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.