If you are a poor student living in a house with a huge garden and have bags of potatoes that turned green before you get to chuck them into the microwave, you probably won't be able to escape from planting them. I have never planted anything useful before. Don't get me wrong, I don't exactly kill plants the moment I get them. It's just that my past experience in growing stuff was pathetic.
Experience #1:
There was a bag of green beans in the kitchen. I had nothing better to do. I took a handful, wrapped them up in toilet rolls (yes, toilet paper), soaked them wet and left it somewhere. They turned into beansprouts and my maid cooked them. Pathetic.
Experience #2: There was a bag of peanuts in the pantry. I had nothing better to do. I took a handful and planted them in the patch next to the kennel in the garden. They grew and killed the soil. Turns out peanuts will ruin the soil and you won't be able to plant anything there for a while if you planted peanuts. It is still a bald spot now. Except it doesn't matter anymore. We moved. Pathetic.
So, I planted the potatoes, garlics and onions that escaped the microwave, the frying pan, the oven and so on. Guess what. They grew into giants.
For those who don't already know, I am a fan of Jamie Oliver. He is just that kind of person whom you see in TV and feels like you have known him all your life from watching his show. Anyhow, I think he's a great person.
Hmm...so how does this relate to the ministry of food. Ministry of food is a temporary ministry set up by the British government during the Second World War, their main duties being rationing food. So, what they did is more than distributing potatoes and bread. The ministry actually go to the extend of distributing recipes on preparing edible healthy yummy food from the limited resources for the English households. Impressive isn't it?
So what is happening in our world right now? Losing wetlands, clean drinking water, farming land and even the ocean to pollution is bigger a problem than most of us are aware of. If Jesus doesn't come back for another 50 years, some serious amount of people will be dying out of hunger, thirst and diseases caused by the lack of food, water and other resources that are keeping our ungrateful butts alive. No land, no ocean, no clean water resources, no unpolluted farm land means no output of agriculture, no food, no drinking water, no water for daily use, no wood for furniture, no feathers for pillows, no leather for couch...look around you, how many of the things around you are made of the resources that we are polluting? Make a list and shock yourselves.
Though what we can do is not really that much related to Jamie's Ministry of Food as he is promoting for families and people to cook proper meals. However, let's look at it this way, if we can cook our own meals, it means to me that we can have a better control of ration of food, allocation of expenses, cut down the use of take out food containers, the costs and resources needed to go to the diners. I know my explanation is not good enough to convince people who save up resources but it does mean something if only we make an effort to just save a bit of energy and resources we have each day.
I suddenly believe in rationing everything we spend, and things we use. It does leads to a big sum of number. The voltage we are saving by decreasing the use of an electrical equipment from each household of the nation. The water we are saving by turning the tap off while brushing teeth everyday accumilated in a year. It does matters if we could all just take one step to save the creations or whatever that are left.
Think green. Suck it up and save some resources, people.
It is called Polystyrene. Sounds familiar? Yes, it is typically white in color, comes in the forms of disposable coffee cups and packaging material, and are made of expanded polystyrene beads.
It seems to be highly convenient to use them and throw them away right after you are done with your take-out food or coffee and tea but do you know that polystyrene beads are actually loose molecules that break off easily, meaning as your plastic spoon scratches the surface of your polystyrene rice box, molecules of polystyrene beads come off and stick to your spoon. So, you eat them along with your rice or noodles and whatever other stuff that goes in your mouth. And no, human cannot digest plastics, they stay in your body until you die, and decompose so much later than your corpse does. Fantastic, isn't it?
Polystyrene that survives from your lunch which is then discarded does not biodegrade and is resistance to photolysis. It floats on water and blows in the wind. In other words, you drink them and breathe them in. Other than that, they are a major part of marine debris, meaning fishes, prawns and crabs which do not know better, eat them and we eat the seafood. Yum.
What I'm trying to say here is that it's not cool to hold a cuppa drink or a plate of food in polystyrene anymore. It grosses people off that you are contributing to the murder of mother earth and somehow, yourself, being a part of this world. Do your part, bring your own cup for coffee and reusable food containers for take out food. Think green. Not polystyrene.
