And the winner is ...

Here are my predictions for this year's Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Terence Howard (Hustle and Flow)
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Keira Kneightly (Pride and Prejudice) - Although I hope Felicity Huffman gets it.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Paul Giamatti (Cinderella Man)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain)
Best Animated Feature Film: Corpse Bride
Best Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Cinematography: Batman Begins
Best Costume Design: Munich
Best Directing: Brokeback Mountain
Best Documentary Feature: March of the Penguins
Best Documentary Short: God Sleeps in Rwanda
Best Film Editing: Munich
Best Foreign Language Film: Paradise Now
Best Make Up: The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Music (Score): Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Music (Song): Travelin' Thru (Transamerica)
Best Short Animated Film: 9
Best Short Live Action Film: Six Shooter
Best Sound Editing: War of the Worlds
Best Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplat: Matchpoint

What Are Yours?

Back from the dead ...

Hello my friends,

I know I had disappeared off the face of the planet for a while, but my life has been going through an overhaul. Lots of things have changed over the past couple of months.

Perhaps the most significant of those changes is that I now have a new job. To me this job is a dream come true. I had decided to quit my job at the previous company regardless of whether or not I already have something to move on to. I didn't like the concept of hanging around until I found something else. So I embarked on a journey to find a new job and a much needed holiday.

During this holiday I further cemented what I already knew about myself, I'm a WORK-A-HOLIC. I couldn't stand having nothing to do, the vacuum was killing me. I started finding errands to run and calling people asking if they needed anything done! Luckily for me, AIESEC in the UAE had just signed on with the Dubai Ethics Resource Center (DERC) for a new project called Leadership in Corporate Responsibility, which is an exchange based partnership aiming at developing social responsibility and raising ethics awareness in Dubai, the UAE and the region. The project needed a project manager who would be responsible for the development and implementation. I went through a selection process and a series of interviews, until I got the fatefull call .... "Congratulations, you have been selected" ... and through the roof I went...

I can't describe exactly how I felt, all I can say is that I was in a state of extacy that is still ongoing.

And now...to close ... I'll just say this....

It's good to be back

Sherif Abaza