This is more of an annoyance... But my Applications directory will not stay in list view. If I log out, or (gasp) restart, it will go back to icon view.

Any suggestions on what I should do?

the trick to get windows to remember what view they should use ..

open the folder WITHOUT selecting anything in it.change to list view,close the window and next time you open it, it should be in list view

Unfortunately it's not that simple.

The window doesn't revert back to icon view when it's closed... Only when I log out, or restart.

repair permissions,boot from cd and repair drive...

islayer's got it right. basically the .DS_Store file in the folder has the incorrect permissions and wont save permanently what preference you have and you have to repair permissions from the CD, doesn't fix it by running Disk Util while booted off that drive.

If that doesn't work, do a search on version tracker for a program called "cocktail" and from memory it has the ability to delete/repair .DS_Store files in the folder of your choice. You may need to run "repair permissions" after still. Take no repsonsibility for using cocktail though, I've not heard if it's full proof or not.