What I’ve learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0012

551.  Ocean kayaks have holes (i.e., scuppers) in them;

552.  It’s fascinating that when we’ve never met a particular person and then we see a picture of that person, we form an impression of what s/he should sound like.  However, when we actually hear that person’s voice, the majority of the time, it sounds nothing like what we expected it to be.  I think it’s the same when we hear a person’s voice before actually seeing that particular person;

553.  It’s amazing how some pieces of technology have quickly become integrated into everyday living that it’s hard to remember life without them;

554.  Global positioning system navigation devices are wonderful things;

555.  The locks on portable toilets aren’t very strong;

556.  What do you get when you mix blackcurrant cordial with a pint of cider?  The answer is: A “Cider & Black;”

557.  The Pentagon reconstruction/renovation is L.E.E.D. certified. . . . It costs $1.1 million a month to heat/cool it after the reconstruction/renovation.  It cost $1.9 million a month before;

558.  The 63^rd Inspector General of the Army, Lieutenant General R. Steven Whitcomb, is a University of Virginia graduate.  He was also on the football team with Al Groh;

559.  The train platforms at Union Station have a historical, old world feel to them;

560.  The Edge plays the piano;

561.  “U2” should be experienced live. . . . The visuals are amazing . . . the vocals have more depth and feeling . . . and the guitar chords have more soul and resonance;

562.  I’m neighbors with a professional hockey player and former first round draft pick;

563.  The Japanese read from back to front and from right to left, starting in the upper-right hand corner;

564.  The Old Town Alexandria Food & Wine Festival is in early October.  Tickets are cheaper if you get them in advance;

565.  BlackFinn American Saloon (BlackFinnDC.com) has $2.00 Miller Lites and $3.00 well drinks during Happy Hour (i.e., from 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock);
566.  Customer service representatives don’t like it when you swear over the telephone (even when it’s not directed towards them personally);

567.  Yahoo! Sports streams selected hockey games for free over the Internet;

568.  The Bentzen Ball (BentzenBall.com), D.C.’s biggest comedy festival, is in October;

569.  Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays Chloe O’Brian on “24,” is a comedienne;

570.  If you talk to Vivion Smith of “Juniper Lane” after a concert, she’ll try to get you to sign up for her band’s mailing list (not that that’s a bad thing);

571.  It’s strange that you can feel like you stick out when you’re the only person not dressed like a mad person;

572.  When we're dejected, it's better to look back on the good and to focus on the positives instead of the negatives.  Little things can give us joy and a sense that things may not be so bad. . . . Admittedly, that’s a lot easier said than done;

573.  In the early morning, when the sun shines into my eyes, it gives me a feeling of peace and tranquility like everything is going to be all right and that brighter things are to come;

574.  You can conclude that something in life is a certain way and all of a sudden life throws you for a loop and turns your thinking upside down. . . . It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing;

575.  On Monday nights, Pizzeria Venti has $1.00 beers with any food purchase;

576.  It can be very therapeutic to write down your thoughts and fears;

577.  Apparently, Jeong “Rain” Ji-hoon, the star of “Ninja Assassin,” is a big pop star in Asia.  He has fans of various nationalities and races. . . . His English is pretty good, but he does have an accent;

578.  Duck leg confit is rather fatty, but fall off the bone tender;

579.  Robbie ordered the blackened catfish sandwich. . . . Robbie likes cats . . . coincidence?

580.  Cruise ships have low ceilings and they remind me of Vegas casinos . . . all flash and show with very little refinement and sophistication;

581.  The food on cruise ships (at least Carnival cruise ships) is better than hotel food, but not quite fine dining;

582.  Cruise ships have thin walls and low water pressure;

583.  We, members of the human variety of primates, have a hunger for rules because we need to reduce the dimensions of matters so they can get into our heads.  Or, rather, sadly, so we can squeeze them into our heads.  The more random information is, the greater the dimensionality, and thus the more difficult to summarize.  The more you summarize, the more order you put in, the less randomness.  Hence the same condition that makes us simplify pushes us to think that the world is less random than it actually is;

584.  Memory is more of a self-serving dynamic revision machine; you remember the last time you remembered the event and, without realizing it, change the story at every subsequent remembrance.  So we pull memories along causative lines, revising them involuntarily and unconsciously.  We continuously renarrate past events in the light of what appears to make what we think of as logical sense after these events occur;

585.  Patients who spend fifteen minutes every day writing an account of their daily troubles feel indeed better about what has befallen them.  You feel less guilty for not having avoided certain events; you feel less responsible for it.  Things appear as if they were bound to happen;

586.  Empirically, sex, social class, and profession seem to be better predictors of someone’s behavior than nationality (a male from Sweden resembles a male from Togo more than a female from Sweden; a philosopher from Peru resembles a philosopher from Scotland more than a janitor from Peru; and so son);

587.  People are more likely to pay for terrorism insurance than for plain insurance (which covers, among other things, terrorism);

588.  People overreact to low-probability outcomes when you discuss the event with them, when you make them aware of it.  However, in insurance patterns, neglect of these highly improbable events in people’s insurance purchase.  They call it the “preference for insuring against probably small losses”—at the expense of the less probable but larger impact ones;

589.  Terrorism kills, but the biggest killer remains the environment, responsible for close to 13 million deaths annually.  But terrorism causes outrage, which makes us overestimate the likelihood of a potential terrorist attack—and react more violently to one when it happens.  We feel the sting of man-made damage far more than that caused by nature;

590.  The way to avoid the ills of the narrative fallacy is to favor experimentation over storytelling, experience over history, and clinical knowledge over theories;

591.  When you go on a cruise, pack a collared shirt and dress pants (or at the very least khakis);

592.  When on a cruise, (at least initially) take motion sickness pills, even if you usually don’t get seasick;

593.  You can always order seconds on a cruise;

594.  At the Cocoa Beach pier, you can get a lobster roll for $8.99 at the Boardwalk Bar;

595.  You’re allowed to drink alcohol on Cocoa Beach;

596.  Crabs can jump;

597.  Seagulls wash themselves in the ocean;

598.  On a cruise ship, almost everywhere you go, there are food smells;

599.  In the Bahamas, the ocean waters are clear and light blue;

600.  You can parallel park a cruise ship;