Ben’s Blog

Ole Miss had another great weekend in baseball. We swept Tennessee by beating them 13-5, 21-13, and 5-3. That will definitely help us out in the SEC standings and should give us a boost in the polls. I’d be interested to know how long it’s been since we swept two SEC teams in a row. We are also on a ten game winning streak and a seven game SEC winning streak. The longest winning streak ever by the Rebels is 17 (1960). The chances of us breaking that one this year are very slim. The media guide doesn’t have a record for the longest SEC streak.

The Ole Miss record for SEC wins in a season is 18. We set that record in 2004 and tied it in 2005. We are currently 13-8 in the SEC. At this point last year we were 12-9. We have nine SEC games remaining, so we need to go 5-4 to tie the record or 6-3 to break it. That’d be tough, but it’s certainly doable.

As for the other teams in the SEC, Georgia swept Florida on the road, Alabama took the series from Auburn, Arkansas lost its series to LSU, South Carolina won its series against Mississippi State, and Kentucky took two games on the road at Vanderbilt.

All that puts Alabama atop the West and the conference overall at 15-6. Ole Miss is second in the West, and is in a three-way tie for second overall with South Carolina and Kentucky at 13-8. Next weekend, the series to watch will be Ole Miss at Kentucky, Alabama at Arkansas, and South Carolina at Georgia.

Friday night Cassie and I went to see Akeelah and the Bee. While it’s definitely a “kid’s movie,” it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. It’s about a 7th grader from south Los Angeles who is encouraged by her teacher to participate in the school’s spelling bee. She eventually makes it all the way to the National Spelling Bee. Cassie commented that she’d love to show the movie to all of her classes. (She teaches 7th grade reading and English at a school where the vast majority of students are black.)

The girl who plays Akeelah, Keke Palmer, is great. I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of her. Her mother is played by Angela Bassett. Her mentor is played by Laurence Fishburne. They both do a great job, though at times Fishburne seemed too Morpheus-like when giving Akeelah advice. Maybe that was just me. :)

This weekend Ole Miss played LSU in a three game series. It was strange because the games were happening about two miles down the road from our apartment, but we were in Baton Rouge, just a few miles from the LSU stadium. Ole Miss and LSU have a big football rivalry, and the baseball rivalry has been getting more intense over the last few years.

Our baseball coach, Mike Bianco, played at LSU and was later an assistant coach there from 1993 to 1997. During that time LSU won three national championships. On Friday, the DM published an article about the possibility of Bianco going to LSU. Most coaches aspire to get back to their alma mater, especially if it’s a good program. You could hardly blame Bianco for going to LSU, but they interviewed him for that article, and he’s convinced me he wants to stay in Oxford. I certainly hope so.

LSU came into the series ranked number 18 in the country. Ole Miss was not ranked. Friday night’s game was rained out, so they played a doubleheader on Saturday. Ole Miss won both games, 10-5 and 11-3.
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This weekend Cassie and I went to Baton Rouge for Bill and Blair’s wedding. Bill was a fellow CS major and my roommate our Junior year. We saw some old friends, met some new people, and had a very good time.

The reception was at Juban’s, a really upscale restaurant. It was very nice. Bill’s cake had Tux, the Linux penguin, on it. David got a picture of it. Hopefully he’ll post it somewhere. After the reception they were having a party at their new house. Cassie and I stopped by, but we were really tired, so we didn’t stay long at all.

We had considered driving back through New Orleans or Bay St. Louis to see the damage from Hurricane Katrina, but we got a late start, so we just went straight home. We got in around 6pm this afternoon.

I’ve been dabbling in photography for a few years now, but until yesterday I hadn’t picked up my SLR for probably a full year. Yesterday evening I shot a roll of film around campus. If there’s anything decent I’ll post it on Flickr and link to it from my blog.

Today, Philip Greenspun posted a review of the entire Canon EOS System: bodies, lenses, flashes, cases, etc. Phil is a very interesting guy. He’s a former MIT CS/EE professor, photographer, and pilot. He has done some very good writing on his own photography page as well as on photo.net, a site he founded. He’s a multi-millionaire, so keep that in mind when you’re reading his lens reviews. He tends to like the really expensive ones.

Canon and Nikon are the only cameras pros will consider using, though Minolta makes a decent SLR too. Phil has posted on photo.net about the Canon vs. Nikon debate. Canon is looking even better these days, because they have two full frame SLRs, while Nikon has none.

I have a Canon Rebel G body that I inherited from my uncle. I’d love to have a digital SLR, but I’m holding out for a full frame. Right now the cheapest full frame SLR is the Canon 5D at $3000. I may be waiting a while. I’ve thought about buying a Canon PowerShot S3 IS (an advanced point and shoot) to tide me over, but I haven’t decided yet.

Right now, the only lens I have for my Rebel is a Canon 22-55 F/4-5.6 USM. It’s a fairly cheap lens, but I like being able to go down to 22mm. It’s a great lens for the price. (Apparently Canon doesn’t make it anymore, but you can still find new ones here and there.) I’ll be adding a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II before long. It’s a good, cheap lens that’ll allow me to take pictures in low light.

Yesterday, Cassie and I gave geocaching a try. Geocaching involves using a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to find caches that have been hidden. Geocaching was started in 2000, and it’s getting very popular. There are 64 caches within a 15 mile radius of Oxford. I’ve been wanting to give geocaching a try for a while now, so last weekend I borrowed my mother’s GPS, and Monday afternoon Cassie and I picked three caches and headed out.

As it turns out, it’s a lot more challenging than you might think. Consumer GPSs are only accurate to about 20 feet or so. That’s fine when you’re driving, but when you’re trying to find a small container that’s been well hidden, you’d prefer more accuracy.

The first cache Cassie and I tried to find was called Faulkner’s Stompin’ Grounds. It is located on a trail between the University Museums and Rowan Oak, William Faulkner’s home. Cassie and I have hiked this trail several times, so we were familiar with the area. The GPS got us within 20 feet or so of it, but we weren’t even sure which side of the trail it was on. We found it after about three minutes of looking around. It was a waterproof match container stuffed in a hollow spot in a tree. We opened it up, signed the log, and put it back in its place. By looking at the geocaching web site, I can tell that cache was placed there on February 6, 2005, and has been found 22 times.
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This past weekend, Jared, David, and I had a bachelor party for Bill, who is getting married in two weeks. Both Jared and David live in Memphis, so we decided have it in Memphis at Jared’s house. We didn’t have much in the way of plans, we were just going to play it by ear. This was my first bachelor party with the exception of my own. Neither of them were what you’d call traditional bachelor parties.

Saturday night we ate at the Texas de Brazil in downtown Memphis. It was certainly an interesting dining experience. I would probably never go back on my own (it’s too expensive), but it definitely enjoyed it. I had boiled shrimp, filet mignon, rack of lamb, garlic sirloin, pork tenderloin, and barbecued ribs; among other things. If you’ve got a good appetite and an extra $40 (and you’re not a vegetarian), definitely give it a try.

Much of early Sunday morning was spent playing Quake III Arena. Quake III was the game to play when we were all in college. I never was that good at it back then, and my skills haven’t improved a lot since then. :) I did have a lot of fun though. I’m not sure which was better, actually playing the game or listening to Bill and Jared yell at everyone else. Tough call. :)

I had to be at Camp Yocona at 11am on Sunday, so I took a hour and a half nap and headed for Oxford. I still haven’t quite recovered from my (nearly) all nighter.