http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xu1Kb09yk8&NR=1

Hello from all of us here at etna. It happens to be a monday at etna. In a few hours it will be a tuesday at etna. Arvind is always at etna, Hassan is strugging at etna, and Tapan is “if not at etna, then where else?”.  Saumil is mondays at etna. Where does that leave you with regards to etna?

-Prash

‘Nuff said

Prash -> “Swear word” …I will win.

Thank me later.

Hi guys,

Its been a while since we have published on the site and I figure prash’s post shouldn’t be the most prominent thoughts held by the etna brand. Thus I have decided to push his thoughts up the page.

Thank me later.

Arv

Add my Facebook app. It’s pending approval from Facebook, so it’s not public yet but you can just visit the homepage. If you want to hear more about it, I just wrote an article on my blog. Check that out here.

hope everyone is having a good break (or for those not some fortunate, hope everyone is having a good time at school!)

My Winter Break

Hope everyone is enjoying their winter breaks. For me this break has been a healthy mix of just lounging on the couch watching college football (too bad all the BCS games were boring) and trying to actually do something worthwhile. Right now, I’m writing this post in HTML, something I started to do yesterday. It’s nothing special but hopefully it’s just the beginning of my foray into the many languages of the interwebs (my new term for the internet).

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Why Do It?

I know many people are going to wonder who would willingly give themselves more work to do. But I don’t see it as work, more like an attempt to add to my skillset and challenge myself to learn something new. It is tedious at times and typing in brackets all the time is pretty annoying but I feel so much more accomplished making a header than simply clicking the “b”. And that sense of achievement is what I’m striving for. It’s much different than getting an A in school because that’s required of me. Learning this skill is something I can take pride of myself in. Although the task can be daunting, like when I found out I’d have to learn CSS too, conquering that mountain is like learning to ride a bike. Its something you see other people doing and want to do yourself. So to everyone I say: find something you want to learn or improve on, something you don’t already do, and do it. If you follow through with it, you’ll really appreciate the effort you put into it.

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Hopefully next time I’ll throw in some real styling and make the HTML worthwhile. Enjoy the rest of break!

So here I am sitting at the Detroit airport…for the past four hours. What to do with my time. Having no internet, I was forced to use my computer in some other way. Shocking, I know. What the hell do we do with our computer with no internet? We write blogs of course; then again, I’m writing in TextEdit, since I can’t yet publish it on the internet.

Desperately searching for a solution to my boredom, I ended up consolidating all of my files and applications, a tedious process that would only be done when one is bored. However, I realized something important as I deleted and renamed: I am incredibly anal about little things on my computer. Ever since I became comfortable with using a computer, I have always made it a goal of mine to make all of my files look clean and be named uniformly. My desktop cannot look cluttered; it must look good. But then I ask, why do this? What possible satisfaction do I get from having my computer look (and be) clean?

The answer - or at least my rationalization of a clearly pathetic situation - is that our computer is a representation of ourselves. Insulting or criticizing someone’s computer is tantamount to taking a shot at his/her driving. Driving is part of the personality; any remark about one’s driving is a direct insult at his/her character. Why that’s the case I do not know, but it just is. And so it is with our computers. Saying someone’s computer is inadequate, ugly, not reaching its potential, a poor performer, and so on and so forth, is simply unacceptable. Not only does this offend me as an EECS guy, but it also offends me as a person. (”And this offends you as a Jewish person….No, it offends me as a comedian…”)

The following is directed at those who know how to use and personalize his/her computer: Sock anyone who takes a shot at your computer. Or if violence isn’t your thing, at least defend it like it’s your baby. For most nerds, it is. WARNING: If you know nothing or care little about your computer, then you may very well be a victim of ad hominem attacks.

