--- title: "Next Week is a Whole Week Away and Other Equivalent Statements" date: "2026-05-05" author: Etash Jhanji description: "A recap of some lessons learned in S26 and freshman year as a whole" keywords: ["cmu", "computer science", "college"] link: https://etashj.github.io/blog/S26 raw-link: https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/S26.md --- As I wrap up the second semester of my freshman year, I am happy to be able to say that this stuff is lowkey hard. Never before have I felt such a sense of imprisonment from work, so much so that escaping today was easily the highlight of my week after the latest possible calc final. And though he had his way with the 266 students, Clive left us with at least one lesson (I hope).
me when im free for 3 months
me when im free for 3 months
## Next week is a whole week away \- Clive Newstead Bestowed upon us by Clive (fly high 🕊️) among his many other Cliveisms such as "let's get crackin'" and "let's get physical! physical!" is "next week is a whole week away." ~~While this may seem like some LinkedIn slop, I'm thrilled to announce that it's so much more.~~ Throughout these two semesters I have found myself working to the brink of exhaustion to the point where it is functionally pointless to even study. Often, there is no real reason to take a break: there's always more practice problems to do. Turns out it's as simple as remembering that there's a limit to what you can and should do. The exam is in a week? I'll study this weekend. Oh I forgot to study? [I'll study tonight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination). The game of rebalancing your academic life for other classes and a social life (whenever and wherever it is found) is one that is fundamental to independent learning and living. Often you will find that you are more capable of finishing a task than you thought, though I don't condone procrastination. Whether it's finishing an assignment a day later than expected or studying for a test a couple days before rather than a week before (or learning Stokes' Theorem 15 minutes before the 266 final), sometimes we all need a reminder that next week is a whole week away. And, I can't lie, the way that final felt, studying more wouldn't have made that much of a difference, no matter how much dwindling motivation I had. ## Live, Laugh, Larp I probably stole this one from Twitter. Somewhere in the depths of the internet, someone found a piece of culture interesting and began to attempt to incorporate it into their identity. The person who already thought that culture was interesting, on the other hand, decided to call this "larp." While this seems like a justifiable reason to be upset at a surface level, it only gatekeeps and puts down people with genuine interests. Despite that, a second, more important case of "larp" is when people are attacked for doing something that seems, for lack of a better word, performative. But despite all the attacks that you may face, I like to abide by one rule that is to stick by your identity. Whether this is your morals, values, beliefs, or whatever else, and whether it is consistent or inconsistent, stay true to yourself. Larp as much as you'd like. It's not performative to express yourself honestly. There's no issue with being wrong once while trying to learn something new. We all face those pitfalls, and a kind person will help you onto your feet and guide you through with understanding, but it doesn't take long on the internet to learn that people are far from ideal. Regardless of what anyone says it is important to stand with yourself. After all, who else will? ## Packing it Up This section was almost called "Zip it Up When You're Done", make of this fact what you will. Another important lesson I learned this semester is one of closure. It's often you find yourself in a difficult situation where you know it would be optimal to cut things off, but as people we tend to avoid awkward things like that. This semester was a reminder that you should always put yourself first and take responsibility for yourself and your actions. You need to pack your own bag and zip it up when you're done ;) It will feel a million times better afterwards. #### Goodbye for now As an epilogue to packing it up, as I packed up my room today I felt an eerie sense of nostalgia for the stuffy room that is MOE-310 (you should find out of this room still exists as of when you are reading this, if the internet exists and such). Something about a room being stripped to bare white walls feels very violating, it felt like moving in again, especially since most of E-Tower was barren. It's quite odd how things latch onto you like that. Anyways, I should credit my roomate who was highkey the best. Check out Yinuo's blog whenever it drops on his [website](https://snowballsh.github.io/blogs/). The rest of this blog is probably about classes, TAing 122, and maybe scavenging/retro tech. Read more plz. ----------- ## The boring stuff ### Spring 2026 - Schedule | Code | Name | Units | |--------|------------------------------------------------|-------| | 09-101 | Intro to Experimental Chemistry | 3 | | 15-213 | Introduction to Computer Systems | 12 | | 15-150 | Principles of Functional Programming | 12 | | 21-266 | Vector Calculus using Matrix Algebra | 10 | | 76-101 | Interpretation and Argument (FYW, Virtue & Violence) | 9 | | 24-203 | TechSpark: Machine Shop | 3 | | 18-059 | Introduction to Amateur Radio | 3 | My favorite course this semester was easy 15-213, systems programming and programming in C in general is so interesting regardless of how mind numbingly frustrating debugging can be. Additionally, being a TA is an incredible experience. In my opinion,if you are on the fence, you should apply. Somewhat relevant(?), I like to read the [Herb Simon Award Acceptances](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsfacts/simon.html) and one of my favorites is [John Mackey's "What's love got to do with it?"](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsfacts/mackey-simon.html). Also consider [Alan J. Perlis Award](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~scsfacts/perlis.html). ### Scavenge Finds this Semester - (Three) [2011 Thunderbolt Displays](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/display.jpeg) - Highk broke one of them - My goat Prof. Riccardo Penco in Wean gave me his TB3 to TB2 adapter - SCS computing facilities gave me a free TB2 cable :) - I love this school - Blade servers (and so much [RAM](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/ram.jpeg)) - [iPod Shuffles](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/ipod.jpeg) (thank you Sid, Athreya) - [MacBook Pro 2013](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/mbp.jpeg) (thank you Lee, Sid) from which I am curently writing this - My new linux machine, CachyOS and Dank Material Shell (thank you Sid, Krit) - Macbook Air 2013 (thank you Lee) - Will be donating this one :) - A gigabit switch - I used to pray for times like this 🙏 - [Bed mounted cable management](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/switch.jpeg) - Now my server and both displays have gigabit speeds in my dorm - [A 1080 Ti](https://etashj.github.io/raw-blog/assets/S26/gpu.jpeg)