Author: taprobane@me.com

City of Ember – A Book Review

(Image by wikipedia.com)

by Simran Jayasinghe

We could not live in the dark. We could not live on canned food for our whole lives. We wouldn’t think it was fair to be assigned jobs. But the people living in the city of Ember live without a sun. They’ve all been living on canned food. They think it’s normal to be assigned jobs – when they’re twelve.

When Lina Mayfleet, the main character, turns twelve, she is assigned a job. She is assigned the job “Pipeworks”. To Lina, this is the worst job she could have gotten – working underground fixing pipes wasn’t her kind of thing. Luckily, Doon Harrow wants to work in the Pipeworks, and he doesn’t want to be a “Messenger” – but Lina does. They trade.

Lina is curious. Why would Doon want to work in the Pipeworks? He says he wants to fix the generator, which provides energy for all the lights that light up Ember. The generator has stopped working from time to time recently, leaving the city in complete darkness. But that’s not the only problem. The canned food that the people have been living on for 200 years is running out. Supplies like light bulbs, pencils, and paper, are also running low. Lina and Doon work together to find out how to fix these problems.

Eventually, Lina and Doon realize they need to leave Ember. They spread the news, but the mayor is unhappy with it. He orders them to be chased by the guards. Lina and Doon decide to escape on their own. Will they escape safely? If they do, what will happen? What will they do, and where will they go? Read the book to find out!

The City of Ember is the first book in a series of four. The series is written by Jeanne DuPrau. The plot was really easy to follow and understand, and I think the book has just the right amount of suspense, just enough to keep the reader interested. I like how the Lina and Doon don’t give up, even when people put them down.  I also liked how they don’t just accept the jobs they are assigned, while other people just accept their jobs, even though they may have no interest in doing them.  This shows that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish many things.  The story ends with a cliff hanger, so I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to the next book!

The Human Genome Project

By Simran Jayasinghe

We have all heard of DNA. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. You are probably wondering, why you need DNA? DNA is basically the instructions for every single cell in your body.  DNA makes a shape like a spiral staircase that is called the double helix. In most organisms, DNA is found in the nucleus of every cell. DNA is made up of four chemicals called nucleic acids: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). A always pairs with T, C always pairs with G. The complete set of your DNA is called your genome.

human genome projectThe Human Genome has about 30,000 genes in it. A gene is the part of the DNA that determines  an organism’s features. Genes can determine the color of your eyes, the color of your hair,    the color of your skin, how tall you will be, and things like that. When there is a mistake in a gene, it can sometimes cause diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Cystic fibrosis, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It would help doctors if they could look at the genes of a patient, because they might find out if that person will have a certain disease. They can find out a patient’s genes by looking at the patient’s genome.

The Human Genome Project was a effort to sequence all the genes that are found in us. The Human Genome Project took 13 years to complete, and cost 3 billion dollars. The Human Genome Project was finished in 2001. Today scientists can sequence one genome overnight!. Since we can sequence human genes very quickly doctors can determine which patients will get a genetic disease. This ability has also led to a field called Personalized Medicine.  To read more about personalized medicine see my sister Kiran’s entry.

The Jungle Book – A Movie Review

by Svara Jayasinghe

the_jungle_book_poster_key_artOne day we were coming back from swim practice. Simran (my sister) and I were with my dad in his car, and Kiran (my other sister) was with my mom in her car. Suddenly we got a phone call from Kiran, it was a message from our mom, when we got home we were supposed to quickly wash and change into our dresses.  There was a surprise waiting for us!  Our mom and dad were taking us to see the new movie “The Jungle Book”. When we were all ready we raced to the car. We were so excited!   Mom and dad also bought us dinner there including a big, huge, tub of buttered popcorn, and Raisinets.  They were so good.

The movie was about a little boy named Mowgli.  He lived in the jungle and his family is a pack of wolves.  When he was a baby he was found by Bagheera the panther.  Mowgli is about ten years old and Bagheera is taking him to the man village because he is growing up.  On the way, Mowgli gets lost and finds Baloo the bear, and they become very good friends.  The tiger Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli, but his friends protect him.  There were some very scary, and sad parts in the movie, but there was a very happy ending.  I thought the show was fantastic! You should watch it!

