IS-101: Beyond Journey's End

"Look around, Mr. Becket. The world is coming to an end. So where would you rather die? Here? Or in a Jaeger?" - Marshal Stacker Pentecost

I want to start my blog with a quote that I used in the end of my presentation. If you're wondering why Prof. Wu mentioned in his email and blog post that I had a different approach in presenting, this was the quote I was building my presentation upon.

 
Why that quote?
 
For starters, as college students, we often think about giving up something, sacrificing less important things so we can succeed in life. Having a job, children, social life, love life and private life is hard to juggle and at one point we have to drop something. To all the blog post that I have read and commented on, I have seen a trend that a lot of people are getting overwhelmed with the work Prof. Wu has given us. Giving up, struggling and fighting to do work is the battle that we face every day with this course and in our general life.

But wait! There's more!

While I have seen the trend of dread and despair doing the activities, most blog posts talks about growth. Sharing the experience of learning and seeing their progress in the class is actually inspiring for me, believe it or not. My peers are going through the same pain on doing the assignments yet they see the light at the end of the tunnel. What a rollercoaster of a ride. To all my classmates that are reading this, I hope you apply the growing mindset and pushing through the obstacles on anything that happens in life. Life is short, so make it count.

If you're also wondering why my name changed it's because I want to hide behind the anonymity when posting my blogs. As much as how loud and boisterous my blogs are, I am inherently shy. But since this an online post and I don't have to talk to people, I can just hide my name behind Desmond Doss, a really good figure to look upon. I also people commenting the named Desmond instead of JD which is fine, but someone commented "Desmos". I didn't even notice I became an online website for calculating math equations. I probably forgot the memo. The same experience happened again, remember the Starbucks barista that called me "Jaydee"? Yeah that experience. Made me laugh seeing it though.

 
My experience in IS-101 is not far from different as the next student who is dreading to work the discussion posts, assignments and LabSims. One thing is for certain; majority of this class respects our professor for giving actual real-life scenarios that would help us in the future. The next generation should know common sense and critical thinking skills, not just reliant that everything would be handed to us. That all being said, I hope that all students that got this class enjoyed the journey because I did, it may be not one of our major subjects but at least it made an impression on us students, both the course and the professor.

Little fun fact about my Phase 3 experience: I spent the a whole Friday finishing up chapter 6.1 - .11 plus the practice test and took the actual test the same day. That was a trip for sure.

Chapter 6.6.3 Digital Ink, I choose you! 

This chapter of LabSim is so funny to me. Gives us a lesson to do, never shows up in the practice exam or the exam itself. Refuses to elaborate. What a chad. Interesting lesson though but nothing really sticks out to be that important in this lesson. It's cool to know that you can draw, but it is the least used feature that I would think of. Who thinks "Yes, I would want to draw in my presentation today," well lucky you, we have Digital Ink.

I want to share to the world my last and final thoughts in this blog post before I completely forget about this about a year from now. One of the reasons why I want my blog posts to be whimsical and creative because I know a lot of students only do this just for the assignment. Furthermore, I think students jus skips through long blog posts like this and would only pick something that they can comment on. Nothing wrong with it though, you do you, but look, I made effort to write something and try to make it entertaining. Read it or else you'll have both sides of your pillow be warm. 

I am thankful for the nice comments about my blog post being entertaining to read and sharing their ideas behind the pizza question. i read your comments don't worry. I also want to commend the people who have children that goes to college and people who serves our country while being in college. All power to you guys! And lastly, my peers who are struggling to get by and was entertained by my blog post. You are the real heroes reading them. Creativity is my strong suit and hopefully my blog posts made you smile at some point. 

I purposefully did not create a new slideshow like how they did not make a second movie of Pacific Rim. No it doesn't exist. There is no war in ba sing se. Here's my slides for the presentation:

So would you just give up? Or push yourself to try a little bit harder everyday?

Too Long Didn't Read (TLDR): Hah you thought! I know we're rushing to comment on everyone's post but you got to read the whole thing now! Stop skipping!

