April 5, 2009
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Quick Holdover and 25 Things
So the last month or so has been pretty busy. A couple of things that’ve gone on:
- I got accepted to Georgetown’s Master in Public Policy program. I should be starting this fall.
- One of my friends came down to visit for a week.
- Two of my friends since college got married last weekend (March 27th) at Disneyworld. I went, and I have pictures.
I’m going to make another post this Wednesday, exclusively devoted to the wedding and Orlando vacation. Since it’ll be a bit lengthier, it’ll take a bit more time to put together. In the meantime…
25 Things
There’s this list of 25 things that I was tagged with by Onigiriman. I’ve been meaning to get around to it, though the above things, plus plenty of work, getting sick for a week, etc., sort of got in the way. Anyway… the idea is that you write a note with “25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.” Since I don’t know that many people who still update their Xanga, the response rate may be a bit low. But in any case, here goes:
- When I was little, my dream job was an astronomer. When I took an economics course in high school I found I had two subjects I liked, and I opted for the one that I liked and would be more lucrative. I still love astronomy, though.
- I grew up playing tons of video games. I still play a lot, though I have more of an affinity for older games.
- I got interested in Japanese culture starting with video games, then anime, and finally studying Japanese when I was 14. I did self-study in high school, and then formal classes in college.
- I did two summer stays abroad with AFS in high school: Nagoya in 1999, and Rio Cuarto, Argentina, in 2000. I went back to Nagoya for a semester in 2004–completely coincidental.
- I did three years of speech and debate in high school. I was pretty good at it, too–went to Nationals twice (once in Lincoln-Douglass Debate, once in House). I’m pretty comfortable speaking in public as a result.
- I was valedictorian of my high school (class of about 270, school of about 1600). We had our graduation in the Grand Ole Opry, which is where I gave the speech.
- During my graduation, there was a part called the benediction that was a thinly-veiled school-led prayer. I was on stage, so when they asked everyone to stand for the benediction, I remained seated. (The year after that, they quit doing the benediction at graduations.)
- George Washington University was my 4th choice for colleges; the three before that (UPenn, University of Chicago, and Brown) all rejected me. In retrospect, I’m really glad things turned out how they did.
- I’ve been to 22 different countries. Most were for brief vacations; the longest stays were in Japan, Argentina, and Bangladesh.
- I speak both Japanese and Spanish to a reasonable degree (enough to get around). I understand a tiny bit of Bengali (never actually learned it), and briefly studied Chinese for a year.
- I’m the foremost expert on the Lunar series, an RPG series with its first installment in 1992-1993. I’ve played all the games (English and Japanese versions), read the manga (even translated two of them), read all the novels (and summarized/translated 8 out of 9 of them–working on the 9th), and have my name in the credits of the latest game for the Nintendo DS (Lunar: Dragon Song–unfortunately, it’s not very good).
- Science fiction has always been my favorite genre of entertainment. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and really like TNG, Deep Space 9, Enterprise, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly (top choice), and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors.
- I have a dangerous addiction to turn-based strategy games–particularly Sid Meier’s Civilization series. There were several times during college that I had to uninstall Civilization 3 or Alpha Centauri to avoid spending all day playing it instead of studying.
- I really love museums, particularly anything related to human history (that is, I like things like the American History Museum and Freer/Sackler Gallery over the Air & Space and Natural History museums). I make very frequent visits to the Smithsonian.
- Calligraphy is probably my favorite visual art form–Arabic calligraphy in particular, but Japanese and Chinese calligraphy to some extent. I did take one calligraphy course while studying in Japan last time, and really enjoyed it; it’s been a couple of years since I picked up a brush, however.
- I love cricket, though I don’t follow any other sports. My love of cricket really began only a couple of years ago, but since then I’ve tried to make up for lost time.
- I have a weakness for cats. If I see one, it takes all my willpower to avoid playing with it, meowing, and speaking in a high-pitched voice.
- Right up until I was 15, I was homophobic. Not to a horrible extent, but an embarrassing one. That changed when I found out one of my close friends was bisexual, which triggered some closer inspection of my own views, and I soon realized how stupid I was being by forming preconceived notions about people based on who they were attracted to.
- Right up until I was 15, I actively disbelieved in evolution. This changed when I realized two things: (1) I was taking my cues on what to believe from evangelical Christians, despite being Muslim, and (2) There was no conflict between my religious views and evolution, or any scientific theories for that matter (that goes for correct and incorrect theories). I had to go out of my way to learn about what evolution and natural selection actually are, though, since my 8th and 9th grade biology teachers didn’t teach it. This is one of the reasons I feel strongly about teaching evolution in schools, because failure to teach evolution makes kids stupid. I was there once; thankfully I’m not anymore.
- I changed my opinion on the death penalty while researching it for one debate topic in high school. Previously I was completely fine with it; now, I think it’s an antiquated practice that’s barbaric for any society that has the means to imprison people (which applies to any developed country, including our own). In general, this is why I’m pretty amenable to changing my mind on things if I’m provided compelling evidence and good logic for it.
- Nearly every morning, just before I leave my apartment, I go to my kitchen and check that the stove and oven is off. Sometimes, I take a few steps down the hall before doubling back, unlocking my door, and going to the kitchen to check. Last time I visited my mother, when we were going out someplace, she turns to me and asks if she turned off the stove and oven. It wasn’t until then that I realized where I got that habit from.
- My OCD comes into play with organizing things, too. Files on my computer, my desk, my books, everything needs some logical order to them. I prefer to organize my things geographically, particularly my music (East to West then South to North).
- I have a really strong belief in free will. What this translates into is that I don’t believe in fate or destiny, I don’t believe in soulmates (in the sense that there’s that one single person who’s perfect for you–I do believe there can be incredibly close connections between people, though), and I have a strong aversion to anything that compromises that free will (drugs and alcohol, e.g.).
- I do believe in objective morality. There are some things that are subjective, things that are right or wrong depending on the circumstance. But there are many things that I do think are objectively right or wrong, regardless of surrounding societal norms.
- I consider being Muslim my primary identity. Though, I also believe everyone has multiple identities they ascribe to themselves: ethnicity, nationality, religion, philosophy, occupation, etc.. Most of these identities aren’t in conflict with one another and don’t need to be prioritized (e.g., being American and being Muslim).
(Background)
(Interests/Entertainment)
(Beliefs/Habits)
So if I tagged you, try to put up the same 25 things message. It needn’t be so lengthy and detailed as this–just to whatever extent that you’d like. You can post something in these comments too, if you want.
Anyway, as I said, next post will be all about the Orlando trip and wedding. ‘Til Wednesday. KF
(EDIT: User tags is down right now for some reason… I’ll try to edit this post and add that in once it’s back up.) (UPDATE: User tags back up.)
