Today we played what may be the last round of the year at Dahlgreen in Chaska. Golfing in Minnesota will re-launch again in the spring with new features and content. See you soon!
We’ve been using a SonicWall SOHO3 hardware firewall at HSRA for several years to filter Internet content and comply with federal law regarding student access. A few weeks ago, it started to go bad and needed to be replaced. I didn’t like some of the support policies of SonicWall, so I asked around and was referred to company called Astaro and their ASG120 product.
The process started off on the wrong foot. There were no brick-and-mortar or online vendors, but I found a local company that was listed as a reseller: CPS Tech Solutions in Brooklyn Park. I spoke with Ben Mallonee at CPS and decided to order the 120 model with one year of content filtering and one year of gold support. They don’t carry stock on hand, so the unit would be shipped from the vendor directly to me. This was on Friday and the unit was to arrive on Monday via FedEx. It didn’t, and the shipping saga lasted well into the next week with CPS, Astaro and FedEx reps all calling to apologize for the delay.
When I did finally receive the unit, there were no activation codes. Ben emailed a code, but that only unlocked some of the features I ordered. After much searching, the sales person at Astaro was able to email me the other two codes and I was in business–sort of. The Astaro has more features than the SonicWall, but is also more difficult to configure. My first attempt (while school was in session) didn’t go well, so I decided to switch back to my temporary NAT interface until I could try it after hours. It wasn’t until the following weekend that I had it running well enough to put it in production.
The Astaro allows me to access the web admin interface from either inside the school or via the external public interface. I decided to run some updaters from home and the first one went fine. It restarted OK, so I ran the next one. This one didn’t restart OK and the unit was frozen. This happened on Sunday night and I really didn’t feel like driving in again for a third time that weekend, so I waited until Monday morning to power cycle the unit. That fixed it and I ran the rest of the updates while standing next to the unit in the server room.
There were still a few remaining issues:
So it appears to be a great upgrade, now that most of the kinks have been ironed out. It is much more powerful than the SonicWall and gives me a lot of new information I can use to manage the connection. It sends me informative emails as events happen and a daily executive report as well. The students aren’t very happy about the improved control, but that’s why we have it…DK
This week my Catholic Aid Association (CAA) sales representative, Sam Welter, brought over my new life insurance policy. I’m not Catholic, but wife is and she used to work there. They have good products and have been around for a long, long time. When I left NWA, I rolled over all of my pension to an annuity at CAA and purchased a new term life policy to make up for the one I used to have from work. Sam told me about a new term life product they were rolling out that required a much more stringent health qualification process. If I could qualify for the new plan, I would pay the same premium, but get about $150,000 more in coverage.
A nurse came out to my house about a month ago and I finally got the word that I passed. My cholesterol levels were much better than my last physical (203 mg/dL on a “good” scale of 140-280) and my wife says the triglyceride results were even more impressive: 58 mg/dL on a expected value range of 10-200. My readings were high on two measures: alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase. Both can be related to kidney and liver issues, so I need to research that more. They must not be that bad, though, or I’m sure I would have been turned down. I also rolled over the rest of my NWA 401K money, so I don’t have to worry about the NWA bankruptcy any longer…DK
This week is National Freedom of Speech Week. Guess how the school my kids go to decided to honor this event? By banning student access to newspapers in the library.
I came home from work and the local NBC affiliate, KARE 11, was running an interview with the school principal, Miles Haugen, as the lead story on the five o’clock newscast. According to the story, the parent of a seven-year-old complained in an e-mail to the school:
The newspaper as a loaded gun? Are you kidding me? Thanks for your concern, but I want my kids to become informed, intelligent readers, citizens and learners. Censorship should not be a part of their world.
Mr. Haugen is in his third year as principal and I have respected his leadership. This decision, however, needs to be reconsidered. We plan to contact the superintendent’s office tomorrow and will visit the school when they re-open after MEA week.
If need be, I’ll get both kids their own subscriptions to the paper so they can carry them every day in their backbacks. No reason they should be hindered because of one misdirected individual and a bad decision by the people paid to educate them…DK
UPDATE: Here is the email response I received from Mr. Haugen:
Unfortunately, the KARE11 news story was not accurately reported. Students may continue to read the newspaper at any time during the school day. We just want teachers to be aware of when a student is reading the newspaper and what headlines are found on the newspaper.
