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ARRL Field Day

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

ARRL Field Day is this Saturday and Sunday. There are lots of ham radio related events throughout the year, but this is my favorite.

The University of Mississippi Amateur Radio Club (UMARC) will be setup in the Circle on campus from approximately 1pm on Saturday to 1pm on Sunday. We’ll have three HF stations setup, two on voice and one on CW (Morse code).

The purpose of Field Day is to practice setting up stations “in the field” and showing off our capabilities to the public. Mainly it’s just fun. For those of us without radios of our own, it gives us a chance to get in lots of quality operating time.

If you’re curious about ham radio, stop by and give it a try. If you’re not in Oxford, have a look at the Field Day Station Locator and find a club setup near you.

Posted in Amateur Radio, Oxford, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

Municipal elections in Mississippi

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Municipal elections in Mississippi take place every four years on the first Tuesday in June. Things have been interesting here in Oxford. Our well-liked, two-term mayor, Richard Howorth, didn’t run for another term, and most of the aldermen had stiff competition. Pat Patterson ended up winning the mayor’s race in a landslide, but all but one of the contested alderman races were decided by 25 votes or less. Affidavit ballots that will be counted in the morning could change the outcome of two of the races. Get more info at the Oxford Eagle.

It was a record day for me personally. I voted for two Democrats and a Republican. While I don’t identify as a Republican, I do tend to agree with them more than the Democrats. I’m to the right of the Republicans on most economic issues, so voting for Democrats is typically out of the question. On the other hand, parties mean less in local elections, especially here in Mississippi were a lot of your older, hardcore conservative voters self-identify as Democrats and won’t vote for Republicans, period. Also, I’ve found that programs I could never stomach on a national level aren’t so bad on a local level.

Back in my hometown of Belmont, my younger brother ran for alderman. In Belmont (population ~2,000), all the alderman are at-large, and they all run as independents by tradition, so there is no primary. Brandon received the second highest number of votes out of the eight that were running. Most of his opponents were twice his age or better. Congratulations, Brandon!

My dad has been an alderman in Belmont for 21 years, but didn’t run for re-election this time. The other aldermen held a reception to honor him and the retiring mayor a few weeks ago. I’ve got some pictures to post when I get a chance.

Posted in Belmont, Mississippi, Oxford | 1 Comment »

“Our new house”

Friday, March 20th, 2009

As promised, I took some pictures Wednesday when I went to meet the home inspector. You can see them here. I’ve included a few here for those of you that don’t care to see all of them. As I was looking through the pictures I realized I didn’t get a good shot of the right side of the house, or a shot that shows the entire back yard.

As you’ll notice, there are a few things that need to be fixed or tidied up before we move in. This includes refinishing the kitchen cabinets, fixing or replacing the cracked tiles in the kitchen, and painting the front door. Cassie wants to do some painting too. Also, as soon as I we close I want to go ahead and get some more trees in the ground. We’re running out of prime tree planting season.

As for the home inspection, I haven’t gotten the report from the home inspector, but last time I spoke to him (about two hours into the inspection) he said he hadn’t found any major issues.

It occurred to me while I was organizing the pictures that Cassie and I haven’t shared a bathroom in about six years, since we moved out of our first apartment. Of course, given the size of the master bathroom, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m sure I’ll be posting much more about the house.

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Posted in Family, Oxford | 3 Comments »

Buying a house

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Cassie and I started house hunting last week, made an offer yesterday afternoon, and came to an agreement with the seller earlier this evening. We are quite excited about the prospect of being “homeowners.”

The house is in the South Oaks subdivision, which is about half a mile south of where we live now. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and is a little over 1900 square feet. It sits on a 0.96 acre lot on a cul-de-sac, at the edge of the subdivision. The fenced-in backyard is huge, and the lot extends well into the wooded area behind the fence.

There are currently over 1,500 properties on the market in the Oxford area. However, due to our requirements and budget, our options were relatively limited. Firstly, we wanted the house to be in the Oxford School District. We want the kids to go to Oxford city schools (more on that later).

Secondly, we wanted a relatively large yard with some trees. When we began our search we defined “relatively large” as half an acre. We did much better with the yard that I could have ever expected.

