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My office has been full of people all week. Our first week back from a mandatory conference, everyone was all about catching up on email and contacts from the days away. With an established trend of attendance for the week in mind, I stopped and purchased some delectable koalches from a neighborhood bakery on my way into work. To my dismay, half the office was gone and the other half were either on a diet or just back from the dentist. One dozen kolaches and one man makes for a busy morning. I managed to pawn a few off on some unsuspecting, yet appreciative, peoples however, I feel that overall it was a waste of money. It's the thought that counts, right? Outside of my kolache blunder today, this has been a trying week. EL's recovery is going well, but she had a bad day the other day and it freaked me out. Outside of trying to be there for her without getting in her way, going to work everyday to provide for my household, and managing to squeeze a little game time and sleep in between, I'm tired and frazzled. I wish I could sleep for about 3 days straight. The wind of change is blowing in the office at work, but that's a-whole-nother story. An old friend of mine from my NAVY days was in town this week and we were going try to get together, but schedules must not have sync'd just right. I'm really glad it's Friday.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is about the mountains that draws me in. Perhaps it is simply because I sense a vastness of time and greatness far beyond a single man's existance when I gaze upon them... or maybe it's the mental association with find memories from past travels. When flying over the western United States on my way to San Jose on Thursday, it was the sight of the mountains below that started me thinking about it once again. I don't mind the occasional travel with work, but it doesn't take long away from home to remind me again the toll it takes. I think the most pleasant thing I can say about accommodations during the trip is that the bedding was fabulous in the hotel. My company hosts a conference twice a year that beings me back to Santa Clara and the valley. It's been a long three days and it feels good to be on the journey home.

Where have you been? Good question. I've seen what it is like for myself to come unraveled. My friends will probably tell you that I'm pretty laid back... work well under pressure... don't get angry or overly emotional with crisis. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. EL was in an automobile accident on Thursday afternoon. I received the call around 3:00 from a complete stranger that was blindly dialing numbers from her cell phone found at the scene. I didn't even see the wreckage or the location as I went straight to the hospital. It took a while to get in to see her. When I did, it was only briefly while she was braced and strapped onto the paramedic board before they carted her away for poking, prodding, CT scans, and x-rays. Waiting. Waiting is synonymous with hospital. I finally was able to see her again after a couple hours and we were able to talk. Although there were more tests to be run, the worst seemed behind us. In those couple hours in the triage waiting area, the officer at the scene presented himself and explained some basic details of the accident. He said that "it was divine intervention that she survived" because by the details of the crash and the wreckage, she should have been killed instantly on impact. This didn't help the waiting. EL and I spent all evening and half the night in the ER. The trauma surgeon on duty wanted to keep her for more testing, but the ER is a busy place, so they found her a room and she was admitted. She stayed in the hospital for a couple days while additional observation, x-ray, and testing was done. I'm the luckiest man alive to still have her. She's home now, but in a lot of pain. After all was said and done, it was her pelvic bone that was broken in the crash that was the worst injury to note. She is everything to me and I am so thankful she is going to be ok.

One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." I said "WHAT??!! What was that?!" So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear... "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man." She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?" Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep. The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said lets get a pair for each outfit. We went onto the jewelry department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you...she was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement. Smiling with excited anticipation she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier." I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't feel like it." Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled WHAT?" I then said "honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman." And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?" Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either.

Studying is going so slow. I read things with other thoughts racing in, out, and around the content that I'm supposed to be absorbing. My office is in a state of flux. The new Director started last week. The new sales guy started yesterday and his new counterpart starts in the next day or two. I don't mind being interrupted to do my job. It is, after all, what I am paid to do. I hate being interrupted by other schtuff. Even when the office is quiet and I have prime study conditions, my thoughts are of EL and Henry at home, photographic ventures, gaming, etc. I need to focus. I need to focus. I need to focus. This is ridiculous. I have a lot of ground to cover in very little time.

