Posts tagged science
bugsy’s february
Feb 7th
Hola, February – I’ve managed to get myself here to write another post! Methinks this is actually going to be a bit long (because of the many events in the past week) – but eh, let’s see how I fare.
I guess the main highlight of this month has gotta be Jerry turning 15. Seems like only yesterday he was my lil’ kid brother (there’s a 2-years-and-7-months gap) asking for a tickle-fest – he was only a toddler then.
Now, he takes every opportunity to remind me of how much shorter I am compared to him (even though he’s my younger brother, pah!) It’s pretty obvious that I love the guy to bits; so have a good birthday on the 28th, Jerry! 
It’s a shame I’m 6800+ miles away when that happens, but you know what my present for you is already 
In other news, I’ve been “signed on” to choreograph (along with my friend Gem) some numbers for the Lower School Play (11 to 14-year-olds) this summer. It’s awesome because:
- They’re doing “Bugsy Malone”.
- I get to work with a bunch of juniors I already know – and personal experience has reminded me that I can work with/handle juniors better than those doing the Senior plays. xD
- It’s dancing – so it’s a breather from the technical/backstage stuff I usually do (generally, as a behind-the-scenes production member, I light + provide sound + keep basic admin stuffo in check.)
Rehearsals have started *already*; owing to the extensive amount of choreography that goes into Bugsy (as opposed to something like Macbeth.) In about 4 weeks, Gemma and I have successfully completed the routine for 1 song (Fat Sam’s Grand Slam), are partway through another (Bad Guys/You Give A Little Love) with the help of the boys’ improvisations, and will be collaborating with some of the girls on another (Tomorrow.) Pretty impressive, I must say! We’re also going to let the boys devise their own dances for So You Wanna Be A Boxer…well, as much as they can do. The play’s a ton of fun; especially when you have a bunch of Year Sevens attempting to look flirtatious with a Year Nine boy (our Bugsy, that is) – and failing. xD
designer babies
Sep 14th
If the title of this post freaked you out a bit, I wouldn’t blame you. 
Anywhos, this post has to do with our PSHME session about two days ago (PSHME, by the way, stands for Personal, Social, Health and Moral Education) – our year gets split into 5 gorups and we are put on rotation. Every 6 weeks we study a different category – right now my group’s under Ethics/Morality. In these sessions, our teacher in charge (Miss Mansfield, bless her) brings up a topic and has us discuss the good, bad and ugly about it – topics include sexism, abortion, yada yada – those without definite yes or no answers, if you get my drift.
If you kinda guessed that our topic of the day was about genetic engineering, then props to you – it was precisely that. I think that if you’ve kept up with the sciencey-updates of this year and yesteryears, you’ll find that genetic engineering isn’t something brand-new; it’s been in place for a while now. We’ve got bacteria modified to produce pure human insulin to supply diabetics with their fix (last time, one had to rely on pork insulin 0_0). We’ve got sheep/cows engineered to produce life-saving proteins in their milk, which can be extracted and used to treat certain illnesses. We’ve already got GM (Genetically Modified) foods on our shelves; although not many. And then there are the experiments-gone-weird – ever heard of the tomato that tasted like fish?