out in just a moment.

It happened on September 27th, 2008. That was the days when I (supposedly) began to enjoy a long holidays. I woke up very late in the daylight (well, every holiday always turn me to a lazybone, no wonder :P) and I realized that I had to go back to my hometown that day as promised to my mom. So then I prepared myself. Ate decent and proper meals and packed my bags with things and then hurriedly moved on to the train station.

I was in bad luck again. (Hey, have I told you that this year I had many bad lucks?) The tickets were all sold out. So I must make a decision fast, either to go to bus station and try my luck again there, or take an offer to ride unregistered car travel service easily found on train station. Because at that time, it was getting dark outside and moreover, I carried all my things - which were very heavy, then I conclude to one decision -> Take the unregistered car travel.

It will cost me 70 thousand rupiahs (~ 7 dollars) which is more expensive than to take bus or train, but for a long pleasantful holidays, I didn't think much about it ;). Before we go, the driver seemed like he ill prepare because we must wait for another passenger who he said taking a dinner first. It was an old man, who turned out to be a public transportation driver.

At first the ride seemed okay. The musics was loud, though it was not enjoyable to listen to because of cheap automotive speaker he used. And the air conditioner was very nice. We didn't feel hot at all although there are eight people in the car. At then at one point, the old man - the public transportation driver sat beside me - warned the driver that he felt something loose. He hinted about somethings in the car and urged the driver to check them out. So the driver stopped the car at nearest checkpoint for quick check. He only examined them very fast and said that everything were okay.

So the journey was continued but not for long. In the km 63 at Cipularang highway, suddenly I feel a shock. The car whose speed 70 km/hour was then out of control. It swayed to the right and left before the driver managed to stop it at road shoulder. Fortunately, the car was not turned upside down, so none of use had any serious wound. I noticed I only got bump on my back and some scratches in my legs. Nevermind about the wound, the one I was worry about was how we could continue the trip safely.

The one which I thought was tire explotion turned out to be tire loose. When I saw that incident with my bare eyes, my first comment was it very unfortunate for me not to bring any cameras at that time otherwise I could have shot and documented the accident for memory :P. I wanted to laugh, but just couldn't. Anyway, we'd trapped between Bandung and Jakarta. So in short, we all decided to take a bus afterwards. We encouraged ourselves to stop the bus and fortunately one of the bus was willing to stop and carried us.

It was very hectic in the bus, but noone minded that. Everyone was thinking howto be safe and able to be with their family as soon as possible because it had already near midnight at that time. I myself, was able to come home at midnight. Feeling very exhausted, I realize my back felt hurt. So in the next days to come, I spent time on bed, lying because it felt hurt to shake my back. I didn't go to the doctor instantly because at that time I didn't think that was necessary.

Three years ago, I had incident on basketball field which prevented me to walk normally for a month and gave me pain in my back for almost two years, but I managed to go through that without seeing any doctors. I think this time the incident was better that three years ago, because at least I can still walk even feeling hurt. So when the holiday was over, I went to work at my office as usual.

But soon I realize there was something wrong with my back. More serious than I felt after the accident happened in instant. I felt pain when I sat and walked. The only one position which relieved me from pain was lying down. Maybe that's why I didn't feel the pain mostly when I'm still in holiday, because at that time, I managed to spend almost entire days by lying in my bed. But going to office and enduring daily activities is a different story. The pain was growing stronger and stronger.

The peak was last Tuesday, when I could not wake up at all without using my hand 100%. It was really painful to change any position from lying down to sit ot stand up. After spending three days with that condition without significant improvement, then I decided to go back to my hometown for treatment. The trip was really painful but I managed to kill the pain by using koyo cabe.

The first place I go for my treatment was traditional massage as suggested by my mom. It was really short and successfully tighten my loose ankle (I had broken ankle several times in the past) but not cured my back pain 100%. But at least the pain I felt when walking was decreasing. So then I decided to go for physiciatrist. I went there two times and the doctor said I need to rest for a full weeks. So here I am, ended up lying in my bed again, hoping this will be recovered as soon as possible. The good side of this story is I have much times to write in my blogs again :)...

Friday, October 3, 2008

Thank you Juniper Team ^_^

Recently, I checked my email and whoa, I got an unexpected email from Juniper Team. It says that they make special arrangement for me so that I will receive the mystery gift they offer for free! This is the email from Juniper Team :).

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Hi Stevanus

Thks for your valuable feedback. Juniper had made a special arrangement to add you into the list eligible for the First 30 rewards. Hence, you will be receiving 1-set of the 1GB thumbdrive + pointer together with your T-shirt and bagpack.

Congratulations!

Regards,
Juniper Networks Campaign (ASIN) - AROM

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I really must thank Juniper for this ^_^. They are so kind, listening to my complain. Well, for certain people, maybe usb thumbdrive and pointer is not valueable. But for me, what makes it really valueable is this prize can be considered as achievement of my efforts. And well, it boosts my morale for studying Juniper products even more :).

However, since I have decided to be serious in Juniper products beginning in next year, then certainly I must prepare myself for it. I still have 3 months for preparation and there is one certification that I aim to have in near future : JNCIS-FWV. Time to study right now :).