1. Don't drive over 60km/h, it saves fuel and your money too.
2. Go dig in your closet, someone's trash maybe other's treasure. Maybe you'll find some old treasure yourself.
3. Switch to everything e, emails, e-shopping, e-newspaper, e-banking. Save paper. Save the world.
4. Start recycling cans and bottles, metal are getting expensive, maybe you can make an extra dime from it.
5. Kill the plastic bags. Bring a big spacey hand bag and throw a chick shopping bag in your car.
6. Go vegetarian, eat food from lower food chain. It saves the resources and some fat on your thigh, belly and butt.
7. Keep the old paper bags. Whatever they are for.
8. Don't make up if you don't have to, it's a waste of time, resource, water, tissue and it ruins your skin which leads you to using more make-ups and more waste. Trust me, nobody will look pretty when earth is simply ugly.
9. Trust in God, He puts you in position to take care of his creations. Exercise your authorities now.
10. Read my blog, it's more interesting than crappy magazines and save paper.
11. Forget to bring tissue out once in a while, you might not need them anyway.
12. Scoff at people who are killing the environment, they might be ashamed for once.
13. Skip the receipt, you're just gonna throw it away anyway.
14. Hug a tree, just because you can.
15. Don't wrap your books with plastic sheets, they are bound to get yellowish and fall apart anyway. Just do your part to keep it clean.
16. Recycle those batteries, old computers and electronics. It matters.
17. Plant a tree, or a plant. Put it in your toilet, mine cheers me up in the morning.
18. Turn down that air-con, it's about time we acknowledge that we live in a tropical country and no air-cons can cool this place down.
19. Make your home comfy, so you won't have a reason to go all the way out for a good environment and use up some fuel and cough up for pricey coffee.
In conjunction with the World Earth Day (22nd April), as a tree-hugger myself, here some tips for my fellow green-lovers. I got all there from the internet. The top part will be the statistics for our Earth condition and the below part are the green-living tips that might help us to survive and provide a better future for the next generation. I am not an environmentalist, as Andrew puts it. I'm just trying to survive and save as many as I can.
1. According to the reports from NASA, the hottest year was 2005, which matched 1998. Twice in the last ten years we've had the hottest temperatures on average ever recorded in our planet's history. That is very likely more than just a coincidence.
2. The rate of warming has accelerated over the past 30 years, increasing at a rate of three times faster than the century-scale trend. Global annual temperatures are now around 1.0 F degrees warmer than they were in 1900.
3. According to an MIT study, there's been a 100% increase in the intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since the 1970s, most likely due to the increased amount of CO2 emissions to our atmosphere, which has increased the Earth's surface temperature, and warmer weather is believed to increase the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes.
4. The glaciers in Greenland, Alaska, the Himalaya, the Antarctic Peninsula and on high tropical mountains are retreating rapidly; according to the U.S. Geological Survey predictions, Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left by the year 2030.5. According to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, 400,000 square miles of Arctic sea ice have melted, which is threatening polar bear habitats and further accelerating global warming worldwide.
5. That amount of Arctic sea ice is approximately the size of the state of Texas, and we've lost that in just the last 30 years, further emphasizing that we need to take action now before the damage becomes too severe for our efforts to really matter.
6. The sea level has risen by 10-20 cm over the past 100 years, which is likely due to the melting of the polar glaciers, which is due to the increase in the Earth's near-surface temperature. This can lead to devastating effects for coastal communities because the sea level is rising, which means that when the sea comes in-tide, more erosion can occur, and if coastal communities are present, more damage done to them. In addition, losing the glaciers reduces the amount of usable fresh water on our planet.
7. It is also projected that 15-37% of all plant and animal species could be wiped out by global warming by the year 2050, which could further cause considerable damage to our planet's ecosystem.
8. The United States is ranked number#1 among large nations of being a global warming polluter, contributing 25% of emissions, even though the U.S. only makes up 5% of the world's population. NO bills passed by the U.S. Congress to cut global warming pollution.
