What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0204

10151.  We talk a lot in our culture about red flags when dating and that’s a good thing!  What we don’t talk enough about is: red flags don’t feel like red flags when they were once our familiar;
10152.  Many of us need to learn how to validate ourselves, how it’s okay to upset or disappoint people and how authentic relationships do not involve betraying ourselves to be loved or chosen;
10153.  If you’re always seeking external validation, you’ll lose the connection to your own voice, your own needs and your own power;
10154.  Apparently, Ingrid Michaelson has a “man-friend” (not a boyfriend);
10155.  Will Chase (i.e., “Luke Wheeler” from the television show, “Nashville,”) wants to be called a “man-friend” or partner;
10156.  I can say I’ve been to a concert at the (John F.) Kennedy (Memorial) Center (for the Performing Arts) with Will Chase;
10157.  Instead of setting an elusive standard for happiness, slow down to appreciate life’s little pleasures;
10158.  Relish the good.  Let the positive moments linger a little longer;
10159.  The way you perceive yourself makes a huge difference in the way your life turns out;
10160.  Elizabeth and Marlin think Charlie (Dog) would rather live with me;
10161.  Joe Snively is the first player from (the state of) Virginia to play for the (Washington) Capitals. . . . He’s from Herndon, Virginia, and was a player with the Washington Little Capitals program;
10162.  Adult male humans have the longest, thickest and most flexible penises of any living primate;
10163.  The unusual flared glans of the human penis forming the coronal ridge, combined with the repeated thrusting action characteristic of human intercourse, ranging anywhere from 10-500 thrusts per romantic interlude, creates a vacuum in the female's reproductive tract.  This vacuum pulls any previously deposited semen away from the ovum, thus, aiding the sperm about to be sent into action;
10164.  Despite all the bad press they get, men last far longer in the saddle than bonobos (i.e., 15 seconds), chimps (i.e., 7 seconds) or gorillas (i.e., 60 seconds) clocking in between 4-7 minutes on average;
10165.  A scrotum is like a spare refrigerator in the garage just for beer.  If you’ve got a spare beer fridge, you're probably the type who expects a party to break out at any moment.  A scrotum fulfills the same function.  By keeping the testicles a few degrees cooler than they would be inside the body, a scrotum allows chilled spermatozoa to accumulate and remain viable longer, available if needed;
10166.  A team of Australian researchers found that men who had ejaculated more than 5 times per week between the ages of 20 and 50 were one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer later in life;
10167.  Along with the fructose, potassium, zinc and other benign components of semen, trace amounts of carcinogens are often present so researchers hypothesize that the reduction in cancer rates may be due to the frequent flushing of the ducts;
10168.  A different team from Sydney University reported in late 2007 that daily ejaculation dramatically reduced DNA damage to men's sperm cells thereby increasing male fertility quite the opposite of the conventional wisdom;
10169.  After 42 men with damaged sperm were instructed to ejaculate daily for a week almost all showed less chromosomal damage than a control group who had abstained for 3 days;
10170.  A study conducted at the University of Bristol and Queen's University of Belfast found that men, who have 3 or more orgasms per week, are 50% less likely to die from coronary heart disease;
10171.  World Health Organization guidelines specify different sizes for various parts of the world: a 49-millimeter-width condom for Asia, a 52-millimeter width for North America and Europe and a 53-millimeter width for Africa (all condoms are longer than most men will ever need);
10172.  According to an article published in Nature, Japanese and Chinese men’s testicles tend to be smaller than those of Caucasian men on average;
10173.  Other researchers confirmed finding the average combined testes weights of 24 grams for Asians, 29-33 grams for Caucasians and 50 grams for Africans;
10174.  The Hamilton Beach Company of Racine, Wisconsin, patented the first home-use vibrator in 1902 thereby making it just the fifth electrical appliance approved for domestic use;
10175.  If a witch-hunter in the 1600s discovered a woman or girl with an unusually large clitoris, this “devil's teat” was sufficient to condemn her to death;
10176.  British primatologist Stuart Semple recorded more than 500 copulation calls from 7 different female baboons and analyzed their acoustic structure.  He found that these complex vocalizations contained information related to both the female’s reproductive state (i.e., the vocalizations were more complex when females were closer to ovulation) and to the status of the male “inspiring” any given vocalization (i.e., calls were longer and contained more distinct sonic units during mating with higher-ranked males);