On the other hand, we were hoping to get a four bedroom house, or at least three bedrooms and a bonus room. There were a few of those in our price range, but there was always something else “wrong” with them. Three bedrooms is a little on the tight side for us, but it’ll be fine. We plan on moving up in house in five or six years anyway.

The house was originally put on the market in August. The seller dropped the price 7.2% in October, and the price we agreed on was 5.3% below the reduced price. The price we agreed on was a lot less than we initially planned on spending. As our house hunt moved along we decided we’d prefer to spend less on a house and have a little more surplus income. I’m very happy with that decision, and I’m not sure I would have been so relaxed through the whole process if we hadn’t come to that conclusion early on.

Our contract states that we’ll close on or before April 15th, and we plan on being moved in by the end of April. There’s a lot to do between now and then. The first step is a home inspection. I’m sure you’ll be hearing much more about the house.

Posted in Family, Oxford | 6 Comments »

The 29th Annual Lafayette County Bowl Pick

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Two years ago I participated in the Lafayette County Bowl Pick. I didn’t last year, but I’m back in it again this year. To play, you pay $20 and pick a winner for each of the 34 bowl games. The score of the national championship game between Florida and Oklahoma serves as the tie breaker. The winner gets 80% of the pot, second place gets 15%, and third place gets 5%. There were 576 entrants this year, so that means the winner will get $9,216, second place $1,728, and third place $576. Yes, I realize I’m not likely to win, but it’s fun, and it makes watching even the mediocre bowl games more interesting.

My research primarily consisted of reading some bowl picks on ESPN.com and looking at schedules. I spent a total of an hour and a half making my picks, so I’m not going to be able to claim much skill in the case that I do well.

So far I’ve picked 8 of the 11 bowl games correctly, putting me in top 54 or the top 9%. No one has picked all 11 correctly, only 1 person has picked 10 correctly, and only 8 people have picked 9 correctly, so making these picks is a little harder than you might think.

A couple of my picks that went the wrong way have been very close. Troy lost to Southern Miss in overtime by having a relatively short field goal blocked in the New Orleans Bowl. North Carolina lost 30-31 to West Virginia in the Meineke Bowl.

Because someone will ask, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I did pick Texas Tech to beat Ole Miss in the Cotton Bowl. I’ll be cheering for Ole Miss, but the reality of the situation is that we’re unlikely to win. It could happen, but the odds are against it.

As I mentioned, the score of the championship game serves as the tiebreaker, and I picked Florida to beat Oklahoma 34-27. It could really go either way, but I picked Florida to win because I want them to win. I noticed that some people played twice, turning in identical sheets with the exception of the championship game pick and score. That’s a good strategy, but I’m too cheap.

I’ll post a couple of updates as the bowl season progresses.

Posted in Oxford, Sports | No Comments »

Oxford gets a second theater, for the second time

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

According to Friday’s Oxford Eagle, the former Screen Works theater on Sisk Avenue will be reopened as “The Amp” by a new management company. Unlike Screen Works, which competed directly with the Malco, The Amp will show second-run and independent films. And yes, they’ve already applied for their liquor license. I’m assuming they will serve food like Screen Works, not just nachos and hot dogs like most theaters. They plan on opening soon, possibly as early as the end of the month. While the Mrs. and I don’t get many chances to go to the theater these days, it’ll be nice to have another option.

In other Oxford news, we’re getting a Chick-fil-A on West Jackson. Presumably it’ll be open by the time the students return in the fall. Also, the Country Club of Oxford/Grand Oaks is being foreclosed on. Be at the courthouse steps on December 30th at 11am. You might get a good deal.

Posted in News, Oxford | No Comments »

Ole Miss upsets LSU

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

Wow. I was hopeful that we could beat LSU, but I thought I was just being optimistic. Besides, they were the national champions last year, and while they definitely weren’t having another national championship year, they were still No. 18 in the country, and we were playing at their place, appropriately called “Death Valley.” LSU’s fans have been known to register on the Richter scale. So, yes, I was being optimistic to think we would beat them.