9. The earliest signs of wrath of the Mother Earth occured by the end of the 20th century. Many people were getting a taste of climate changes: There was a megadrought in the Southwest U.S. from 1849 to 1905, the Dust Bowl of the Great Plains in the 1930s, and a drought in China killed 3 million in the 1940s.
You might want to ask, if the situation is already that bad, whatever minimal actions I do won't help much at all. The truth is, our minimal moves are the ones that caused this, it's the collectiveness of our ignorance that make this happen, and our collective efforts are gonna salvage it. Every little action count.
Check this video out, it's an environmental movement called the Earth Hour, It started in Sydney where the residents work together to save the energy resources of the country, The whole town would switch off all the lights at once for one hour. The results of 10% of energy saved. They targeted for 5%.
So, I am starting my green-living style, taking baby-steps in my daily life. I am not asking you guys to sell off your cars or to take any extreem actions. Start small, it's how a habit is cultivated. Here are some tips that might help you guys.
1. Reduce the use of plastic bags. It is the most authentic way, More than often, I ask the sales person to keep the plastic bags. Bring a long a shopping bag wherever you go, for drivers, keep one in your car, it really comes in handy. For the old plastic bags, keep them, don't throw them away, they make really good gift bags and garbage bag.
2. Recycle! Yep, another classic, you can practically recycle anything at all, recycle the junk mails in your mailbox, the cheap pens that stop working can go in the recycle plastic bin, old clothes can be used as cloth to wipe your car, old socks.
3. Plant a plant~ I've got my pet plant. My dad gave it to me to make my toilet look better, greener. So all I do is just to change the water in the pot once in awhile. It's gorgeous and best of all, it gives out oxygen for CO2.
4. Don't throw away those batteries, they are recycle-able, 'cause I have to use triple A batteries for my mp3 player, I keep all those old, dried up ones. So instead of throwing them away and creating more toxic garbage I give them off to the people who collect old newspapers so they can bring them to the recycle center for me.
5. Turn off the powerpoints, when the plugs are in and the switch is on, the electricity is running, even though it's on stand-by mode, 10% of leakage is happening. So, switch it off, save up! The same go to the lights and air-cons.
6. Empty your glass of water that you can't finish into your humidifier, aquarium or into a pot of plant. Don't waste water.
7. Every gallon of gasoline burned produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide, so cut down the use of fuel. Don't speed, obey the rules and keep your speed constant. Rapid acceleration and braking can decrease fuel economy by 33%.
8. Keep your shower short. Turn off the water as you brush your teeth or soap your body. It saves a lot of water by doing so. Collectively, so make it a habit.
9. Cut down on meat. Go for the lower food chain. The animal industry uses massive amounts of water and land. Roughly 70 percent of the grains grown in the United States go to feed animals, who eventually become food. This takes up much of the arable land that could be used to feed people directly. It takes ten times the fossil fuels to produce a calorie of animal food as it does to produce plant food.
10. Lastly, be creative. I can't tell you what exactly to do in every situation. So be a smart tree-hugger. Turn down your water heater, inflate your car tyres, iron less, steam your clothes while taking your shower, use eco-friendly detergent, just check out the green living sites and you can get daily tips for green living.
Take note that when IKEA started charging for plastic bags used, they actually cut down the usage by 92%. This strategy is already on full-force in the 7 Elevens and OK Marts in Taiwan when I went there like 5 years ago. This is one good steps to be mentioned and praised.
Thanks for hearing me out. I just thought it might help if this message can be made known to our Malaysians, we're already much left behind in saving the earth. These are some reference sites which I got the informations from. We are not alone, even big
Blood donation is a tiring activity, makes me sleepy. If I don't love my blog readers enough, I won't even blog about it. I should be in bed now..*yawn*. *smacks herself* UGH! okay...chill, I'm awake..
