JamesAsh.com

Today is Welcome Back Day at Nicholls State University.  It is also the official unveiling of the new mascot.  Nicholls is the Colonels, but the original Colonel Tillou (that’s his name) was an old Southern gentleman dressed in a gray confederate suit.  One day, the campus NAACP complained and it was decided that Tillou was offensive and had to be written out of the history of the school.

For a while, they used an N with a saber through it as the official athletics logo.  But the goal has always been to redesign the colonel and bring back a less offensive mascot.  The university gathered focus groups and came up with a new mascot.  The first comments by many was that it looked like a Nazi soldier or General Bison from Street Fighter.  The new mascot is not popular in the least.

Today is the final unveiling and the sideline costume for the mascot will be on display.  I hope to make it there to take some pictures and see how this turns out.

Wikipedia has added an element of editorial control to some of the site content and suddenly people are up in arms over it. Say what? Why is it bad to keep people from vandalizing different people’s pages? I think it’s a good move on their part to apply some type of control on some pages.

When you have a question about some fact, odds are that you either go to Wikipedia or Google and if you phrase your search right, you will probably get sent to a Wikipedia page. With the number of people using the site, there should be an extra effort to make sure that they deliver accurate information.

I never thought that I would be one of those people, but there are a surprising number of watchable programs on TruTV.  And by “one of those people,” I am pointing squarely at my parents.  All they watch is Cops and Law & Order type programming.  That’s definitely not the stuff I am into.

A while back, I discovered how great Speeders is.  Speeders is a beautiful little show, not unlike Cops, but it is only traffic stops.  People will say the stupidest things to try to get out of a ticket.  One guy even tried to argue that it was impossible for him to be speeding because he is a physicist and understands the laws of motion and checks his speed my counting time vs. distance.  Great argument.

Last night, I caught Operation Repo for the first time.  It’s about a repossession company in California.  Talk about a ballsy profession.  At times, they are essentially stealing the property from the people.  A pesticide company was behind on payments on a truck, so they set up an appointment to get them to come look for termites.  When the guys got there, a woman distracted them while the repo guy jumped in the car and picked the ignition.  You might be surprised to learn that every person on the show was current on their payments, according to them.  Come up with something original.

The other show that I enjoyed was called Party Heat.  It deals with water law enforcement agents handling parties and patrolling the waterways to promote safety.  The footage on this show is a combo of Girls Gone Wild cutting room floor footage because they were still clothed and DWI stops in boats.  One thing I wish people would take from the show is a little lesson in humor.  One of the aspects of boat safety is a life preserver for each person on the boat.  Guys (and a few ladies), saying that fake breasts are floatation devices isn’t really all that clever.  Come up with something new.  Also, the right to remain silent is more than that – it’s just good advice.  Keep your mouth shut and it will all go a lot smoother.

I wonder what other treasures are on this channel.

I’m watching this Kanye West video for Heartless from VH1 Storytellers.  I like it because Kanye is crazy and starts singing from the floor at the end while freestyling on 50 Cent.  But it occured to me, as he was rolling around on the ground that he looks like a suave, black Pee Wee Herman.

If you see me a lot, you know that I wear the same clothes a lot.  Not dirty clothes from the previous day or anything.  I just wear whatever is on top of the clean clothes pile.  Some of my clothes are starting to show the rigors of years of wear.  So yesterday, I was at Academy buying some redfish rigs and I decided to scan the clearance racks.  I found an awesome gray shirt that is likely to be my new concert shirt for $5.  Maybe I’ll wear it tomorrow.

About a month ago, Canadian band Our Lady Peace released their seventh album titled Burn Burn.  I’ve been a fan since the Clumsy album.  I’m sure that’s when most people discovered Our Lady Peace.  While singer Raine Maida calls it a “proper rock album,” I say it sounds just like the last 2 OLP albums.  There is nothing wrong with growing older and mellowing, but Burn Burn lacks the raw, abrasive energy of their early work.  I only bring that up because Mr. Maida felt like it captured that.

Instead, you have an album full of friendly OLP standard fair that sounds like could have been left over from the last album. “All You Did Was Save My Life” is the first single.  It is exactly what fans should expect: poppy rock with catchy hooks.  The Fray could have done this song.  “Monkey Brains” is another good track that has the potential to capture what the band wanted.  In fact, if you mastered it differently, it would sound like Green Day (speaking of bands that have mellowed.)  “Refuge” gave off the vibe of an 80s love song, while “Never Get Over You” made me chuckle because he mentions “She likes hockey.”

The album isn’t bad, but it isn’t special either.  If you are a fan, you will like it.  At the same time, I doubt anyone hears this album and feels like they have been missing out.