If you made it this far great! Now I have a challenge for you. If you comment on this blog post, refrain from starting your comment with "Hi JD" or any of its variation. Don't be a Non-Playable Character (NPC). The world is your oyster or whatever, use a different approach. If not then I hope you lose a sock in the dryer so you'll have uneven pairs of socks.

Now for my outro for the course and blog:

The Quintessential Blog Update for IS101

In this blog, I am going to start off with: "What the heck is happening in Shibuya?" - Megumi Fushiguro, JJK. If you know the reference, fear not as I watered it down so I won't get in trouble. That said, what was going on in Phase 2 of IS101? Well let me tell you.

Phase 2 was everything and nothing all at once. It was learning something new, which was great but something in my mind was telling me not to do it since this is an unknown grounds that would get me stuck for a while. I did get stuck. Excel is a whole new beast to learn even if I am learning the basics of it. Thankfully the practice from Phase 1 took me far enough to understand how Microsoft program every app they made for 365 and my pattern recognition helped me through that. However, the formulas, the reading of every data given and boy those sweet IF statements are a headache to deal with. I have no experience in programming where the fundamentals of it are IF and THEN statements but lo and behold I pushed through. To be frank, I wanted to learn excel because every company uses it and failing to learn this course topic could set me back from my peers, which is not overall bad but Excel should be something that I should be focusing on. The A6 assignment was a pain, for me at least, since I got the wrong perspective in the reading. Although I revised it like 5 times, I still manage to complete it and learn what the passage was all about. Good read, would recommend.

Enough being frank, I am JD, who is frank anyway?

I picked Chapter 5.7.10 Challenge Lab: Use Advanced Functions in this blog post since this made me lose my mind and patience. I attempted this lab multiple times to pass and somehow I was always getting one or two mistakes. It got frustrating to the point that I have to take a walk, only to realize I can't since the assignment is due in 10 mins. Though while frustrating, the learning on the subject and the practice given was actually helpful to the point that I use it when I use Excel personally. The IS101 became a Math course for a while and I despised doing labs, but hey, at least a I pushed through.

Remember earlier I said Phase 2 was everything and nothing all at once? Well, the application part of Phase 2 outside IS101 is almost nothing. Since my current job does not require me to use Excel, I haven't been practicing it to the point that I forget the lessons that was taught to me through LabSim. Unlike, Phase 1, I still remember the lessons, Phase 2 was stress filled to the point that lessons became a blur.

Now Phase 3 has passed when I post this blog, but I got to say my mindset shifted, not in a good way. I think losing the rythm of doing lessons early, being in punctual in class and participating in every way in the course could steer a college career into ruins. What I mean is doing the best you can everyday to pass the class is something to be proud of and should not keep you down when you fail something. It happens, so don't get stuck in the mud and don't be like frank, I keep on being him lately. 

That said, I am still pushing through this last weeks in class and hope to write my last blog post in a timely manner. Also, if you haven't noticed, the title of my blog posts are derived from anime titles, have fun guessing what they are! My last blog post would also have it. Man do I love easter eggs.

I Reincarnated as a College Student That Writes Blogs on the Internet for Progress Reports

The structure of the course is great as it gives us a rundown on what is about to happen in the following weeks. Most instructors give dates in advance to let students know about tests, assignments and projects. What's different about IS101 is the phases make us ready for the challenge and gives students anticipation on to the next one. As part of the spring 2026 class, I am thankful that the research Prof. Wu has done with the phases is now streamlined for us as it makes it easier for him to know where we are struggling and where we are on our course. Tracking a student's progress is not an easy task as my mother is a college professor as well; maintaining that communication between student and teacher can easily be lost on how chaotic semesters go.

All that said, I think I did well on Phase 1 of IS101 as it gave me a rundown on how the semester would flow. It is not an easy task to finish given that I have other responsibilities, but it is organized enough to where I am not all lost when navigating through my LabSim. However, it is not always easy to remember what I am missing in discussion posts as I must go through all my modules to read the things that I have to do. I know I finish them in a timely manner, but trying to remember if I miss something and seeing my grade not getting full credit makes me anxious thinking I missed an assignment.

