life as a dog…

I’m getting there…replacing paid programs with free open source. This time the victim is…Nero. Buh bye. I am now using CDBurnerXP. So far, it’s doing exactly what I want it to do. Bonus points, because I can make it a portable app on my USB drive – meaning I can use it on any Windoze machine with a burner.

I know everyone does this – perusing the net with nowhere in particular in mind. Somehow, I ended up looking for an old restaurant chain – G.D. Ritzy’s. There was one in my hometown in Indiana. I don’t know if it’s just a wishful memory, but they were by far, the best fast food around. Of course, this got me to thinking of other restaurants chains that we had that have vanished from the face of the earth. Or so I thought…

How many of these do you recognize:

G.D. Ritzy’s. Rax. Red Barn. Sambo’s. Burger Chef. Chi Chi’s.

Believe it or not, all but Burger Chef still exist in some form.

Ritzy’s. They were all around the midwest (from what I can tell, about 80 restaurants at their peak). Surprisingly, 4 or 5 still exist. Evansville, Indiana still has it (3, I think), and there’s one in West Virginia. There may still be one in Kentucky. Ah…but that’s not the end! There is an attempt at a revival. Now in Dallas, there are a couple of Ritzy’s (dropped the G.D., I guess). Will it be the same? Who knows. Maybe if I’m ever in Dallas again, I’ll check it out.

Rax. Another one that was all over the midwest (400 at peak?). We had two in town. By far the best fast food roast beef – Arby’s wasn’t even close. But they started downhill in the 90s. The last few years, I was able to get to them when I’d drive out to the parents’ place in Indy. In Ohio, just outside of Wheeling, West Virginia there is one (still there, actually). There was one near Zanesville, but it closed in the last couple years. One in my hometown was still there, but it closed this past spring. Rumors abound that some new ones have opened recently.

Red Barn. I don’t know how to describe this one. All I remember of it was from when I was very young. When we’d have the “treat” of getting fast food, A couple of us (6 kids) would invariably want different stuff. Most would go with McDonald’s. But the oldest always had to have Arby’s (with horseradish sauce (or as we called it, “horsey sauce”)). And me…I had to have a hot dog from Red Barn (how the hot dog was any different from one cooked at home, I have no idea). I see the old buildings every once in a while. Surprisingly, they don’t get torn down…just remodeled. The one in my town was at different times a tanning salon and a garden center. But lo and behold…they aren’t totally gone. When they did go out of business, a few franchisees stuck it out – and changed the name to “The Farm.” A couple of them are still running to this day.

Sambo’s. what a name. Turns out it’s actually from a combination of the founders’ names. BUT…they did try and work the more known “sambo” into the decor. We had one in town – it was right next to K-Mart in front of a mobile home park (which was to become Krogers). I don’t know when it closed…only that we went a few times and the service was horrible. But lo and behold…they aren’t totally gone! The original is still alive and well – and apparently wanting to franchise at some point. They may want to think about changing the name.

Burger Chef. That’s an easy one. They were gobbled up by Hardee’s. The one in my hometown became a Hardee’s.

Chi Chi’s. This one, we didn’t have in my town. I just remember it was one of those “fancy” restaurants over in Dayton (much like going Christmas shopping at the Dayton Mall was a huge deal). You have to remember, we didn’t have any of the midrange sit down chains like Fridays, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc. I never knew what actually happened to Chi Chi’s (or didn’t care when it did – because their downfall wasn’t exactly minor). Hepatitis A took this chain down. Some empty buildings still remain. But the brand is still around – at your local grocer.

I’m sure there are other restaurants I’m missing.

I have started to map out a plan on what to do about a computer. Currently, I’m using a Toshiba laptop. It’s not bad, but much like any other computer, it has issues. This laptop’s main issue has always been the soundcard. It never has worked that well.

Over the last year or so, I’ve been wanting to go as open-source/free as I could go. There are the usual suspects, of course – Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice. But I’ve also found some lesser knowns, like Pidgin (formerly Gaim) for instant messaging.

Also, I came across a blog that really helps in this area… cybernetnews.com. They have a “daily downloads” post where you can find many cool programs (everything from basic to things that only a computer guru would find useful).

SongBird looks to be a pretty good replacement to iTunes (it’s still in beta, so we’ll see about that). But the nice thing is, it should work with the iPod. Why is that nice? Because I have NEVER gotten my iPod to sync on my Toshiba. Apparently that is an issue with Toshiba laptops. Not sure why. Maybe this will solve the problem. I’ve also found a program simply called ReNamer. If you have a lot of files, you’ll appreciate this program. Batch renaming. I used to have Magic File Renamer, which is a great program in itself. But it’s not free. I had a paid version, but lost it when my hard drive crashed. Of course, I didn’t save the registration info…duh. No matter now that I found ReNamer.

I’m still waiting for something to replace Outlook, so I haven’t yanked Office just yet. But from what I have read, it may come at some point – OpenOffice is planning on integrating Thunderbird with the Calendar.

I’d love to find good replacements for Dreamweaver and Photoshop. The Gimp is ok, but I don’t know that it’ll work with NEF images, and as good as it may be, it still isn’t up to Photoshop abilities. As far as Dreamweaver goes – any suggestions? I don’t want to be doing stuff in Notepad. I am novice enough that I still prefer a WYSIWYG program.

Eventually, however, this will all change. My goal is to eventually have a Mac laptop. When I do that, obviously some things will revert back to a paid program (on the Mac). But once I have the Mac, the plan is to convert the Toshiba into a Linux machine – what flavor of linux is up in the air, but from what I’ve read everywhere, I’m leaning toward Ubuntu.

I know a lot of my posts on music talk about old songs and what they remind me of. Here’s another. I love my XM. Five channels are all I need (though the traffic channel has become more of a staple since changing jobs). I’ve had XM long enough that I am rarely surprised by something they play. But it does happen…every once in a while I hear a song I had completely forgotten about. The song this time? Tanita Tikaram’s “Twist in My Sobriety.” Fantastic song. Her voice is great, and it has an oboe in it. It’s only in two songs that I can think of off hand…and I love both songs. “Twist in My Sobriety” and Camouflage’s “Love is a Shield.”

I don’t know why, but I love the sound of the oboe. Maybe because it’s so distinctive…and so plaintive. Even though “Love is a Shield” is a dance song at heart, it very much falls in that plaintive motif. A few songs that fall into it without the oboe…Under the Milky Way, Bedbugs and Ballyhoo (or practically any Echo song, really) and Mexican Moon. There’s two scenarios where I think those type of songs are best listened to (both work solo and with another person):

1. In the evening (after rush hour and preferably during autumn), get in the car, open the windows, jump on the beltway and play the songs.

2. Open the windows, turn off the phone, turn off the lights, light some candles, play the songs and relax.

I’ve had people laugh at me for mentioning this…but now I am vindicated!

Phantom Cell Phone Vibrations!

On another note, it looks like Nikon is starting a flickr-like page: My Picturetown. May not be as workable as Flickr, but I’d imagine it will work MUCH better with NEF files. I’m testing it out now.