Eight Things Meme Tag

Okie dokie, so, Naeem tagged me like a week ago with this tag that I'm finally get around to. So maybe people are interested in learning more about me. I talk about personal issues sometimes on my blog, but then there are some things that I haven't really made public, and then some people haven't read a year and a half's worth of archives. So... for all of you......

Step 1: The Rules
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Step 2: Eight Things

1. I'm engaged! I've told a handful of people, and hinted at it in other places, but this is the first time I've really announced it. So, yay! My fiancé is in Saudi Arabia right now, and after I graduate inshaaAllah I'll move there too (though by then he should be my husband.) That of course is why I've been reading so many Saudi Blogs, in case anyone was wondering what was up with that.
   
2. I don't like chocolate. Strange, especially for a woman it's strange, but as I get older I like it less and less. I'll eat candy that is covered in chocolate, since most of it is, but seldom straight chocolate bars. I think adding chocolate to cheesecake ruins it, and only make an exception for chocolate cake (I do make an irresistable chocolate cake btw) and white chocolate. Not being racist or anything, but white chocolate which is made from the oil instead of ground up beans is so smooth, excellent in, for example, a mocha. Although I'm incredibly picky about chocolate, I love citrus flavors, lime, lemon, orange, hmm...
   
3. I wish I could fly. I have a pilot's log book, with my one pitiful hour of actual flight time logged in it. I can't for now afford (either in money or time) to get my pilot's license. Renting the plane, plus the instructor and fuel is all incredibly expensive. So I have my one little hour. I entered college declaring my major as aerospace engineering. I had a love of spaceflight from all the sci-fi I read in middle and high school, and wanted to do something with planes or spaceships as a career. I picked engineering because my dad implied that women couldn't be engineers. (So B'elana Torres on Voyager rocked, as a character, because she was chief engineer!) Not many women are pilots either, I realized later on. I got to spend a few afternoons one semester out at the airport (general aviation terminal) helping repair some small private aircraft, and I loved it. (Later on I saw the industry being very unstable so switched to electrical engineering, which is my current major.) But I am very proud of the time I spent in the pilot's seat, and that's why on several forums I use the alias 'Aviatrix' which, in case you didn't know, is the female form of the word 'Aviator.'
   
4. I'm used to being the only girl in a group of guys. As a kid, I used to play baseball on the boys' team (there was no girls team, and softball was only for older girls.) I used to play basketball on the boys' team. When my parents finally put me in cheerleading and softball, I lost interest in sports entirely and didn't play anymore. I wasn't interested in being around girls that much. In high school it was my physics class and computer science class... as they were elective and not required, there were more boys than girls. My senior year, it was all boys except for me. In all my engineering courses it's been the same, one girl compared to a group of boys. Occasionally there are other girls, but you can count them on your hand. One hand. At work, I'm the only girl in our section (signals management). I'm used to it by now, and I don't feel strange being the only girl in a lecture now oriented towards men, or praying behind the men in the same area. In fact a lot of times I feel more comfortable in that kind of gathering, or at least one of mixed gender, than one of only women. And except for the fact I was sorority president for a year, I don't have much to show for socializing with women. In fact, the whole sorority business is a fluke to my social life. Though I should add that the women in it are all kind of like me... engineering students, more acquainted to being around men.
   
5. I like to watch movies by myself. As long as I'm not too busy, I do this quite often. I go to the theater by myself, sit by myself, and enjoy the movie way more than if I had anyone with me I think. When I do go with other people I tend to experience it less, somehow. I watch them at home, too. At home I'm more relaxed and don't mind watching with others. I don't know many people who like to go to the movies by themselves though. Some even think there is this unwritten rule that you shouldn't even go alone, or you look like a dork. Guess I'm a dork! Haha.
6. I work on traffic signals. Red light, green light. My EE major got me a position (yes I'm still in school but working part-time) working for the state's traffic engineering branch of the department of transportation. In short, I draw up instructions on how to hook-up the cabinet to the intersection lights, and how to program the controller, to make it work properly. I can't say much more than that, because I don't think anyone would understand. I've tried explaining it to my fiancé, for example, and he didn't get it, and he's like the smartest person I know, so I won't even try here. But anyway, people stuck in the car with me at a poorly designed intersection understand that I know why it doesn't work, what should be done to fix it, and I feel more entitled to complain since I probably know who did it.
   
7. I want to own a motorcycle. My fascination with motorcycles is thus: they go fast, and you go fast, with no shell around you to mask the thrill. Riding a motorcycle behind a male driver isn't what I have in mind either (some girls would, arms around some muscles and whatever..). I mean to sit in the front, hands on the handlebars, feeling the front breeze rushing past me. What can I say, I love going fast. Joyriding in a car is nothing compared to a motorcycle in my opinion anyway.
   
8. My convert story. Some people talk about how Islam saved them from drugs, or alcohol, or scandalous unfulfilled lives. When I entered into Islam, it saved me from something else. I wasn't ready to be a practicing Muslim, no, but simply saying shahadah got me out of a predicament I was in, so in reality I don't regret saying it before I was ready to start practicing. And if I hadn't said it then, I might never have really discovered all I did, and learned to appreciate it so much. However, I did enter Islam with a sour taste in my mouth on a number of issues, and it's a real shame that exposure to Islam would leave anyone with such a poor opinion of any Muslim. And even though I benefited immediately from entering Islam, albeit not in a spiritual way exactly, I know that the only reason I had enough confidence to forsake the religion of my family, of my friends, to assert that I really did not want to worship 'Jesus as lord', the only reason I had the atom of faith to do that was from reading the Qur'an. Yes, it took me time to accept everything else, but the Qur'an is the speech of Allah, and Allah says that He alone guides people, and what else would He guide with other than His own speech? In the face of the worst examples of Muslims you could probably imagine, I decided to embrace it on one thing alone, and it wasn't the paragon people try to hold up when they give da'wah either. It wasn't an ideal, and it wasn't Muslims, it was only the Qur'an and that's the only explanation I can give. We as Muslims ask Allah for guidance at least 17 times a day, (every rakah we pray, ihdina al-sirat al-mustaqeem) but how often do we stop and actually listen to the guidance?

Now, on that note, I'm going to tag some people I know... I don't think I can come up with eight people who I know even read my blog regularly, much less who have their own blogs. So I came up with 5. Haha. If you don't have a blog please leave it in the comment section. Jazakumallah khair.

1. Amilah
2. Faith
3. Ahmed
4. Rose
5. Rehman
6. SS
7. Metta
8. Kad