P day, part II

I've decided to post more stories about Paul. Don't get me wrong. I don't intend to make fun of him. I really like him actually, and he's just awful about expressing himself.

Paul gets a complete post in my blog today coz he's really a pretty great guy. One of the first things Paul said to me when I saw him this afternoon was "You don't smell anymore." Thanks, Paul.

Later this evening, I tried to get a new bottle of water onto the water dispenser. Those bottles of water are huge and I was going to ask for help but the guys were having a work-related conversation. The postdoc stopped and suggested that Paul should help me, and I said that it was fine and the worst I could do would be to spill some water. Paul kindly told me that he envisions me twisting or breaking my back and being out for a few months. Funny thing was that I started laughing even though he was deadpanning. Oh, Paul.

Earlier this week, Paul caught me skipping dinner.
P: Have you had dinner yet?
me: No, I'm not hungry yet.
P: You're going to grow fat.

A fellow labmate agrees that Paul really knows how to talk to girls.

To be fair, I left out the mundane parts of the conversations when Paul tried to defend himself (I usually point out that he's being mean). But hey, those were the mundane parts. How else am I supposed to tell a story?

P day, part I

Not to be mean or biased about action stars, but I never thought that Bruce Lee was quotable. I was reading an article in the New Yorker about parkour, and one of the guys interviewed cited inspiration from Bruce Lee.

"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. A man must constantly exceed his level."

It doesn't sound that fantastically cool, but in the context of the article and in light of some advice I received from Paul the Sage, it makes a lot of sense.

What these guys believe in is that we can't remain stagnant -- we must challenge ourselves. Yes, it's a platitude. But to see people taking such advice to the physical realm makes this idea extra amazing. Parkour, if you didn't read the article, is what that man at the start of Casino Royale was doing: free running through a concrete jungle, leaping off the sides of walls, cranes, running over obstacles. Here's a video of David Belle, founder of parkour.

Parkour is like martial arts -- you practise in little steps and maybe one day you'll finally get to use it. But the discipline and courage it takes to practice parkour..ah...the folly of youth. Parkour is a sport only for the young. It's probably too late for me.

In any case, Paul does not do parkour. No, I was refering to what he said to me one day when he caught me reading stacks of papers.
P: So what did you learn?
me: not much
P: You have to learn something everyday, otherwise it's not worth doing anything.

Maybe I didn't capture it right.

I have this strange feeling that I could probably fill this blog with Paul stories. So much for funny ducks.

the PBJ difference

As a sort of follow up to the entry on organic eggs, here's a site explaining why we should all have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. 16 PBJs=1 chicken!