The Doppler Effect » dcds http://brianjtan.com Random bits of everything. Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:17:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 December Days http://brianjtan.com/2006/12/14/december-days/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/12/14/december-days/#comments Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:22:49 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/2006/12/14/december-days/ December 14th sure got here quickly. Just one more day (most of which I will be spending at court settling some traffic shenanigans) before winter break. It’s truly hard to believe how fast this year has flown by. But anyways I thought I’d post my latest column for The Day Times:

Dear Brian,

What are the steps to attaining nirvana?

May the sun always shine on your garden.

Sam Bayoff

Dear Sam,
That’s a question I’ve often asked myself, as nirvana was certainly at the top of my Christmas wish list. Unfortunately for me, nirvana isn’t something easily purchased in the Black Friday Bargain Bin (unless you’re referring to the In Utero album I picked up at FYE for $7.99), nor does my behavior merit any kind of present from Santa Claus. So to answer your question, I embarked on a long dangerous journey to Google which brought me to Buddhism for Dummies. According to the experts at Dummies.com, there are four stages on the path to realizing nirvana. That’s more steps than it takes for me to make my cereal in the morning. With all the obligations I have for school, I don’t even know the steps to attaining nap time outside of class. From what I’d heard, senior year should equate roughly to nirvana, but the Big Bad Wolf that is my French test tomorrow blew that house down quite easily. I have decided that it’s probably better that I can’t call myself the proud owner of a nirvana membership card; after all, that’d be like me doing all my homework now so I wouldn’t have any for the rest of the year. That’s just outrageous.

Dear Brian,

I need some help, is Pluto a planet or not? I know this is a topic better asked a few months ago but I am still very confused and I can’t sleep at night.

Chris Kneale

Dear Chris,

As a kid, I took comfort in knowing that the nine planets would always make a clever mnemonic: My very elegant mother just served us nine pizzas. However, I hate to break it to you but Pluto is no longer a member of the planetary family. What does this mean for all of us? It means my elegant mother is serving us nachos from now on instead.

Amongst other (more exciting) things. I got accepted into Cornell University today! Now all I have left is to not mess up what I’ve done thus far in senior year. I hope everyone’s college applications are going smoothly. I’m defiantly looking forward to the second semester.

What colleges are y’all going to? And is anyone up for snowboarding (if it ever snows) over break?

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/12/14/december-days/feed/ 0 You know this, it’s in the book! http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/24/you-know-this-its-in-the-book/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/24/you-know-this-its-in-the-book/#comments Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:30:32 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/2006/10/24/you-know-this-its-in-the-book/ Carl Westhoff. A man of wisdom, knowledge, and ungodly amounts of sex appeal. Those of us who were blessed with the opportunity to be his students, hold the experience close to our hearts. As a teacher, being asked to homecoming and prom by a slew of girls, and guys, is a testament to Dr. Westhoff’s appeal. What makes Dr. Westhoff so special? First of all, the way he carries himself portrays an aura of excellence. From the way he walks, to the way he can roll his eyes to the back of his head like a zombie, Doc is what I like to call a champion at life. While most people like to share exciting or bizarre stories. Doc’s stories lack a clear message or anything extraordinarily exciting for that matter; they leave you wondering if it was really worth wasting the entire class period to hear. But then you immediately realize that you should’ve expected what you got. It is Carl Westhoff we’re talking about here. For a man who played 12 games with the New York Yankees, served in the military, and got his doctorate, Doc is a man who commands respect. He has a right to his quirkiness and everyone could learn a thing or two from him. As one of the most laid back people I’ve ever met, he’d tell everyone at DCDS this if only he cared enough to. Calm down people, everything will be alright.

Doc Westhoff, we love you.

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/24/you-know-this-its-in-the-book/feed/ 4 Williams-isms http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/03/williams-isms/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/03/williams-isms/#comments Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:59:09 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/2006/10/03/williams-isms/ Every once in a while, you meet someone who (seems to) know the answers to everything. Mr. John Williams (my Calculus teacher, not the composer of the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park soundtracks) is one of these people. Here are a few gems that might help you realize how stupid you are.

Listen folks, you’re going to walk into a board room one day and give a presentation. You’ll say ‘Sales are down’. What’s the first question they’re gonna ask you? ‘Why?’ And you better understand why because if you say ‘Uhh, well the graph goes down’, then it’s game over. Folks, that’s life.

Do you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about all the time? Try some of these.

Well shoot, I say it’s wrong…I could teach you all of this the wrong way and every single one of you would believe me

But in all seriousness, someone please prove him wrong one day. It would also help if you’re a girl. That would hurt deep in his soul. Anyone else got any more good ones?

