re: If you had to live in Mississippi or Alabama, which would you choose?

Sounds like you are trolling, but I'll give my opinion anyway. For perspective, I've lived in the following cities -

Atlanta, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Birmingham, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Ruston, Louisiana
Beaumont, Texas

Alabama - I am pretty familiar with most of the state, a lot more than I am with Mississippi.

From Birmingham to north and east are the Appalachian Mountains, great places for a drive and outdoor activities with lots of parks, waterfalls, etc. Birmingham has more than a million residents in the metropolitan area and has world class medical treatment and research facilities. Views of downtown from atop Red Mountain are great. Lots of museums, restaurants, college sports, etc. Barber Motorsports is considered the Augusta of race tracks and in addition to the large motorcycle museum, it hosts motorcycle races, Indy car races, and is home to the Porsche driving school. Most people that complain about crime in Birmingham have never lived in a medium or large city anywhere else.

Huntsville is either first or second in the country for highest concentration of engineers and people with advanced degrees. Home to NASA and military contractors. Tennessee River runs by and has lots of great outdoor activities.

Mobile is a beautiful southern city and nearby Gulf Shores / Orange Beach has powdery white sand beaches. Mobile actually has quite a few hills and isn't your typical flat land city on the gulf.

I'll add some positive comments on Mississippi. I've driven a lot through there. It also is very pretty on the back roads and has more terrain than Louisiana and southeast Texas. They do a great job maintaining their interstates and state highways. You'll notice a big difference between say 59 and 20 versus 10 and 12 through Louisiana. People are very friendly there too.