Let me come back to my point about personalizing one’s computer. My desktop is essentially a reflection of my character. If I have a bunch of random, unsightly files on my desktop, then it shows that I care little about the way I keep myself. If my mp3 files are named randomly from that crap we download from Limewire (e.g. [www.coolmp3s.com/yeaaaaaaa/jAyZ/rock boyz [note the misspelling]), then clearly I do not strive for perfection. Obviously I’m using hyperbole to reinforce an otherwise frail point, but I just hope those of you who care about your computers take the time to make it look clean and maximize its efficiency with system updates and regular consolidation. As a technological variation to Descartes’ famous quote, “I type, therefore I am.”

Yes, we’re an EECS house at heart.

(And in the middle of the article’s completion and its submission, I flew from Detroit to Columbus and now I’m sitting on my couch watching Sportscenter. Ahh, the life.)

Etnanine says “Howdy, prashant” to me in the top right corner after I sign in, so to the readers of etnanine I say,

Howdy, readers.

Precursor: I just finished my 8am final that I stayed up all night studying for. I was assisted by a 5 hour energy drink my friend, Ankit Desai, purchased from Walgreens and allowed me to consume in the library. At first I was a little shaky but after a while I felt pretty good. I don’t really know if it had any effect, but I’m still awake at 11am writing a post so maybe that’s my answer. Let me tell you this though, the drink/shot isn’t FDA-approved, also, I just ate a spicy chicken burrito i purchased from taco bell last night at 8pm….at 1030 am today. After I finish this post, Arvind will likely wake up to begin his day, and I will probably fall asleep into tomorrow’s AM.

The real post: My epiphany the other day, was that people are mostly good most of the time because they are expected to be. People don’t give other people respect for the things they are expected to do. 99% of the things we do for others might be genuine, but they really only get attention when they don’t happen or happen incorrectly. You can do something right 99 days in a row, but the one day you forget and your friend/girlfriend/parent/sibling gets mad at you is the only thing they’ll remember for a while.

It’s the small things people judge you on. The 1% of things that are up in the air, not expected, variable. Past the baseline things we are expected to do for others, are the genuine things we do for people we care about, and past that, a small fraction of what we do shows our true subconscious feelings towards others. That really determines what people think of you, and going that extra mile for someone can mean all the difference in the world. When you do something someone does not expect of you, that’s the real deal.

-Prashant

I took a little time today to read some of the posts of my housemates, and I have to say I’m impressed. Not because I have any right to be, but because what started out as a foolish way to make money (Akshay, Hassan, and me on the stairs one evening), has turned into something so much more important. I can see the people in our house, including myself, using this as an avenue to share their thoughts and feelings that don’t usually come out of a guys mouth. While all of us at etnanine are great friends, guys aren’t usually ones to share some of the things I’ve read on this blog. We might have our emotional moments at times, but usually these are far and spread apart as well as incomplete. This isn’t to say guys don’t have deep conversations, I know we do all the time, but complete, articulated emotional thoughts like the ones I’m reading on etnanine are hard to come by from any guy. I know Akshay and recently Pavan started blogs partly (or mainly) for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and feelings that can’t come out through any other means. I dabbled in this as well with my old blog at shuklap.googlepages.com, which I think is still active. This blog for me is showing me a whole new perspective on some of my good friends that I never would have seen. These posts are adding an aspect of vulnerability to my friends and myself that guys are trained to avoid. This vulnerable side to guys is usually only revealed to close significant others and really good friends if at that, and I think it’s amazing that we are willing to now share this side with effectively the entire world (or anyone that can get on the Internet and surf to our site). Props.

On that note, I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about recently. As a precursor, I didn’t realize or remember when I decided to write about this that Hassan’s latest post gets at much the same point I do (I think I read his post a couple days ago), but I still wanted to expand/share my thoughts because I’ve been having them for a while now. All of us at some point or another have failed to do something simply because we were afraid we would fail. It sounds irrational yet it is a disease everyone falls prey to at some point or another. Whether it be to speak up in defense of someone when you know you should, or join a club, or run for a position, or try something new, or practice that much harder, or study that much harder, all of us at some point have fallen short of our potential. Economics has taught me at least one valuable life lesson, in that you can’t compare what you’ve done to anything absolute, but rather to your potential. Not studying that extra hour that could make a difference on a test is a failure. If you know in your conscience you have studied everything possible only then can you truly reach your potential. Some of you might be thinking that not studying hard enough is just a sign of laziness, but I think there is more to it than that. Part of it might be the fact that all of us are somewhat lazy, but I believe that, at least for me, sometimes I’m afraid that I won’t do well after trying my hardest, and that isn’t a realization I want to come to, so I avoid working my hardest just to not prove myself insufficient. I’m not sure if anyone else knows what I’m talking about, but it’s something that I am going to work to change.