I think my approach wouldn't be the same for Phase 2 as I know Excel is something not to be trifled with. My familiarity with Microsoft Word helped me go through some questions easily, but I think Excel is a different beast to learn. I understand we are learning the fundamentals, but it is still a chore remembering everything that we need to know to operate or even pass the MO exam for Excel; nevertheless, I know it would be fun and challenging to learn something new.

Word has a lot of functionality and one of those that are underrated and underappreciated are macros. 4.12.2 Macro facts briefly talk about macros and how to use them since we would be working on something that would be repetitive in our lives. Automation and knowing what key to press when making a new document is one way to make our lives easier when it comes to repetitive tasks. It is cumbersome to do the same thing repeatedly but with macros, it is a life saver. Not all people know they can record changes in the document and save them for later use.

My preparations are cut and clean. I try to remember the things that pops into my head when given the sample exams and try to learn the topics that I missed and see what I did wrong. Focusing on what I am lacking for myself, is the most effective way of learning my blind spots when working on something. I think the MO-110 Word exam won't be breeze, but surely enough, I can satisfy the score needed for the exam.

The only thing that I can share with the World Wide Web is one question for now:

Why does pizza comes in a box, is a circle and cut in triangles?

And they say math can't be used in real life situations.

The Student Doesn’t Dream of Introducing Himself

It's really common to say "Hi!" on self-introductions and it gets generic every time you see it. Same thing with "My name is..." and as much as I want to be unique, my vocabulary doesn't let me and the only word stuck in my head right now is to introduce myself as "Gubernatorial" (thanks Deadpool). With all that being out of the way, let me introduce myself.

My parents decided to name me Jann Dale Talplacido and I know my last name is something that would be butchered every time someone reads it, so please just call me JD. It is short and concise, easier for someone to remember unless you're a Starbucks barista who named me "Jaydee", which was interesting.

The thing that I can say about myself is that I am naturally curious, an overachiever and a good listener which is ironic considering I might need someone to repeat themselves several times and laugh awkwardly because I still couldn't hear them. 

I have a background in video production, worked on high school news, and was in sets with different production crews from California. I have an interest in editing videos, playing games, and tinkering with different types of technology, from hardware to software.

Combining my natural curiosity and vivid whimsical imagination, I thought why not get a degree about Cyber security and make it a career, I heard they make a lot of money. Which brings me to my impression with IS101 and it was not something that I expected. 

For starters, I like how the class is structured and the activities that need to be finished are all available for me to work on in advance. The thought of me just going to class and leaving was out the window as soon as I saw how much work that needs to be done in just one assignment. It may be overwhelming for some, including me, since not having to do school work for a couple of years then suddenly getting slammed by different courses is not fun; however, I don't take it as a bad thing because this it what real life is supposed to feel like. Patience and perseverance is the key to passing this class, at least that's how I look at it.

Since I am an overachiever, the skills that I have learned before going to college are all over the place and disorganized, which brings me to the point of why I chose 2.2.4 - Common Operating Systems as a skill that I have experienced with. Over the years, I was always curious about my Xbox, PSP, and phone on how they are running and how do they differ from each other in terms of their software. Slowly and surely, I researched them out of curiosity and saw the different types of operating systems. In present day, I have Windows 11, IOS, MacOS, and SteamOS (a variant of Linux). I may not know the deep ends of all the operating systems that I am using, but surely enough I know that they are useful in their own respective ways.

Windows 11 is the primary operating system that would be used in IS101 which I am familiar with. 

MacOS is usually used for my classes and on the go since my laptop has it and would be another learning material for me.

Linux has different varieties and the one that I have which is called SteamOS is used mostly for games. It is a handheld but runs like a normal computer. I only used this to play games on the go.

Imagination and creativity are my strong suit when it comes to everything that I work on as I try to be more artistic in a sense. I can't draw, play an instrument nor write stories to save my life, but I do my best to make sure something that I would make would be memorable or have an impact. Judging from everything that I wrote, I think I explained enough about myself and personality. 

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you get $20 between your couch cushions.