10177.  Given all the other convergent evidence, it seems far more likely that in humans, female copulatory vocalization would serve to attract males to the ovulating, sexually receptive female, thus, promoting sperm competition with all its attendant benefits both reproductive and social;
10178.  My (maternal) grandmother’s godmother was Portuguese;
10179.  My mother’s godmother became a nun;
10180.  I never thought (that) I’d be “kissed” by a dog (on the back of my neck) when/while ringing in the New Year;
10181.  Jerry Buss (the former owner of the Los Angeles Lakers) used to own the (Los Angeles) Kings;
10182.  Taylor Hawkins was Alanis Morissette’s drummer before he joined the “Foo Fighters;”
10183.  According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, 347,254 breast augmentation procedures were performed in the United States in 2007 making it the nation’s most commonly performed surgical procedure;
10184.  The ceilings are lower in Mexico;
10185.  There aren’t many Asians in Mexico;
10186.  You’re not supposed to flush toilet paper down the drain/toilet in Mexico;
10187.  I can say I’ve snuck into a (beach) club in Mexico;
10188.  I can say I’ve had a Corona (beer) in Mexico;
10189.  Apparently, Lukash is friends with (frosted-tips) “Harry Potter;”
10190.  I can say I’ve had tequila in Mexico;
10191.  I can say I’ve had a drink/shot with “Harry Potter” (in Mexico);
10192.  I can say I’ve had (late night, street) tacos in Mexico;
10193.  Bathrooms in Mexico don’t have tubs.  They only have showers.  The showers are next to the toilet set a little below sloping to a drain;
10194.  Prickly pear (fruit) has a lot of seeds;
10195.  Star fruit is very tart;
10196.  White guava is mushy and custardy;
10197.  The beach in Playa del Carmen (in Mexico) doesn’t have that strip of rocks/shells you have to walk over/through to get into the ocean;
10198.  I can say I’ve had a strawberry daiquiri on a tropical beach . . . and a Pina colada;
10199.  Apparently, I’m (really) good at recognizing movies by their soundtracks when I’m drunk;
10200.  They water down the (alcoholic) drinks in Mexico (especially at the all-inclusive resorts);

What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0203

10101.  Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down;
10102.  Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing;
10103.  Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek;
10104.  Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending;
10105.  Even if you cannot change all the people around you, you can change the people you choose to be around;
10106.  At the beginning of the 20^th century, life expectancy at birth was around 45 years.  It has risen to about 75 thanks to the advent of antibiotics and public health measures that allow people to survive or avoid infectious diseases.  Keep in mind that this dramatic increase is much more a reflection of increased infant survival than of adults living longer;
10107.  Many anthropologists agree it’s likely that a large portion of infant mortality once attributed to starvation and disease probably resulted from infanticide;
10108.  They argue that foraging societies limited the number of infants so they wouldn’t become a burden to the group or allow overly rapid population growth to strain food supplies;
10109.  Joseph Birdsell, one of the world’s greatest scholars of Australian Aboriginal culture, estimated that as many as ½ of all infants were intentionally destroyed;
10110.  Various surveys of contemporary pre-industrial societies conclude that anywhere from ½ to ¾ of them practice some form of direct infanticide;
10111.  Learn to enjoy your own company;
10112.  You are valuable regardless of your relationship status.  You don’t need someone else to validate your self-worth;
10113.  Give yourself credit for the effort you put in to transform your life for the better;
10114.  There’s a (very good) reason why you’re not allowed to use your phones during a Dave Chappelle show;
10115.  Dave Chappelle is friends with/knows a lot of celebrities;
10116.  I can say that I’ve seen Dave Chappelle live;
10117.  Apparently, no smoking indoors in public places (in D.C.) doesn’t apply to Dave Chappelle;
10118.  Dave Chappelle smokes a lot;
10119.  Dave Chappelle is a decent singer;
10120.  If you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack.  If you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have;
10121.  Societies that practice infanticide don’t consider newborn infants full human beings.  Rituals ranging from baptism to naming ceremonies are delayed until it is determined whether or not the child will be permitted to live.  If not, from this perspective, the child was never fully alive anyway;
10122.  The dramatic increases in world population that paralleled agricultural development don’t indicate increased health, but increased fertility: more people living to reproduce, but lower quality of life for those who do;
