Sat in on a seminar about Grass today. Didn’t realize we humans depend so much on grass until now – more than 45% of our diet’s calorific value comes from it (rice, wheat, barley,…)! Furthermore, grass can be used to make paper, herbal medicine, oil, furniture, construction materials, etc. And the fastest growing plant that can rise up to 3 feet in a single day is bamboo, also grouped as the grass family (Poaceae). Such miraculous plants!
Also saw a video about a famous scientist from the university who dedicated much of her life in plant research. She was still regularly prying into her lab’s microscope in her 90s! A true inspiring model to look up to!
When asked about my farewell gift from my Elim Fellowship’s b/s, I requested The Message – a contemporary English translation of the best-selling book of all times. After bringing back this gift with me to HK for a little over a year, I’ve finally finished reading it from front to back!
It’s Chinese National Holiday today. Went back to Tsing Yi to play bball with my highschool friends. This is one of the rare occasions that I went back during the day rather than night to play badminton. With much time to spare after the game, I forgot about my fatigued body and took a long leisurely stroll around the neighborhood where I grew up. Not a lot had changed, many of the neighborhood shops (barber shop, clinic, stationery shop, bakery, general store,…) were still there. I navigated the neighborhood with ease as though I’ve never left that place 10+ years ago. I doubt that this sense of belonging to a community and strong attachment to a place can be bought in any of the luxurious private housings that are selling like hot cakes.
Learned from the book that Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste is the major contribution to landfills and reclamation sites in HK. This waste stream can be vastly minimized through better planning, design, construction, and maintenance of architectures. Unfortunately, I find this particular book to be bloated with common sense and lacking much of the details, perhaps I was expecting too much from a “guidebook”.
Spending much of my time these days reading books. Sometimes I feel guilty for leisurely spending my time while most of my peers are working hard to make a living. It seems almost as though I’m slowly building up a debt on finishing up my fair portion of meaningful work on Earth.