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/10/03/williams-isms/feed/ 3 Back to skool and other shenanigans http://brianjtan.com/2006/09/24/back-to-skool-and-other-shenanigans/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/09/24/back-to-skool-and-other-shenanigans/#comments Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:34:34 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/2006/09/24/back-to-skool-and-other-shenanigans/ Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated this joint. It’s been pretty ridiculous since school started. It’s been all good so far, classes are good, people are cool as usual with the exception of calc class, sleeping all through pre-calc last year certainly didn’t help my case. With the start of school, also comes the annual assembly with the raffle of some pretty nice stuff. Being a senior, and a lifer, it hurts deep in my soul to have not won so much as a pack of gummy bears in 7 years…

On a different note, last week I did an official visit to Cornell University. It was a jolly good time, I spent the weekend hangin’ out with the track team, went to a Strokes concert and went to some classes, most notably Psych 101. Due to the world renowned professor, the class is a mind boggling 1500 students. Also I got to hold THE torch used at the 1984 summer Olympic Games, which was kind of a big deal for me. Anyways Cornell is pretty sweet and if anyone is unsure about applying there, I’d say defiantly do it because it’s a great school that has a lot to offer, not to mention some of the best dining halls anywhere. I was actually surprised by the size of the city surrounding it, I expected Ithaca to be much more rural than it was. While the visit was totally sweet, the college application process totally sucks.

So senior year has been pretty good so far, despite a rocky start. There’s only 121 days left…:shock:
So is anyone else applying to Cornell?

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/09/24/back-to-skool-and-other-shenanigans/feed/ 0 Schedule http://brianjtan.com/2006/08/14/schedule/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/08/14/schedule/#comments Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:04:36 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/2006/08/14/schedule/ Schedules came out today. As of today, Tuesday, August 15th Wednesday, August 23rd, it’s

  1. AP/IB Calculus AB – Willams
  2. Environmental Science AP/IB – Menton
  3. American Government/Economics – Corwin
  4. French V – Steffan
  5. Free Period (minus “Señor Bobes” :shock: )
  6. Law and Literature – Caton
  7. Statistics AP – Langley

As usual, this is subject to change. Let me know if we have any of the same classes.

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/08/14/schedule/feed/ 1 Exam Shenanigans http://brianjtan.com/2006/06/07/exam-shenanigans/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/06/07/exam-shenanigans/#comments Wed, 07 Jun 2006 19:50:45 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/blog/2006/06/07/exam-shenanigans/ There’s officially one day left of school. How am I supposed to enjoy this fact when I have my math and history exam weighing on my conscience. It hurts deep within my soul. Good luck everyone else with exams…I’ll talk about states next time.

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/06/07/exam-shenanigans/feed/ 0 Summer http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/29/summer/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/29/summer/#comments Mon, 29 May 2006 04:37:19 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/blog/2006/05/29/summer/ So Rob, Sneha, Miesque and I stopped by the St. Mary’s fair last night, and we were told we were too old to go on the Berry-Go-Round. It made me sad. On the other side of things, summer officially begins in 10 days. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself…but i’ll worry about it then. Track states is comming up June 3rd and if I replicate my Counties performnce we should be in good shape to win it all. Before I go, i’d like to point out that I ran a 10.8 100M dash time in the semi-finals; 0.1 seconds off the school record, until Chris broke it with a 10.42. Thanks Chris. In the mean time, I hearby claim myself (unofficially) the fastest Asian in the state of Michigan. We’ll see how well that plays out at states. G’night everyone.

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/29/summer/feed/ 3 2006 Track and Field Regional Champs http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/20/2006-track-and-field-regional-champs/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/20/2006-track-and-field-regional-champs/#comments Sat, 20 May 2006 16:00:19 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/blog/2006/05/21/2006-track-and-field-regional-champs/

Captains

Originally uploaded by btan87.

After losing by 4 points last year, the track squad regained the regional title with a convincing victory (beating the second place team, Lutheran North, by 36.07 points) and placing in every event except the 1600M. Clayton Beard broke the 30 year old high jump record with a jump of 6’5.5″. I qualified for states in all my events:

  • 100M Dash 4th place 11.09 (state qualifying)
  • 400M Dash 2nd place 51.56 (All-Region and state qualifying)
  • 4×400 Relay 1st place 4:28.78 (Regional Champions and state qualifying)

Overall, we dominated the meet from beginning to end. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same at Oakland Counties and States. Congratulations to all who participated yesterday.

]]> http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/20/2006-track-and-field-regional-champs/feed/ 3 Prom 2006 http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/05/prom/ http://brianjtan.com/2006/05/05/prom/#comments Fri, 05 May 2006 22:29:44 +0000 B. Tan http://sonicage.com/btan/blog/2006/05/05/prom/ Prom was fun/interesting…I put some pictures up on the photos page. If that doesn’t work, check them out here. On the way home, I completely disregarded the traffic light at the Quarton/Cranbrook intersection and didn’t realize it until I was halfway to Woodward; I wasn’t even drunk… :shock:
Just a few notes about prom:

That’s all I can think of for now. The night went really fast. I’m sad it’s over so soon. On a brighter note, we’re pratically seniors!

OMG! More prom pics!

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