Thursday, May 14, 2026

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:



10 comments:

  1. Hi Janndale, I liked reading your post because it really feels like you are looking back at the semester honestly instead of just saying everything was easy. IS101 really felt like one long process of trial and error, especially with Excel and all the small details that could completely change an assignment if one thing was wrong. I also think your title fits well because after all the quizzes, projects, presentations, and LabSim work, it really does feel like the end of a long journey. Sometimes I still cannot believe how much we had to learn in such a short amount of time.

    What stood out to me the most was how your post focused more on growth and experience rather than just grades. I think this class forced many of us to become more patient, especially during moments where technology decided to fight back for no reason. Even now I still feel stressed when working on complicated Excel functions because one small mistake can break everything. Still, looking back at the beginning of the semester compared to now, I think we all improved a lot more than we expected.

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  2. I really hate when my socks get lost in the dryer, so no no, thank you very much JD (aka Desmond lol). I do really hope you don't forget about posting something now and then, you post are enjoyable and easygoing to read. I wish you success, even though we’ve never properly met, and I hope you keep it up!

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  3. JD, hi. I'll be honest, I skip through a lot of the posts but I jumped to the part where you called students like me out, haha. It's seriously impressive to do Chapter 6 in one sitting but good for you for conquering it. I loved your alias "Desmond Doss," good choice!

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  4. I remember being in class and seeing your presentation, it's probably one of my favorites. I wish I had the guts to make my blog posts a little more whimsical like yours but for some reason social anxiety spreads to even my online activities. Most of the time I don't really have anything to say especially online. After everything said and done all that matters at the end of the day is that I was able to learn valuable habits and information.

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  5. Hi JD, I think a lot of people felt stressed with the assignments too, but it’s nice how you focused on the growth everyone had by the end of the class.

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  6. Hey JD! I also saw the trend of many people feeling overwhelmed, but using it as a learning experience! It's nice that you also found this takeaway!

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  7. Hi JD. I really enjoyed your presentation about Pacific Rim. You did an incredible job with comparing the different categories of Jaegers and Kaijus. The presentation made me want to watch the movie.

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  8. JD you and me are in the same group although I didn't do all of chapter 6 in a day, for me it was 3 days and the test of that last day. It definitely was an experience but luckily powerpoint was the easiest of the three to gamble on like that.

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  9. Howdy "Desmos!" I really enjoyed all of your posts throughout the semester, every single one felt creative and unique. Finishing the entirety of Chapter 6 and taking the certification exam in one day is honestly impressive! Props to you. You never exactly answered the pizza question, but you're probably off busy fighting Kaiju, so I forgive you.

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  10. Interesting! I did hear about you, but I'm from Saturday morning class. Seems like you did a great job and the slides themselves are already looking very polished and nice. I wish I could have seen presentations like yours from the Friday evening class. :'(

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