Hope this answers your question. I’m sorry about the confusion.
UPDATE 2: The American Library Association has an Office for Intellectual Freedom. They have a challenge database form to report issues of censorship (Adobe Acrobat, 8K).
UPDATE 3: The story has been picked up by the Associated Press and was published in the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press this morning. My wife is quoted in that story and a new bit of information was released: the original email complaint offered to “buy a paper for the school that the parent considered child-safe.” Just what my kids need–the Shiny Happy Day News. No thanks…DK
While working on my election research, there were a few question marks. In the Eagan city council race, candidate Buzz Anderson did not have any website or email information listed in his filing. I did a Google search and found his business email at the Minnesota Retailers Association. He replied with the following contact info:
In the second district congressional race, the Independence Party candidate is listed as Douglas Williams, but he is not listed on the Minnesota Independence Party website. I thought that was really odd and contacted Marian Brown, the IP chair for CD2. She said Mr. Williams does not have the endorsement of the Independence Party and they don’t really know much about him. He appears to be a fringe candidate based on the limited information available online, but I’m still not sure how he got on the ballot as an IP candidate.
Lastly, I was having a hard time deciding who to pick for Eagan mayor. The recent retail developments near my house gave me an opportunity to write both candidates to get their opinions on zoning and development. I emailed Mike Maguire late at night, but he replied within 10 minutes and we ended up exchanging several emails around 1am. His answers were very thorough and I generally agreed with his positions. Cyndee Fields took a little longer to reply and was more succinct, but I also liked her answers. That one is still a toss-up for me…DK
Our new Mac Pro arrived this week. It’s part of our office video editing workstation (pictured above):
The specs on the machine are incredible:
It’s been a long time since I’ve had a new machine that seemed significantly faster than what I was using, but this box truly screams…DK
My awesome wife waited in line for an hour to get me this last week…DK
Our local IKEA store had the perfect bookshelf for our new office (see above). I generally like most things about IKEA, but this purchase was one of the most frustrating shopping experiences I’ve had in a long time.
On my first trip there, I bought a bunch of other things and decided to wait to get the bookshelf until I had more room in the car. When I went back the next day, there was no more stock on the floor. I saw two pallets loaded with units directly above the empty spot, though, so I went to ask a clerk to have one pulled down. That’s when the fun started.
IKEA is a busy store and because of that, they have a policy of no forklifts on the floor during store hours. I was frustrated, but understood. The clerk said it would be pulled down overnight and would be available for pickup the next day. I wasn’t able to go back for about three days, but when I returned, the pallets were still in the same places with no stock on the floor. This was on a Saturday, which made the trip all the more stressful anyway.
The clerk on duty was apologetic and went to talk it over with a supervisor. Their inventory system showed 10 units on the floor, so it wasn’t requesting that more be brought down. They said I could pay for one now and they would do a “911 pick” right after the store closed and I could come back at 9:30pm to get it. My other option was to come back the next day, when they promised it would be pulled down. I decided to get the phone number of the desk on the floor and told them I would call before I came back to make sure they were really available.
The next day, I got a clerk that went to check and he said they were “out of stock” and they were expecting a delivery the next day. I told him there are two pallets of them right above the empty spot and he told me he would check and make sure they were ready tomorrow. Sigh.
My now daily call the following day was answered by the same clerk I had the day before. I don’t think he recognized me and said the truck they were expecting hadn’t arrived yet. Again I told him of the pallets above and to please make sure they are added to the overnight pick list.
The next day I was traveling from St. Paul to Northfield for a meeting. IKEA was on the route back to St. Paul, so I decided to stop in and complain to the store manager. Lo and behold, one of the two pallets had been brought down!
If this particular bookshelf hadn’t been such a great match style- and price-wise, I would have went elsewhere after that first day. Oh well, it looks great now…DK
On Tuesday, my daughter and I attended our first Wild game of the season. Despite trading arch-villian Todd Bertuzzi, Vancouver still has a strong team with a lot of great players. Roberto Luongo in goal was a wonderful addition and ex-Wild players Willie Mitchell and Marc Chouinard were familiar faces. Plus they still have the Sedin brothers, Markus Naslund, Mattias Ohlund and Matt Cooke.