I just donated my blog for the very first time in my life. Penang Island Hospital, 19 March 2007, about 4.30p.m. took about 6-7 minutes 'cause my blood happens to be F1 blood, 6 minutes and they got a bag of 400ml outta me. Thank God I didn't get into any accident that would make me bleed a lot, 'cause I'll be kering kontang(all dried up) in no time, plus the weather in Malaysia. Ugh...wow. Thank God. My blood's pack no. is 405/08 and amount of hemoglobin (red blood cells) in gram per dl is 13.8. Too much details eh....Heh.
It turns out I'm an O positive, which means, my blood will be very much useful. Well, I did the whole donating thing just because there's this new believer that used up a few packs of blood during a major operation in the hospital, it would lighten the family burden if we can replace the bags of blood used. Hey, he's a brother now! Heaven rejoices, that's the least I could do to help. We all hope that he'll be well soon. He seems like a nice guy, it would be great if he can come to our church and mess around with us like Adam did.
Oh by the way, back to the blood donation thingy. I kinda blog on this so that if anyone of you want to donate blood, it helps to know some details, and please let me know if you plan to do it soon, it would be great help if you can help replace some of the packs, they still have about 9 more bags to replace, considering mine is already replacing one. It's not painful, I assure you. And I would really appreciate it if you would try to help. I reckon a bag of blood used in a private hospital would cost a lot. So please, do let me know so I can send you the name of the patient 'cause I don't think it is appropriate to name him in public.
Well, it started with a simple test, the man in white jacket (I'm not sure if he's a doctor) asked me if I want a full blood test or take the fast track. The full test will take about 1 and 1/2 hours, and they will test your HIV, Hep B and all those. The fast one, they'll skip that, and I just took my blood test for insurance purposes a few months back so I took the fast track. Then they took one tube of my blood for testing, and I was called on after about 30 minutes. Pam, Sue Ann, Sue Lin and Peter was with me then. They all wanted to see the process. We went into the room, I lied down on a bed in the corner and the nurse took an empty pack with needle and tube and all, put the needle through my right arm and that was it.
That the little wound that is on my right arm. See? It's just that tiny.
My right arm, with the band aid on.
Blood stain of courage on the band aid. =P
Look at that! I'm so proud of myself!
They gave me something to make the part which they poke the needle numb so yea, no pain at all, no matter how big Peter said the needle is. He was just trying to scare us all. The nurse said my veins are quite thin, and slapped couples of times so that my veins can be seen. And there's this one thing that you hold on to, you have to keep squeezing it so that the pressure will force the blood out. It's like a stress ball thingy, right on time during my exam preparation period. I've personally experienced it and I can tell you that the painful part is only when the needle is poking through, once it's in, then you won't feel anything, I think piercing my ears hurt more, and the time when I was in national service, one of those metal fence railing went through my back when we were crawling through during our practical jungle tracking mission, that was way painful but I didn't notice it until a day after that, we went back to the training camp. Seriously, I even went for a mock rescue mission and night orientation with the wound on my back without noticing it.
Did I mention that the tube which my blood flowed in is warm? It is you know, so cool, it felt warm against my skin. So that was about it, the nurse even sarcasticly told us that "Those two guys that were here when you came in, took a hell lot longer." LOLz. see? That's why I named my blood flow F1 blood. Hahhahaaa...She took of the needle when I was done and covered the tiny wound with a band aid and I had to stay on bed for another 15 minutes to make sure the dizziness won't make me faint or anything. They gave me a good tea, a cuppa warm Milo drink and 2 packs of real yummy Japanese biscuits, I love the one that they made from beans. *yum* And they are organic! Such healthy yummy things. Hee....
We went to the room to visit our new friend and chatted till it was time for him to have dinner and so we left. I was even fine enough to drive. Just a short drive though, had to fetch daddy who was just 7 minutes drive away. He drove on the way back.
Okay, please refer to the 1st sentence of this post. I reli needa go get some shut-eyes now. ^^ Bye fellas! Pleaseeeee consider donating blood to help my new friend, the family is really friendly and all. I hope you guys can help =) God bless y'all!
-400ml lighter va-
P/s: "He anoints my head with oil, my cup overflows," I seek to let them flow to others. In whatever way I could.
Giant carrots that the previous owner planted
Giant Eva