As it turns out, we didn’t just beat them, we beat them very solidly, 31-13. It could have been worse too. At the end of the game we went to the “victory formation” inside their five yard line. We missed another good opportunity to score when we intercepted the ball on their end of the field. It was just a well-played ballgame all the way around on our part. Ole Miss football teams have a tendency to fall apart in big games like this, but we didn’t. A lot of credit for that has to go to Coach Nutt. He has a lot of big game experience. His Arkansas Razorbacks beat LSU at home, in triple overtime, last season. LSU went on to win the national championship.

Saturday’s game was the first annual “Magnolia Bowl.” Also, we are now ranked No. 25 in the country in both the AP and Coaches polls.

Assuming we beat Mississippi State next Friday, we’ll get a spot in the Cotton Bowl. I don’t see any way around it. On paper, we beat Mississippi State every time. You can never be sure about rivalry games though. We better not overlook them.

The last bowl game we went to was the 2004 Cotton Bowl. It was Eli Manning’s senior season. The Cotton Bowl is a good, quality bowl, and Ole Miss fans should be thrilled. I know I would have been happy with the Music City Bowl at the beginning of the year.

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Posted in Belmont, Oxford, Sports, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

Big Bad Breakfast

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

I had Tuesday off for Veterans Day, and Cassie, the boys, and I took the opportunity to try out a new restaurant in town, Big Bad Breakfast. As the name implies, it’s a breakfast place, though they serve lunch too. It’s run by John Currence, the same guy responsible for City Grocery and Boure. Click on the link to see their “principles.” They use local ingredients whenever possible and smoke their own sausage and bacon at the restaurant. It’s located in Mid Town Shopping Center, about a mile north of the Square.

I had the “Big Bad Breakfast Plate.” It was quite good. Give it a try if you’re looking for something a little different for breakfast or lunch. I look forward to going back and trying one of their omelets and their andouille sausage.

On an unrelated note, I had forgotten how much fun it was to get a day off in the middle of the week. I may have to do that more often.

Posted in Food, Oxford | 2 Comments »

2008 Presidential Debate in Oxford

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

As I mentioned the other day, Oxford is hosting the first 2008 Presidential Debate. Luke and I went to campus on Monday to take some pictures around the Ford Center, where the debate will take place. The pictures should give you a decent idea of the work that went into hosting the debate. Here they are. Read the captions for more information about each picture.

The pictures aren’t that great for two reasons. First of all, I used my Fuji point and shoot instead of my Canon SLR. I did this primarily because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle Luke and the SLR on the walk to the Ford Center. Also, I was a little concerned the security guys might flip out if I pulled out the SLR. As it turns out, that fear was completely unfounded. There were only a couple of rent-a-cops around the Ford Center, and I saw other people with SLRs. Also, Luke wasn’t real thrilled about being strapped into his stroller. Now that he can walk he likes a little more freedom.

A large tent set up for the journalists covering the debate just east of the Ford Center.

I plan on going back up there in the next few days with my SLR. Hopefully they won’t move anything around until I have a chance to take more pictures. With a tripod and a little time, one could take some really nice pictures around twilight. They have some very interesting lighting on the exterior of the building after dark.

Earlier in the week, the was some concern over whether or not the debate would actually be held. The latest news I’ve heard is that the debate will definitely take place, but possibly without McCain. Early this evening one of the Memphis stations was reporting the McCain “advance team” had done a walk through of the Ford Center. Also, it was being reported that both parties had reached an understanding on the financial bailout. However, it turns out that’s not the case, so it’ll definitely be interesting to see if McCain shows up. If he doesn’t, a one man debate will be interesting as well.

A lot of Oxfordians, myself included, will be upset if the debate doesn’t proceed as planned, with two candidates.

Posted in News, Oxford, Photography, Politics, University of Mississippi | No Comments »

3G in Oxford

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days, but we now have 3G in Oxford (and by “we” I mean AT&T subscribers). What is 3G? Basically it means that I can now get data to my iPhone about five times faster. I haven’t been able to test that out yet, but that’s what they say.

Cassie’s doctor told me a few months ago that he had heard we would be getting 3G because of the debate. According to this article from the Clarion Ledger, we were moved to the top of the list because of the debate. Jackson, Vicksburg, and some suburbs of Memphis are the only other cities in Mississippi with 3G through AT&T.

Posted in Oxford, Technology | No Comments »

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