The refs seemed to swallow their whistles the first two periods when it came to Canucks. When Pyatt got their first goal in the second period, I was really worried that the Wild would have trouble getting anything past Luongo. The Wild finally got a chance at a power play in the third and made the most of it. Manny had some great saves in the OT to get them to the shootout, which was a blast to watch.
This was also our first game in the new seats (section 123, right behind the goal). The view is unique and will be fun to have for a season. I still would like upper level on the sides eventually, but it’s fun to watch what the goalies see and watch the plays develop from a different angle.
I watched tonight’s game versus Washington on TV and can’t believe it went to another shootout. I knew the off season acquisitions would be good, but who would have predicted a 4-0 start? Our next game is 11/29 versus San Jose…DK
When I was growing up, there were two taboo topics: politics and religion. Both were considered private, personal decisions and talking about them in public was just not done. In some ways, I wish more people still felt this way, but then again, some issues are too important to keep quiet about.
With the elections rapidly approaching, it’s time to become informed about the choices we have on November 7th. Personally, I consider myself an independent voter (small “i”) that likes to look at each race or issue, do my research and be ready to make informed choices on election day. I’m not a fan of the party system and would really like to see all of the local and state offices be non-partisan, but that will never happen with the major parties in charge of making the rules.
Minnesota has always had high voter participation rates, but I was surprised to find how difficult it was to find information about the 2006 election. After a great deal of searching, I finally found the Secretary of State’s registered candidate search page. The big metro newspaper sites (Star Tribune and Pioneer Press) still have primary results featured and links to the candidates are hard to find. The League of Women Voters and MyBallot.net have decent information, but they are not comprehensive and don’t have all of the local items that will appear on the ballot.
Here is a summary of what I’ve been able to find so far, along with links to more information:
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of Representatives – 2nd District
Governor and Lieutenant Governor
Minnesota Secretary of State
Minnesota State Auditor
Minnesota Attorney General
Proposed Minnesota Constitutional Amendment
Minnesota Judicial Races
Minnesota Judicial Unopposed Seats
Minnesota Senate – District 38
Minnesota House – District 38A
Eagan Mayor
Eagan City Council
Dakota County Attorney
Dakota County Sheriff
Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor
Get informed. Do your research. Vote November 7th…DK
My aunt and uncle have been in the Wild Warming House for about three years and purchased lower level tickets this year. They sold me tickets for six games and have the following games left for sale:
The seats are section 123, row 23, seats 5 and 6:
Each game is $108 for the two seats–please contact me via email if you are interested and I’ll get you hooked up…DK
It’s been two days since the run and this has been one of the easiest and pain-free recoveries yet. I feel great–the one blister I had on my heal is already calloused and my legs and knees are feeling good enough to play golf tomorrow at Hastings Country Club.
I still haven’t changed my mind about running more marathons anytime soon, but I would consider the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon or the TC10 next year.
City Pages listed me as the Minnesota Blog of the Day today, which was a nice surprise. I was listed there earlier this year and it’s nice they checked back to see how I did in the big race. I also had a nice comment from a complete stranger today. Web publishing is truly powerful…
Here are some additional notes from Sunday:
I’d also like to congratulate my friend Susanne Miller of Burnsville, who finished her first marathon about 15 minutes ahead of me with a chip time of 04:56:05…DK
Our house was pelted with pea-sized hail tonight for a few minutes. Mother Nature sure has some amazing things up her sleeve…DK
The picture from my dad’s surprise arrived last week.
What a finish to the season too! Hope they can sweep Oakland and beat up on New York too…DK
Wow, did that feel like a long race this year. I went out fast (for me), hit the midway point at 2:14 and really thought I had a chance at another sub-five-hour time. As the sun came out in force and the temperature continued to rise, though, leg cramps hit me all over my legs (some in spots I didn’t think could cramp). My blisters felt OK for most of the race and turned out to be much better than I expected when I got home. I had put moleskin patches on both arches before the race and that seemed to do the trick.
The Nike+iPod thing turned into a total joke. It had been accurate on short runs, but was terrible at the marathon distance. It thought I was finished after about 25 miles and got further and further off each mile of the race. The total time recorded was also off by a lot. Thank goodness for the ChampionChip on my shoe or I would have no idea what my true time was this morning.
Here are the complete stats according the TCM 2006 results page:
Here’s what the Nike+iPod adaptor thinks I ran:
As of today, I’m officially retired from marathon racing. At least until my kids make me run one with them…DK
 | |||
