The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 27

saiunuay, juneiy, iyyj inebunva the FaJDfBllDyjagc High school graduates reflect on their best of times Traditionally, when the school year comes to an end, it's time to look forward to new challenges and goals. But for graduating high school seniors, it's also a time to think about the years spent together, good friends and past accomplishments. We talked to some recent grads senior English students of Evelyn Filbeck at San Bernardino High School and asked them about the most important thing that they learned during their high school years. Here's what they had to say: pT? M. Gallegos Suiana Gomez LlzPatu Robert Servln People who were total enemies in ninth and 10th grades mature and out of the blue begin to talk and associate with each other.

James Harps There is a feeling that you have when you sit in your first class on your first day of your high school journey. You pray for graduation day to come quickly. This feeling stays with you until your senior year and then you want the days to go more slowly so you can savor the times. In the back of your mind you know you will always remember and cherish your high school days. I learned to cherish every day as it comes.

Jose Rodriguez Most of my high school experience was wonderful, with long hours of study, hard exams, good grades and awards. But I left my yearbook, with all the signatures of my friends and teacher, next to a computer and when I returned to get it, it was gone. This is a very sad ending for me. Varick Mantzoros Through all my years here I learned why they call San Bernardino (High) the very best. The teachers here guide you and stick with you through bad times or good times.

Because of them, I learned to accomplish my goal. Louie Mena In high school, the most important thing you learn is how to figure out life. It's different from elementary and middle school. It's a time for adjustment from being a kid to being an adult. The years at San Bernardino High were maturing years and getting to know the ropes and how to deal with the pressures.

Teen Soapbox Is compiled by Michel Nolan. Would your class like to participate in Teen Soapbox? If so, please write to the Family Page, The San Bernardino County Sun, 399 N. San Bernardino, Calif. 92401. then my principal, Mrs.

Craig, talked to me and I learned about the importance of education. It turned my life around. I stopped getting in trouble and never went to the office again. Arthur Alvarez The most important thing that I learned during my high school experience was the value of friendship. With my friends by my side, I felt like I could accomplish anything.

They were a very important part of the best years of my life. Kala Wilson When I was a freshman, I was quiet and had an attitude problem. I was very negative about everything and always thought the worst of myself and everybody else. When I changed schools and met new friends I learned to become more talkative and easy-going. I have a more positive attitude about everything.

I think the change will make me a better person in the job arena and at home. Robert Servln The most important things to me throughout my high school years are the many friends I have become close to, both in class and in after-school activities. Colt Baldwin Through my years in high school, I think the most important thing I've learned is how to face life and reality. Anthony Hannah In the four years I've been in high school, I've made the honor roll every year because I've learned good study habits. This will really help me establish myself in college life.

Tyrone Watson One of the most meaningful things that I learned in high school, especially in my senior year, was the bond that students develop with each other the more time they spend together. working hard as a team, yet giving your best performance as an individual. Never give up no matter how the odds are stacked against you and learn from your mistakes. If you put your mind to it and cooperate, you will become successful. Bernardo Musgrove The most meaningful thing I have learned is how to cope with problems.

Life can't be avoided. I've learned over the years that problems can be run as obstacles and any obstacle can be overcome. You can see problems as mathematical equations where you supply the right formula and get the satisfying answer. Susana Gomez When I look back and see what I have accomplished this year, I realize that my friends and teachers were the key to my success. Nash Hambly What I have learned here is how to get along with many ty pes of people.

Due to the ethnic diversity of my school, I have been able to meet many kinds of people and learn about their interesting cultures. Andre Evans I learned that through all my years of high school that I could count on the office and teaching staff here to help me through the good times and the bad. I became more comfortable being a student and knew I always had Andre Smith One of the most important things I learned is that you have to work hard to become successful. Working hard always pays off in the end. The amount of work that you put into something is the amount of satisfaction you will get at the end.

Margaret Gallegos When I first started school here, I was scared. But along the way I got to know some great teachers and met plenty of friends. I'm not that scared person anymore. Chris Rogan I've learned lessons of respect and self-worth with the help of many fine teachers. I've been able to get to know myself and show proper respect to others.

These skills will help me in achieving my future goals. Brandy Carter During my elementary through lOth-grade years, my schooling was not so good. My reading was below grade level and I thought I was dumb. Then, in my junior year in high school, I learned that I was not dumb I just have dyslexia. Dyslexia is not a disease that's harmful to others it just makes you interpret words and letters differently.