After a recent conversation at home with some old speech and debate friends, some of which are still in high school speech and debate, I’ve realized that I miss debate a lot. My goal either for next semester or next year is to give college-level Parliamentary debate a legitimate shot because I know I will regret not doing so once I graduate.

I want to wish everyone good luck on their finals, and I hope everyone that is reading this blog has a relaxing, refreshing break back at their respective homes. That isn’t to say that I’m hoping that people who aren’t reading this blog have a bad break, but you get my point.

-Prashant

Ever since my first club soccer game my dad told me to “keep my head in the game.” What? What does that even mean? Obviously I’m paying attention to the game, dad.

But recently his words have taken on whole new meaning.

While watching Pakistan play a Test match versus India recently I noticed something extremely important about the way the Pakistanis were playing. Always against the ropes, looking strained at best and ready to collapse at worst. Their batsmen, bowlers, fielders everyone seemed to be playing not to lose. Their heads weren’t in the game.

Being in the game is so much more than just running with the ball. It’s about actively thinking about what you need to do and how you’re going to do it. Taking time off mentally puts you at a huge disadvantage because it allows your opponent to get a step ahead of you. Keep yourself in the game at all times and it leaves your opponent with no room for error.

We’ve all heard Yogi Berra’s infamous quote that “90% of the game is half mental” and aside from some obvious delinquencies in fractions, he was on to something. Winning the game isn’t about just being physically superior, if it was Alex Rodriguez would have 5 titles by now, its about keeping yourself in a position to win.

The analogy works well in sports but how do you translate it to all other walks of life? School? Relationships?

Personally, I’ve always been afraid of failure. Opting to take the easy route (which most often means obscurity) in order to avoid criticism. But recently I’ve come to realize the limitations I impose on myself. My dad (yeah, he’s a smart guy) always told me to go and fail something. For most of my childhood I ignored that and instead protected myself from failure by keeping it simple - do well in school, avoid girls (so I don’t get rejected), and never really fully commit yourself so you always have a way out. But I don’t think I ever grew. If anything, college has given me ample opportunity to fail and I’ve accepted the invitation with open arms.

I’ve spent a lot of time this semester doing some self-reflection. Overall, the semester has been extremely inconsistent for me. One week I’m taking care of classes extremely well, the next I’m all about my friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get all of my things taken care of at once. I feel as if I’ve fallen prey to the same defeatist attitude of Pakistani cricketers. I’m not playing to succeed but to just take care of what’s in front of me. If I have midterms coming up, that’s all I’m doing. If I feel alienated from friends, then thats where my attention goes. The problem is that it’s a rather circular process. As I compensate for last week, I’m setting myself up for a new round of issues for next week, and so on…

So if 90% of the game is half mental and I’m obviously thinking about things the wrong way, it can’t be going too well. But what is the right way? It always feels as if it’s easier to make the wrong decision because its the most appealing at the time. “Sleep in and skip lecture today? Sure, I’ll have more energy to work right after.” But it never seems to work quite how I planned.

I’ve talked about this off and on with a few friends, a lot of us seem to share the same sentiments but only a select few really know how to get things done. And I personally believe my troubles lie with how I view myself. After my first semester here I told myself it was okay not to do well because I’m an engineer and I’m taking hard classes. Holding myself to a lower standard has served to only limit the amount that I challenge myself. It’s given me the ability to tell myself to just play not to get out.

I think it’s time I got my head in the game.