I am already familiar with a lot of the topics as I took a 400-level networking class in college - we just had no hands-on experience. Each lab in the class was solvable by brute force (client/server applications). I believe the book learning part of the CCNA should be easy enough given my background. I am good with algorithms and still remember all the Graph Theory stuff like it was yesterday, for the most part, so I really just want to make sure I can get my hands on some actual equipment and set this shit up for real. My roommate said he can get me a Cisco switch from work so that will be a good start. So yes, obviously I won't be as qualified as someone with a CCNA and months or years of hands-on experience, but I'm a pretty quick learner and so far most of this stuff has been pretty intuitive. I consider this a relatively easy challenge and it'd be stupid for someone who is as good a learner and test taker as I am to not get a few easy certs.
I'm going to spend the next few days going through this entire course -
https://www.cybrary.it/course/cisco-ccna/ - and once I think I'm at least decent with Packet Tracer (gonna find another resource), I think I'll try out your Nuggets.