A case of courageousness

Victory is upon us, for this is my 50th post. However, losses were taken along the way.
Consider my poor bike lock: this combination lock has been with me through thick and thin, in Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Korea, and Australia. Resilient, yet gradually acquiring the signs of age reminiscent of a grandparent: weakened flexibility, finickiness, less pliant numbers, hard to turn. But it held on, with the digits of the combination mostly worn off, proud of its status as The Guardian. It finally succumbed to that over-residing Darkness that foils us all, animate and non in a way that most of us are likely to pass on: by the follies and carelessness of others and The Machinery of our world.
The tale of the passing of our intrepid protector involves the dangerous, indulgent, and selfish acts of the very soul that was being protected: The User. A sordid tale of debauchery and recklessness: misuse of substances and technology; capricious attitude towards law; cold; speed.
Did our friend, our keeper pass on for naught, or will the way in which it persevered and was broken live on, serving as a flag for us to take off our hats to and contemplate our actions before we proceed? I'm afraid not. He's gone and it was in vain.
Lockheed, you will be missed.
So what happened was this: Friday night I was at Ben's house, where he made a glorious dinner for myself, his gf and other housemate. The liquor store down the corner was having an amazing sale of wine, which lead him to purchase 16 bottles for 51$ AUD. And it was decent; we're not talking Carlo Rossi here. So we each had a bottle or two over a healthily competitive game of Scrabble (thank you MOTIVATE!) and 500 and laughs and chats. I made a decent little cake, too. 2am rolled around and I was getting tired and ready for the homestead. I chose to bike home, because that is my favorite form of transportation and biking while drunk is fun. I also maintain that it should be okay because the worst you can do is kill yourself, unlike with driving drunk you can kill others. But it was cooooold outside and I was dressed merely in shorts and a very thin long-sleeved T-shirt. Like in the 40s. So I was biking home as fast as possible, to heat up and arrive home, and along the way my bike lock must have somehow jumped off my rack (something which has never happened before). Given my speed and state of mind, I didn't hear it. I realized the loss when I got home, but I was too tired and wasted to bike back (so many hills!) and waited for the next morning. I did the route again and I couldn't find it. Yesterday Ben's gf found the lock, forever ruined due to some car running over it, breaking off the locking mechanism. I'm an idiot and mad because it was a nice little lock.Hmm..
I guess I could spend a whole post writing about a bike lock, but that would be pretty silly, no?
The rest of my weekend was alright.
Friday I did a lot of study at school, then went to dinner at Ben's house and... well we know what happens. On Saturday, I went off to the market's as usual and then came home with a dillema: do I continue to study, wanting to be a good student and knowing that I won't do anything on Sunday; or do I sit on my porch in the beautiful sunlight and read the newest Harry Potter? I chose the path more traveled on, and that has made all the different. Yes, I wasted 7 hours reading that thing and then forced myself to stop in order to go to sleep at midnight, as Sunday I was due to wake up early. I woke up at 6:30 and was picked up with my heretofore biking partner, Matt, to drive down to do a nice a bike ride (I know, sounds weird, but that's what happened). We biked 115k a bit down south, through nice, though dry, bush country. It was exhausting but fun. I also found a 20$ bill on the road! I also ate a ton, as you might imagine a hyperthyroidic person biking for exactly 5 and a half hours might do (1.5hrs cumulative rest time).I mentioned last week that Hyeshin's family was here. Here's a picture in case you're wondering what Koreans look like.Yes. It was very sunny.
Now I'm back at school and we're learning about Cancer. Yay.
Jesus, I didn't know that!1
Cancer is an interesting little thing. I mentioned before that we are all undergoing it and that it's a natural process. It's such a cock up, too, that it's annoying. When a cell is dividing (or choosing to do so) there are checkpoints that ensure a cell doesn't divide needlessly. When a checkpoint is fucked up (due to chemical signals and the like (for instance: p53 is a transcription factor that normally causes a bad cell to either fix or kill itself. A mutation in this causes lots of unchecked division: around 50% of all cancers are caused by mutation with p53, and they are usually the most aggressive/lowest survival rate ones)) then a cell is free to divide as it pleases. This causes abnormal growth. Most cells can divide 5, maybe 6 times before dying out. A cancer cell is immortal - it can divide indefinitely. The most infamous cancer cell-line is known as the HeLa line: some cervical cancer cells that were cultured in 1951 and still continue to divide and live, long past their progenitor.
Speaking of cervical cancer, I hope that all you ladies out there (under 28) have gotten your vaccines, right? The man who created is is a researcher at my school, incidentally enough, and it is a pretty amazing thing. In Australia, it's completely free for women under 28. In America, surprise surprise, it's not. The American health care system is disgraceful. I watched Sicko (which I recommend everyone see) and it's such a pity that such a wealthy country cares not for its (poor) citizens and is taken advantage of by drug companies and health insurance companies.
Like with this HPV vaccine (the vaccine itself is against human papiloma virus (genital warts):a common precursor against the cancer. The vaccine works against ~70% of HPV strains and so is not a fool-proof shield for cancer... more like a sieve), it's being released by Merck (horrible company) at 350$ a pop. Some health insurance companies see vaccines as "optional" and thus may not cover it (Source)
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