Personalized Medicine

By Kiran Jayasinghe

Before releasing a drug to the world, scientists test a group of people. If the drug or medicine works on more than fifty percent of the people, they usually release it to the rest of the world.

But why doesn’t it work on everyone?

Scientists think that certain drugs work only on some people because they have similar genomes (a genome is a complete set of DNA – your genes), while others don’t. They think that if they looked at a person’s genome and prescribed medications according to the person’s genes, the medicine would work better. This method of practicing medicine is called “personalized medicine”.

Personalized medicine is a treatment that is, based on your genome, made to work better for you. Scientists can read a person’s genome almost overnight, and once they do, they can learn what type of genes they have, and what type of medicine will work better for them.

For instance, let’s say somebody has cancer. Some cancer drugs don’t work on all patients. In those situations, the doctor can sequence the patient’s genome, and figure out exactly what type of cancer the patient has and what exact type of medicine will work with the cancer.

Scientists think that personalized medicine will significantly change the way doctors treat patients in the next few years.

Macaroni Grill – A Restaurant Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

IMG_0156
A lovely drawing of fruit! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We went to Macaroni Grill to celebrate  my little sister Svara’s 7th birthday. There was no wait, and we were seated quickly. Macaroni Grill is one of our favorite restaurants.  What my sisters and I like about Macaroni Grill is that there is butcher paper over the tablecloth and they give crayons so that kids can draw on the paper while they wait for their food. I was tempted to draw Hogwarts, from the Harry Potter books, but I didn’t have enough room to draw that, so I ended up drawing vegetables and fruit.  My sisters Svara and Kiran both drew Hogwarts.

IMG_0155
Let me eat my yummy dessert!(Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Kiran, Svara, and I all got the kids cheese ravioli.  This is our favorite dish! For appetizers,we got two orders of the spicy ricotta meatballs. Our father got spaghetti with Ceaser salad, and our mother got the penne rustica. As always the food was delicious and we finished all of our food.  For desert, we got one Homemade Chocolate cake to share. The Homemade Chocolate cake was served with a little bowl of chocolate sauce on the side. Yummy! Our mother and father got the tiramisu cake, which they like quite a lot.

We always enjoy coming to Macaroni Grill and this visit was no exception!  If you haven’t been to a Macaroni Grill we recommend that you give them a try.  To learn more about Macaroni Grill, click here.

Buffalo Wild Wings – A Restaurant Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

Wild Wings! We visited the Buffalo Wild Wings location in Restaurant row on San Marcos Blvd not too long ago.  The restaurant is close to where we live and we had seen it being built over several months.  Although we wanted to try out the food as soon as they opened we waited a little till the crowds died down.

My family, together with my grant parents went on a Saturday for lunch.  We were given a buzzer and tolIMG_0095-1d that the wait would be about 15-20 minutes. The wait wasn’t too long, and we were seated in about 5 to 10 minutes. The inside of the restaurant has a lot of television screens, all of them playing some sort of sport.  There were a lot of people and I thought the seating was a little too close together. Kiran, Svara and I got the Kids Cheese
Flatbread, our mother got the  Chicken Ceaser salad, our grandfather got the Hickory Pulled pork sandwich, our grandmother got the Barbecue chicken sandwich and our father got the the Southwest Philly sandwich.

IMG_0092-1
The range of sauces!(Image from the Jayasinghe family)

The food was good although it was a little messy to eat as the food didn’t come on silverware, they came on paper plates.  We really wanted to try their wings, because that is what they are famous for! We were told that we could sample different sauces, because they had many flavors, for free and then pick which sauces we wanted on our wings. We chose one small size Parmesan Cheddar
wings, and one medium size Honey Barbecue wings.  The wings were delicious, and everyone like Honey Barbecue sauce the best. The wings were the messiest to eat.  There weren’t any plates because we were supposed to just take it from the box and eat them with or fingers. We also got one order of the Fried Pickles.  We enjoyed the pickels, and they tasted a little bit better than the ones we had made with our dad.

For dessert, we picked the Chocolate Fudge cake. The slice of cake came with a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzled all over the plate.  Kiran, Svara, and I shared one slice for dessert. Before eating the cake, we had wanted on slice each, because it looked small, but afterward, we thought that it was way too rich to have our own slices.

Our visit to the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant was most enjoyable, the food was good, and we recommend that you try it out at least once. To learn more about Buffalo Wild Wings, click here.