Si Mendoza I played several sports during my high school career and those sports taught me all about Answers to all that jazz about Some hard-bound answers to living life after college Marco Bojorquez Brandy Carter friends I could turn to. Marco Bojorquez I came from Mexico to this school two years ago and have had the opportunity to meet different friends. I appreciate my English teacher, Mrs. Filbeck, for teaching me about English. When I got in this class, I did not know very much English and she was patient with me.

Alexandra Von Habsburg I have learned about real friendship and caring for others' feelings. My friends made these last four years the best years of my life. Danny Lyles One lesson that I learned is that I couldn't live in the world today without my friends. I would be there for them and they would be there for me. Our friendship was strong.

Shannon Schuman I remember how shy I was when I came here and I learned to talk to people more. I learned leadership skills in ROTC and jr iMin 1 I About 1,000 screens showing the Steven Spielberg dinosaur thriller have been equipped with a system called The Digital Experience, which puts the soundtrack on a compact disc similar to CDs used in home audio. Wired into a theater's existing speakers, a player provides up to six tracks of digital sound so that the thudding approach of tyrannosaurus rex is crisply real. Digital sound also can produce dead silence there's no hiss associated with analog sound reproduction. Universale system, by Digital Theater Systems of West-lake, costs per cinema to install.

Cost of competing systems from Sony and Dolby is "Last Action Hero" will be in Sony Digital Stereo in some theaters. Inside information Look carefully at the computer terminal belonging to Ne-dry, "Jurassic Park's" own doughy Benedict Arnold. You'll see glimpses of a newspaper photo of a dour-looking man. The headline: "Father of the Baby Boom." Who is this guy and what does it mean? He's physicist J. Robert Oppenheim-er and the headline is an ironic reference to his most noteworthy contribution to science the nuclear bomb.

The part of the paleonto Tyrone Watson Jose Rodriguez made friends. Those were the good times and I will miss them as I move on to further my career. I'll always remember the friends I left behind. Jesus Rodriguez In my four years in high school, I've learned that keeping up with your assignments is very important to passing any academic class. Liz Patu During my four years in high school, there have been rocky roads and smooth roads.

These two worlds have given me a chance to learn about the real world. But the most important thing I learned was how to survive on my own. High school is a small city containing various challenges of life. Xung Chau The most important thing for me was football. If it weren't for football, I don't know if I would have stayed in school.

Michelle Litt My freshman year here, I started off on the wrong track and went to the office a lot. But 'Jurassic' 1 Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex logist played by Sam Neill was first offered to William Hurt, who turned it down without reading the script. There's buzz of a sequel with evidence to boot. No official word from Steven Spielberg, but in the book, the island with the dinosaurs is bombed into oblivion. When the movie credits roll, the beasts still are standing.

(P.S., an animated TV series is upcoming. It's not the book When Steven Spielberg waved his directorial wand over Michael Crichton's bestseller, the result was politically correct movie magic. Among '90s-sensi-bility touches not in the book: In the novel, the little boy secures the terrorized theme park by hacking on a computer. In the movie, the job goes to his sister (Ariana Richards). The novel's Toyotas are replaced with made-in-the-USA Ford Explorers.

The film's tiny heroine proclaims she is vegetarian and also loves the non-meat-eating "veggie-sauruses." In the book, the lead paleontologist doesn't romance his colleague or have qualms about becoming a dad. In the film, Laura Dern and Sam Neill discuss having children; he gets in touch with his inner nurturer while protecting the kids from raging dinos. T-- 7 7 Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) examines a dinosaur egg as (Ariana Richards) look on with fascination. Now that hordes of people have seen the movie, even more tidbits of information are leaking out.

Gannett News Service Folks are herding into theaters to check out the wild things in "Jurassic Park" and leaving with questions. Like, how did they make the dinos look so real? And sound so real? Will there be a sequel? Here, we dig up the answers. The name Some "Jurassic Park" patrons are scratching their heads. "Love the movie, but where'd they dig up that weird name?" The Jurassic period 208 to 145 million years ago was the time when dilosophaurs and brachiosaurs thrived and earliest birds appeared. But because the stars are ty-rannosaurus rex, the velocirap-tors and triceratops, the movie should have been called "Cretaceous Park" the period 145 to 65 million years ago when these guys appeared and when dinos really ruled the Earth.

