Some 'sweeping' statements

I was going to do a two-part entry on what was going on in my life these days, but then I realized two things:

1) My life is boring. Two big long essays about my life are enough to put anyone to sleep. Including myself.
2) The Red Sox just swept the Orioles, improving to 5-1 and taking an early commanding lead in the AL East. This requires my immediate attention. So without further ado, here are my impressions of the Sox' opening week.

-Coco Crisp isn't really what I expected. I was hoping to see a prototypical Red Sox leadoff man, a guy walks his ass off and slugs a homer every now and then, rather than the typical leadoff guy who hits singles and steals bases. Coco has yet to go deep in a Red Sox uniform, and his total of just two walks is pretty lousy for a player on the Red Sox, who value on-base guys above all else. But he went 8 for 24, so I can't be too disappointed.

-In fact, I hate to admit it but I'm kinda excited about him being hurt. (It's just a day-to-day finger injury, so I don't feel too bad about that.) I really like Adam Stern, especially after his WBC performance, and I'm happy for him now that he'll get some consistent playing time in Coco's absence. We'll see... it may even be his big break.

-I really, really, really, REALLY miss Doug Mirabelli. For most teams, backup catchers aren't that important, since even catchers only need a day off every week or two, but for the Sox, Tim Wakefield needs a catcher who can handle a knuckleball. And I can't stand Josh Bard. It's not just that he's 1 for 7 so far -- it's also that he's a career .237 hitter who can't walk and has minimal power and no speed. Offensively, he's just plain horrendous. And it's not as though we really have any long-term plan to cure this problem -- we traded Kelly Shoppach for Bard, and it's gonna be tough to teach Varitek to catch a knuckler at this point.

Knuckleballers age extremely well (Charlie Hough retired at 46, and Phil Niekro was 48, for two examples), and Wake's only (yes, that's right, I said only) 39. I'm starting to worry that if Bard continues to stink up the catcher's box at Fenway and Stern continues to be a solid performer in Coco's absence, then we'll begin to realize just how bad the Andy Marte trade was. It doesn't help that Throw-In #2, also known as David Riske, got roughed up in the only appearance he's made so far, against the Rangers. Oh, and by the way, Guillermo Mota hasn't allowed a run in four and a third innings of work so far. Ugh.

-I am absolutely overjoyed with the contract extension that David Ortiz just signed. $52 million over four years? Are you kidding me? Barry Bonds gets $23M a year, Derek Jeter gets 23, and even Carlos Delgado gets 18. The Red Sox just secured one of the best hitters in the game for a measly 13 million a year. Incredible.

-If I hear Dan Shaughnessy make one more Jonathan Papelbon and Keith Foulke/Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe comparison, I think I'm probably going to go insane. Tom Brady is a quarterback who carried the Patriots to all of their three Super Bowl titles; Jonathan Papelbon, as much as I love him, is a relief pitcher who pitches one inning a game.

Really, I absolutely adore Papelbon. But the fact of the matter is, he, Foulke and Mike Timlin are all going to get tons of innings, and whether they do it in the seventh, eighth or ninth isn't that big a deal. For the record, Papelbon is the better pitcher (Francona said it himself -- he's pitching better than anyone in baseball right now), but I'm not sure it matters too much when they're all getting their innings in. The whole "closer controversy" is an interesting story, I guess, but it's getting blown way out of proportion.

-Honestly, are the Sox ever going to lose again? The week starts off with the vastly-overrated Blue Jays, who have put A.J. Burnett on the disabled list, and just gave Roy Halladay the ball for Sunday's loss to the Devil Rays. That means that Beckett, Clement, and Schilling match up with Gustavo Chacin, Ted Lilly and Josh Towers. Give me a break. It's especially nice to look forward to these games now that all three of our starters have wins under their belts, since there were doubts surrounding all three before the season started.

After the Jays, we get Seattle, followed by Tampa Bay. It may be 10 games in 10 days, but it's 10 ridiculously easy games. I'm looking forward to them.

EDIT:
P.S. This is the most amazing photograph ever taken.