BGP assigns the first valid path as the current best path. BGP then compares the best path with the next path in the list, until BGP reaches the end of the list of valid paths. This list provides the rules that are used to determine the best path: Prefer the path with the highest WEIGHT ...if you are Crisco (because it's proprietary) and it is local to the router on which it is configured. Prefer the path with the highest LOCAL_PREF. Note: A path without LOCAL_PREF is considered to have had the value set with the bgp default local-preference command, or to have a value of 100 by default. Prefer the path that was locally originated via a network or aggregate BGP subcommand or through redistribution from an IGP. Note: Local paths that are sourced by the network or redistribute commands are preferred over local aggregates that are sourced by the aggregate-address command. Prefer the path with the shortest AS_PATH. Note: This step is skipped if you have configured the bgp bestpath as-path ignore command. An AS_SET counts as 1, no matter how many ASs are in the set. The AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE and AS_CONFED_SET are not included in the AS_PATH length. Prefer the path with the lowest origin type. Note: IGP is lower than Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP), and EGP is lower than INCOMPLETE. Prefer the path with the lowest multi-exit discriminator (MED). Note: This comparison only occurs if the first (the neighboring) AS is the same in the two paths. Any confederation sub-ASs are ignored. In other words, MEDs are compared only if the first AS in the AS_SEQUENCE is the same for multiple paths. Any preceding AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE is ignored. If bgp always-compare-med is enabled, MEDs are compared for all paths. You must disable this option over the entire AS. Otherwise, routing loops can occur. If bgp bestpath med-confed is enabled, MEDs are compared for all paths that consist only of AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE. These paths originated within the local confederation. THE MED of paths that are received from a neighbor with a MED of 4,294,967,295 is changed before insertion into the BGP table. The MED changes to to 4,294,967,294. Paths received with no MED are assigned a MED of 0, unless you have enabled bgp bestpath missing-as-worst . If you have enabled bgp bestpath missing-as-worst, the paths are assigned a MED of 4,294,967,294. The bgp deterministic med command can also influence this step. Prefer eBGP over iBGP paths. If bestpath is selected, go use multipath. Note: Paths that contain AS_CONFED_SEQUENCE and AS_CONFED_SET are local to the confederation. Therefore, these paths are treated as internal paths. There is no distinction between Confederation External and Confederation Internal. Prefer the path with the lowest IGP metric to the BGP next hop. Continue, even if bestpath is already selected. Determine if multiple paths require installation in the routing table for BGP Multipath. Continue, if bestpath is not yet selected. When both paths are external, prefer the path that was received first (the oldest one). This step minimizes route-flap because a newer path does not displace an older one, even if the newer path would be the preferred route based on the next decision criteria (Steps 11, 12, and 13). Skip this step if any of these items is true: You have enabled the bgp best path compare-routerid command if you're Crisco. Note: Crisco IOS Software Releases 12.0.11S, 12.0.11SC, 12.0.11S3, 12.1.3, 12.1.3AA, 12.1.3.T, and 12.1.3.E introduced this command. The router ID is the same for multiple paths because the routes were received from the same router. There is no current best path. The current best path can be lost when, for example, the neighbor that offers the path goes down. Prefer the route that comes from the BGP router with the lowest router ID. The router ID is the highest IP address on the router, with preference given to loopback addresses. Also, you can use the bgp router-id command to manually set the router ID. Note: If a path contains route reflector (RR) attributes, the originator ID is substituted for the router ID in the path selection process. If the originator or router ID is the same for multiple paths, prefer the path with the minimum cluster list length. This is only present in BGP route reflector environments. It allows clients to peer with RRs or clients in other clusters. In this scenario, the client must be aware of the RR-specific BGP attribute. Prefer the path that comes from the lowest neighbor address. This address is the IP address that is used in the BGP neighbor configuration. The address corresponds to the remote peer that is used in the TCP connection with the local router.

Really this is just ridiculous. WTB Sleep - PST.

I can not sleep. Yeah, yeah, yeah... Happy frikkin' New Year and all that jazz. I simply can not sleep. I was sick all day... miserably sick. Well, when I am sick, I'm miserable. I feel bad for EL having to put up with me. I think I dozed the day away... lapsing in and out of consciousness until around 4:00. This evening zipped by as EL slept with Henry in front of the fireplace and I celebrated New Year's passing trying to cough quietly so as not to wake them. I watched a movie hoping to find a little drowsiness. It's around 3:30 and I'm still wide awake. Pharmaceuticals are probably my best bet at this point if I don't want to watch the sunrise. I hope everyone was safe and had a great evening... you have a whole new year ahead.