From the category archives:

General

Jonna and I eat at the same place every Friday. It’s this cute little Mexican restaurant called Mixteca Tequila Bar and Grill on Route 47 in Woodstock. Mixteca has excellent food and is owned by a couple of really cool people, Claudia and Mike.

As is usual being a chronic handwasher, at the end of dinner I went into the washroom to wash my hands after eating and out of the corner of my eye saw a flyer on the inside bathroom door. It was about a family that the restaurant was doing a fundraiser for.

The Gruber family consists of Joe, Laura and their 2 kids, Joey (6) and Courtney (3). In November of 2009 Joe was diagnosed with testicular cancer and has been receiving treatment. At the time he was working two jobs, neither of which provided benefits.

The restaurant is hosting a fund-raiser for the family to help offset their medical costs as Joe goes through treatment, as well as help them with their mounting bills. The fund-raiser is happening on February 21, 2010 at the restaurant (see link). You can find more information on the family and the fundraiser by from the flyer I scanned when we got home, or at the web site for the event, hosted by the Friends Helping Friends Foundation.

All food proceeds at this event will go to the family.

Jonna and I will definitely be attending and hope that our friends in the area will come and try to help out. If nothing else, you get great food and a good atmosphere to enjoy the afternoon in. The plan is to also have raffles – and the folks throwing the event are looking for donations of items such as gift baskets, sporting event tickets, etc for these activities.

If your not in the area and want to help, you can make donations via PayPal on the Friends Helping Friends web site.

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The Myth of Helter Skelter by Susan Atkins

September 21, 2009
Susan Atkins

This is a rough draft of a project started by Susan Atkins (of Manson Family fame) and her husband, attempting to explain what really happened leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders – that while Helter Skelter was used as a motive to finally convict Manson and his family members, it was really just one in a long line of manipulation techniques that he used to get people to do what he wanted.

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Walla-Pa-Looza Benefit In McHenry County for American Cancer Society

July 11, 2009

An all day benefit to raise funds for the the American Cancer Society will be held on August 1, 2009 at the Johnsburg Community Club in Johnsburg, Illinois.

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del.icio.us Posts Not Working

August 6, 2008

Since the del.icio.us upgrade, blog posts do not seem to be working for me. Anyone else having this problem or know of a solution?

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Feeling Bad

June 19, 2008

I’m kind of feeling bad for not blogging lately. The site is not getting much of my attention over the last few months. I’m playing a lot with git, a version control tool and figuring out how it plays with SVN, the SCM we use at work. I’m most [...]

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Picasso On Learning

April 12, 2008

Found this quote from Picasso on Twiiter from @LeMec (the_mindstorm) and really liked it:

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
- Picasso

Sounds a lot like a quote that I have in my library, but more brilliant. I think I’ll add this one.

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Link Structure Changed

April 12, 2008

I’ve changed the link structure of the blog to get rid of the /wordpress/ in the URL. If you see anything screwy or not redirecting properly, please let me know by emailing me at ron_at_bieberlabs.com.

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25 Days Until Campground Opens

March 23, 2008

The campground that houses the Bieber Labs Remote Relaxation Unit opens in 25 days. Hooray!

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links for 2008-01-06

January 5, 2008

The All-Grain Evangelist: A Beer Brewer’s Blog: Quitting Smoking: Reflections on the First 12 Days
So much to look forward to …
(tags: quit-smoking)

ways to quit smoking
People who experience withdrawal might have many different symptoms, including: cigarette cravings, irritability, frustration or anger, tremors, decreased heart rate, fatigue, restlessness, depression, increased appetite
(tags: quit-smoking)

All Ears: Please…STOP Smoking!
“Everyone has [...]

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How I Spent My Winter Vacation

December 28, 2007

Here are some of the things I’ve done over the past week and a half or so:

Purchased new truck for youngest boy that Jonna found on craigslist. Excellent deal (good job honey)
Bought Jonna a new camera for Christmas, since I lost hers on plane on the way back from Redmond
Messed around with the Smarty [...]

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Popular Posts Fixed

December 22, 2007

I’ve fixed the ‘Most Popular Posts’ section over in the sidebar. It now reflects actual most popular, rather than adding weight to home page views.

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Breathing Room

December 20, 2007

I finally bit the bullet and took the time to get the blog to a higher resolution. Wasn’t as hard or time consuming as I had built it up to be in my head. Hopefully the extra room works for everyone.

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New El Camino In The Works???

November 5, 2007

Jonna shot over this link about a possible new El Camino coming out. For some reason, I don’t like it as much as the 80’s model.

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Happy Birthday Dad

October 21, 2007

Photo by rbieber
This was on a trip to Springfield when we were young. Left to right, my brother Ed, myself (with a brand new canteen), and our father.

I just realized that today would have been my fathers 66th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad – we all miss you.
More pictures can be found [...]

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Camping Season Over – Relaxation Unit Close Up.

October 1, 2007

While camping season technically goes until next weekend, due to Homecoming activities with the kids and the like we had to close up the relaxation unit this last weekend. This has been our first year “camping” and I’ve gotten some interesting learnings from it:

Social networking is a lot more fun when the community [...]

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Star Wars – The Legacy Revealed

September 7, 2007

Watched Star Wars – The Legacy Revealed last night on the History Channel. Interesting to hear correlations to other mythologies. I highly recommend this one.

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Audio Books Completed.

July 27, 2007

First day of vacation is today. Last night completed the three audio books that were sitting on my iPod. “How to Win Friends & Influence People” (Dale Carnegie), “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” (Christopher Hitchens), and “Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit” (Daniel Quinn). [...]

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Quote For Today

June 19, 2007

“…the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.” – Steve Jobs (quote from Quotiki)

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The Bieber Labs Remote Relaxation Unit

June 12, 2007

Photo by rbieber

Yes, thats right, we are now official residents of the Ewok Village.
Jonna and I came across this little unit in the same park as our inlaws and we grabbed it.
Already has a deck. Already has a lawn. Already has a golf cart.
Guy genes missing, but I still have everything [...]

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A Trip To The “Ewok Village”

May 27, 2007

Yesterday we took a trip up to my inlaws camper to spend some quality time with them. Jonna and I haven’t been up there for over a year, but every time we head up there I am amazed at what I see.
The camper is located in a little campground in Wisconsin. I [...]

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