On school, and the rest of life

Okay, so I'm kind of an idiot. I told myself I'd wait to write here again until after I had settled my school situation for next year (classes, housing, etc, etc, etc). That way I'd be able to tie up all the loose ends I left after my last entry, and somehow my life would begin to magically make sense to me again.

I failed to realize that that would mean a month with no blogging, which is way more than I like to give myself. Seriously, I do try to keep this thing up to date, and there were several times over the past 33 days when I said to myself something along the lines of "Hmmm, I'm kinda bored now, should I go write something? Nah... I told myself I'd wait."

Well, I'm back. Better late than never.

As for the past month, it's been a good one. Housing worked out well -- I got a huge double room in a really nice dorm. It's in the far corner of the top floor, but it's still nice. I'm enjoying classes a lot, and I feel as though I'm getting a lot out of them. My grades so far could be better, but I'm doing everything I can to bring those up (going to extra review sessions, reading and rereading study guide books, and, uhh... trying really, REALLY hard to pay attention in astronomy, but it's not easy).

As for my future academically, my registration for next semester happens to be about an hour from now. I worked out a schedule for the semester about a month ago, and I thought I was good to go until about 9 o'clock last night. That's when I realized that my entire future was horribly misguided.

Okay, not really. But until last night, I had been planning on double-majoring in English and economics. Then, a friend pointed out to me that it was stupid of me to go for economics rather than quantitative economics, which is viewed as a much tougher major, earns students a lot more respect, and generally tends to make its students go on to be rich, successful, fat and happy. The only major difference between the two fields (okay, wow, that was the worst pun ever... I apologize) is the three extra math courses that QE majors have to take. I looked over my AP scores, and... sure enough, I would be stupid not to go into QE. My Calc AB score got me out of one requirement, and my BC score got me out of another. Basically the only difference between the two majors was one linear algebra course.

So... allow me to introduce myself. My name is Evans Clinchy, and I am an English and quantitative economics double major.

Or so I believe.

So anyway, I scrapped my entire plan for my schedule last night. I switched microecon and macroecon to quantitative microecon and macroecon. I switched my English courses (I kept Non-Fiction Writing, which is taught by my favorite professor, but moved into Continuity of American Literature for a second one). And for my fifth class, I would really, really, really like to schedule some sort of fine arts credit.

The only problem is that I really, really, really want to take Screenwriting I for drama credit (basically, you just get to write a movie and get a grade for it), but the class filled up when juniors signed up for classes yesterday. That pisses me off, because this is Tufts and our juniors are supposed to be going abroad, not stealing slots in the classes that I want. So I emailed the professor and begged to be considered for any spots that open up in the future. She emailed me back this morning inviting me to the first class and encouraging me to add the class as soon as someone drops it. Then she sends me a second email telling me that I'm the third person to ask her, so I won't get priority. Greeeeeeat.

So I start looking around for a backup, just in case. Can I get my second science credit out of the way? No... I want to take the next astronomy class, and that conflicts with English. Can I get my World Civilizations credit out of the way? No... I want to take Economies of the Middle East (it's a QE credit... two birds, one stone, you get the picture), and that's not offered this semester. Can I knock out a Spanish credit? No... I'm still looking for a way out of that. I don't really feel like taking Spanish ever again, to be honest.

So, since I had no other option (and because I hate myself), I began looking around for a third English class. And, lo and behold, I found one.

English 83. Un-American Activities: Popular Culture and the Left.
How leftist and liberal politics have shaped popular culture in the United States. Left's responses to characterizations of it as "un-American." Relations between politics and popular culture, from 1940s to present. Development of youth culture and its effects on radical politics. How class intersects with race, gender, and sexuality. Emphasis on film, theater, and television, with attention to relevant literary texts. Offered fall 2002 and alternate years thereafter.

"Fall 2002, Fall 2004, Fall 2006..." I began counting semesters on my fingers. Yep, it's offered this coming semester. Count me in.

So that's my schedule, and I'm about half an hour from finding out if it'll be official. Pray for me.