RIGHT now, I’m taking up a degree in filmmaking at UCLA School of Film, Theater and Television. I’m still in my first semester but it’s already so exciting to be in here. I belong to the school where among the graduates are Jack Black, James Dean, Mark Harmon, Tim Robbins, Tom Skerritt, Daphne Zuniga, Milo Ventimiglia, Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Shadyac, Rob Reiner and Gore Verbinski. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola is a legend but for the younger generation where I belong, I count Rob Reiner and Gore Verbinski as two of my idols. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola has produced a daughter named Sofia Coppola and for me, she’s one heck of a great director for this generation too. For the actors, I like Jack Black. Milo Ventimiglia is good too but he needs to be exposed in more productions.

I’ll now tell you more about Gore Verbinski and why I like his movies. First of all, I like him because Gore Verbinski is a director which is not confined to a specific genre. Even though 1997’s Mousehuntкомпютри втора употреба was his first film, he already knew how to make an audience authentically laugh. Mousehunt was never a corny comedy because Gore Verbinski did his job excellently.

Next for him was The Mexican. Hollywood must be taking notice to UCLA graduates and that’s why I struggled to gain excellence in high school so I could enroll in this very prestigious institution. The reason that I said earlier that Hollywood must be taking notice on Gore Verbinski to direct his sophomore movie is because they are putting big stars in it – Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. In that movie, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts are eloping to Mexico so the movie has a Mexican feel to it. This is a drastic departure from the movie which made us laugh – Mousehunt.

After that, Gore went on to direct a horror movie this time, The Ring, which made a career out of Naomi Watts. When I watched The Ring in a very dark cinema, it really crept the fear out of me because I was really darn terrified and scared. Right at that instant, I knew I was going to be the next Gore Verbinski. Of course, Gore went on directing the very successful action adventure trilogy Pirates of the Carribean.

There really has been some extravagant films made so take inspiration from the best and most glamorous! Ocean’s 11 was one of them, not only with a starry list of leads (including Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts) but also because of the Vegas background. In fact, poker is a constant theme in the glamorous movies - Rounders is another in which casinos play an enlivening role. Why not practise a little poker online yourself - once you have the taste for it the inspiration for movie making is sure to come next!

So whether it’s teh glamour of the movies which appeals to you or teh murky underworld of the indie flicks, all it takes is a little luck, hard work and inspiration and you couldl find yourself with the fanciest bookstops in the world - an Oscar!

WHEN former United States Vice President Al Gore has shifted his focus from protesting the 2000 election results to environmental causes, he has won accolades and standing ovations all over the globe including the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. His An Inconvenient Truth in fact has eclipsed the popularity of State of Fear, Michael Crichton’s fictionalized version of his ideas on global warming. Touted to be President Bush’s new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head, Dr. Crichton’s non-climatology background ultimately made his downfall and his subsequent university lectures on persistent denials about global warming with half-facts were ultimately booed and shunned. It was indeed a pity on what happened to Dr. Crichton. He was a pathologist with a hobby in computer software stuff and with a knack of imagining things. His creations – Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Rising Sun, Congo and Airframe – were glories of the past and were considered priceless intellectual properties. That’s what happens when a person goes beyond his realm – pathology in Dr. Crichton’s case – and is mis-educated in other fields – climatology in this case.

That’s why education is definitely important in today’s world. Without education, even a well-learned person like Dr. Phil or Stephen Hawkings may stutter if one doesn’t know his stuff. Consider yourself a sonar operator in a nuclear submarine owned by the US Navy. Even if you are a well-learned person like Bill Gates or Barack Obama, you do not know anything about sonar so better not speak about the stuff unless you get a degree in sonar technology.

But that is really not the educational challenge in today’s world. According to one Australian futurist, the world will experience another Ice Age in the next 40 years or so. That’s barely four decades from now and our generation will still surely see light by that time. But no one is panicking and no one is taking the doomed tone of the futurist seriously whom I myself never know his name because I just stumbled upon him while watching a television show beamed from Australia. It’s such a pity that no one takes seriousness about these things. According to the futurist, the Ice Age cycle comes every 100 million years or so. The next 100 millionth year is supposed to take place 40 years from now but no one heeds his warning. The futurist says current global warming is a testament to that and the melting of the glaciers in Greenland and Norway means our future Earth communities is geared there while China and the rest of Southeast Asia will be submerged in water. That’s real panicky, is it? It’s just like the scene from that Japanese doomsday film I saw last year when the whole Japanese archipelago sank in a matter of months.

But within us, there are snippets of change already. And education plays a very key role in shaping that change. So be informed properly and do not be like Michael Crichton.

WHAT does a university student have in store for his or her Christmas break? Christmas breaks are so typical if you spend it with your family back home. Of course, it must be the ideal but for a change, how about spending it somewhere and working on an endeavor in your chosen profession? All universities around the globe provide students Christmas breaks but what about in the Islamic region? We now explore the various practices of students around the world during Christmas break.

Well actually, every university in the world even in Islamic and Jewish countries like Israel do have their two-week Christmas breaks beginning on the week before Christmas and ending the day after New Year in the Gregorian calendar. That is for the sake of the Christian students because even in such countries as Israel and Saudi Arabia, there are a lot of Christian university students.

So in short, there really are no differences in Christmas breaks in universities around the world. The difference now lies in how you spend it if you’re not at home. For example, if you are a college exchange student in France coming from the Philippines and you’re taking up fashion design, you may want to spend your Christmas in Palma de Mallorca. After all, it is one of the hottest Christmas destinations in Europe nowadays. By the way, Palma de Mallorca is the capital of the Balearic archipelago off the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

Or if you’re someone from Maine and you’re a college exchange student in Paris, then savor your stay there by cruising at the bright lights of the city. Paris is known as the City of Lights and without doubt, the city is all the more lighted during the Christmas season. You may stroll around such enchanting sights as the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and everything else in between. You may savor bouillabaisse at any of the bistros or you may simply contemplate on the merriment of the season at the historic Notre Dame Cathedral or at the more serene Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal chapel nearby.

If you’re an agriculture student at the University of Madrid and you’re living in Salamanca, then you may want to practice different agronomy techniques for two weeks back in your small farm at the Salamanca region. Or if you are living along the coasts of Costa del Sol and you just got back due to a Christmas break at Les Roches School in Bluche, Switzerland where you are taking up a degree in hotel management, then you may want to have a voluntary internship for two weeks at any of the high-end beach resorts sprawling in Costa del Sol. Who knows, this may be your baptism of fire and your two weeks of internship may cause to catapult you to becoming a valedictorian in your class at Les Roches School. These and other ingenious forms of vacation for university students can be tried by anybody in the planet as long as they are college students.