The T. Rex factor Think there are no strong female roles in today's movies? Then you haven't seen ty-rannosaurus rex's debut in "Jurassic Park." The newcomer steals the show with her killer performance, even if she does chew up too much scenery. Filmmakers must have foreseen her broad appeal, too, since they selected a skeletal silhouette of the exotic beauty for the film's logo, which is used in all of its advertising. Here's the skinny on the hefty new star: Vital statistics. 40 feet long, 9,000 pounds.

About her character. The largest terrestrial carnivore. Her huge jaws contain a jagged line of 7-inch, razor-sharp teeth. Her name means "tyrant reptile." First described by Henry Farifield Osborne in 1905 from a partial skeleton found in eastern Montana. Previous screen experience.

None. A natural, born for the role. Preparation for the part. A design team at Stan Winston Studios, in Los Angeles, took 16 weeks to create a life-size hy-draulically operated T-rex. On landlords: "Most will run a credit check on you before they let you sign the lease.

If your credit or job situation looks shaky, they may demand that you get 'cosigners' i.e., your parents to guarantee the rent. "They will also expect you to write a check for first and last month's rent, and possibly a month's rent in addition, as a security deposit. This may be the first four-figure check you have written." On student loans: "The government gives you a six-month grace period to find a job and catch your breath, and then the bills start arriving." Most of the book tackles landing a job, and includes tips on mining connections, some of which can be tenuous, to say the least. An example? "My best friend's uncle knows this guy who goes out with the hairdresser of Madonna's personal manager." Martz also includes a chapter on employment agencies and career counselors, and another on classified advertisements. He navigates the murky maze of resumes and interviews.

Martz describes an exchange better left unsaid: Interviewer: "Where do you see yourself in five years." Candidate: "In your job." But life is not all angst, and "How to Survive" brightens the job search with plenty of quirky work-related charts, including one that lists baseball players as having the shortest work week, at 30 hours. After the graduate lands a job and signs a lease, comes the hard part: living independently. Suddenly, there's another set of adult concepts, such as filling out W-2 forms and figuring out health insurance plans. Oh yes, the back cover offers a parting suggestion: "This book is printed on recyclable paper and can be burned for warmth if things get really desperate." Onward! NewYork Times College graduation is over, and you've tasted your last sip of champagne, posed for the final photograph and slept in your dormitory room for the last time. Now, you have to answer the question your parents have thrown at you for the last several months: What are you going to do with your life? Reading Nietzsche seemed so much easier.

A new book, "How To Survive Without Your Parents' Money" (Villard, $9), offers some hints for those trying to cross the great divide into the "real world." The book, which includes tips from employers and even a recipe for guaca-mole, comes from the Princeton Review, a company better known for helping students prepare for standardized tests, not life. "We're supposed to know by osmosis what to do when we get out of school," said the book's author, Geoff Martz, 36, a graduate of Columbia University who has written test-preparation manuals and other advice books for the Princeton Review. "This book is holding people's hands through the process of doing what they have to do. Most of them haven't a clue." "How to Survive" joins more traditional views of life after college, such as "The Smith College Job Guide" by Elizabeth Tener (Penguin, 1991, $10.95) and "The Harvard Guide to Careers" by Martha P. Leape and Susan Vacca (Harvard University Press, 1991, But the strategies and suggestions in "How to Survive" for such prickly tasks as finding an apartment and paying off student loans are often irreverent.

On apartment hunting in a big city: "To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never has so much been paid for so little." When the star was born, she was secretly transported to Universal Studios on a flatbed truck in the middle of the night. In Northern California, a computer graphic T-rex was created at Industrial Light and Magic. The two dinos took turns acting in various shots. Both were blended into one seamless performance. Vocal coaching.

No single living animal has a wide enough range of sounds to cover T-rex's moods. So a combination of sounds was used: elephants, alligators, penguins, tigers and dogs. T-rex's breathing which conveys a sense of her awesome volume was created by recording whale blowholes and laying them on the soundtrack in a breathing rhythm. Worst moment. Most scenes were shot in rain, and the absorbent properties of T-rex's foam rubber skin meant she retained tremendous amounts of water.

Not only was that damaging to her hide, but the additional weight disrupted T-rex's operating mechanisms. Teams worked all night to dry her out with big dryers. Next role. Hoping for a sequel but real goal is to do theater. Hearing is believing "Jurassic Park" launches the summer's digital sound wars in theaters..