10123.  Cortisol, the hormone your body releases when under stress, is the strongest immunosuppressant known.  In other words, nothing weakens our defenses against disease quite like stress;
10124.  Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues studied the sleep habits of 153 healthy men and women for 2 weeks before putting them in quarantine and exposing them to rhinovirus, which causes the common cold.  Those who slept less than 7 hours per night were 3 times as likely to get sick;
10125.  Intermittent fasting was associated with more than a 40% reduction in heart disease risk in a study of 448 people published in the American Journal of Cardiology reporting that “most diseases, including cancer, diabetes and even neurodegenerative illnesses are forestalled” by caloric reduction;
10126.  The theory of testis size is simple: species that copulate more often need larger testes and species in which several males routinely copulate with one ovulating female need even bigger testes;
10127.  If a species has cojones grandes, you can bet that males have frequent ejaculations with females who sleep around.  Where the females save it for Mr. Right, the males have smaller testes relative to their overall body mass.  The correlation of slutty females with big balled males appears to apply not only to humans and other primates, but to many mammals as well as to birds, butterflies, reptiles and fish;
10128.  A human ejaculation typically consists of anywhere from 3 to 9 spurts.  Researchers who somehow managed to capture “split ejaculates” for analysis found that the first spurts contain chemicals that protect against various kinds of chemical attack.  Aside from leucocytes and antigens present in a woman’s reproductive tract, they protect the sperm from the chemicals in the latter spurts of other men’s ejaculate.  These final spurts contain a spermicidal substance that slows the advance of any latecomers;
10129.  Several researchers have demonstrated that a man’s sperm production increases significantly when he has not seen his partner for a few days regardless of whether or not he ejaculated during her absence;
10130.  When my mom moved to Texas for grad(uate) school, she didn’t like the Mexican food served in the school cafeterias/dining halls;
10131.  My dad used to drink a couple of (12-ounce) bottles of Coca-Cola at work every day;
10132.  You deserve respect and compassion . . . from yourself;
10133.  Hibiki Suntory Whiskey (Japanese Harmony) reminds me of (The) Macallan (Scotch);
10134.  As much as it is fun to start a new life with someone, you must realize that the reason they want to be with you in the first place was that you had an “interesting life.”  You don’t want to lose your “life” trying to start a new one with them.  Let them come and share the wonderful life you’ve built just as you go on to partake in theirs;
10135.  I can say I’ve had venison Rocky Mountain oysters;
10136.  Venison testicles are soft and mushy;
10137.  Let your memories be just memories.  Don’t allow them to influence your thoughts and behaviors;
10138.  Serena Williams’s hitting partner is a former University of Virginia tennis player (i.e., Jarmere Jenkins);
10139.  Apparently, Dennis Rodman has a flip phone;
10140.  I hear Charles Esten (i.e., “Deacon Claybourne” from the television show, “Nashville,”) likes to go barhopping when he’s in (Old) Town (Alexandria) for Thanksgiving;
10141.  “Speck” is a type of cured, lightly smoked ham. . . . It’s very chewy;
10142.  “Pastirma” is Turkish pastrami;
10143.  You can only make helpful changes in your life if you focus on the things that are within your control;
10144.  No excuses about not being good at something.  We all have to start somewhere;
10145.  The single most important influence to our sense of self/self-worth comes from our relationships with parental figures;
10146.  Our parents’ interactions with us reflect back our sense of self.  We internalize their voice and it becomes our own inner voice . . . our identity;
10147.  If we had parents, who invalidated our emotions, denied our realities or disapproved of core parts of who we are, we felt this as children.  We developed beliefs that we are unworthy, unlovable and have a fear that something about us is broken.  This the mother/father wound;
10148.  When this happens, we search for love and validation in everyone we meet.  We become chronic people pleasers desperate to be “good enough” to be accepted;
10149.  Unconsciously, we recreate this parent-child dynamic with romantic partners.  We over extend ourselves, allow our boundaries to be crossed, allow people to betray us, place our self-worth in someone else’s hands and release our own needs in order to feel close to someone else;
10150.  External validation is the only way we can feel worthy.  Of course when someone doesn’t validate our worth, the blow feels crushing especially with romantic partners where we feel the original parental rejection all over again;