Indigo Jo Blogs

Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective

My Seven Things

by · 4th October, 2005

OK, well, this is the second time I think that I’ve been tagged for the “seven things” meme - first it was by Safiyyah and this time it’s by Izzy Mo [1], [2]. Since I’ve got an enforced break from work while my boss wonders if there’s anything more for me to do, I thought I might start on it.

Seven Things I Plan to do Before I Die

  1. Do Hajj
  2. Visit some of the countries I’ve acquired Rough Guides and Lonely Planets for (particularly the Muslim countries)
  3. Live in a Muslim environment and/or help make one through community building and/or da’wah
  4. Learn Arabic as well as at least one of the languages I’ve got books on
  5. Master some sort of programming technique and make a serious contribution to the open-source world instead of just blogging about it
  6. Get a career and leave home
  7. Start a family

Seven Things I Can Do

  1. Write really good English; I have a really good command of written English and I attribute my high essay marks at college at least partly to this.
  2. Get a large vehicle through a tight space.
  3. Know where really obscure places are, and find my way to them easily.
  4. Understand the writing systems and pronunciation of several languages I don’t actually speak.
  5. Write a reasonably complex application in C++ using Qt, and basic tasks in other languages (again, my habits with computer languages are similar to my habits with real languages)
  6. Cook a number of stand-by dishes, most of them I learned years ago from my Mum before I went away to college
  7. Set up a blog, and help someone else set one up at the other end of a MSN line.

Ma sha Allah, la quwwata illa bi’llah.

Seven Things I Can Not Do

  1. Tolerate dance music (and European dance music is more unlistenable than ragga, which is worse itself than American hip-hop).
  2. Get a lot of the music from before I was Muslim out of my head.
  3. So far, think up a better nickname than Indigo Jo
  4. Keep my cool when dealing with companies and bureaucracies which owe me money when I’m broke (like my job agency a couple of weeks back, which insisted on paying me by cheque, several days late, when they take four working days to clear)
  5. Pretty much any complicated maths
  6. Keep a straight face when challenging someone or trying to be assertive rather than aggressive or angry (I’ve got better at this over the years, though)
  7. Keep my room tidy for more than a few days (not that I think it’s a big deal unless the room’s really filthy)

Seven Things I Say Most Often

  1. La ilaha illa Allah
  2. Bismillah, wa ‘ala barakati’llah
  3. Ma sha Allah
  4. As-Salaamu ‘alaikum
  5. Insha Allah
  6. Alhamdu lillah
  7. OK … (I’ve used it or something similar on three entries on this front page!)

Seven Things That Attract Me to the Opposite Sex

  1. Muslim, practising and strict about things I’m strict about (such as not eating haraam meat)
  2. Wears hijab, and wears it properly. I mean, if you wear hijab at all, how much more effort does it take to wear it properly, so that you don’t have to keep taking it off every few minutes to re-wrap it. Also, hijab and a tight skirt don’t go together.
  3. Her dress has to be decent and feminine. I remember a couple of years ago I was in contact with a sister from east Africa, and the thing I always noticed was the beautiful and feminine way she dressed, and this kept me going to see her and her family for more than a year (until I finally decided she was unsuitable for other reasons). I don’t know about other men but I find long and flowing dresses the most attractive.
  4. Well-spoken (not “common”) with a sweet voice (for me that means smooth and deep, relatively speaking, rare as that is).
  5. Thinks well of people, and doesn’t gossip or listen to gossip.
  6. Attractive face (I know it when I see it, but wide or fat faces are what I don’t find attractive).
  7. Good standard of hygiene (Izzy Mo mentioned “no B.O.”, but I can’t ever remember meeting a Muslimah with B.O.).

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