Here's my first article for a brand new year! Welcome folks to Random Thoughts for 2005! Again, I'm your host, Dreamer, the one and only person writing for this site. So now that a new year is here, what will be in the works in the life of the Dreamer? Well............all I can say is, BIG, BIG things! I'm thinking that 2005 is my year! Maybe I'll become a millionaire this year or save the presidents life from some God-aweful freak of nature....or from himself. Who knows what may happen this year, but I am sure looking forward to it.

Today is a beautiful Monday evening and here I am, at home kicking back in the nice warmth of the central heating system and a nice cup of java. Usually my Mondays are filled with running around getting things done both on the computer and in the outside world. Which reminds me, I took a drive out to the college to pay for my class for this coming semester and can you believe it! It was over a hundred dollars for a single class!! Geeeez! I swear each year it goes up by another $25 or so! So there I am, walking up to the pay counter and I jokingly said as I was pulling out my checkbook, "So what's it cost this year for a class? 100 bucks?". And the girl (and she was cute too), said, "Oh no, not at all!". Then I wiped my brow and said, "Well, that's good". But then she replied, "No, it's actually $120". I was stunned! $120 for a stinking lousy class! Let me re-iterate that...$120 for a single stinkin' lousy class! Helloooooo!! People, I'm a student here! That means I can't afford a pair of new shoes, let alone a class at a city college! (Sigh)! I tell ya what, that class better have some nice amenities! And I'm talking about nice comfy leather reclining desks and chairs, our very own beverage cooler, a nap break every hour or so and maybe even a door prize or two. Well, the good side of it all is, this will be my last and final class for my certificate of completion! Wahoo, I'll finally get a piece of paper that says, "Congratulations! You're qualified to get a medium paying job that 5 million other people will be contending for! Congratulations!". Yes, if you haven't noticed, I'm being satirical.

In other news, I'm sure you have all been keeping up with that terrible disaster that the Tsunami in Asia had wrought. Sooo many lives lost and destroyed. When I woke that morning and heard about it on the news, my heart fell to the bottom of my stomach and a horrible feeling was etching itself into my chest. I wanted to cry along side those who were (and still are) suffering. The death toll from the last I heard was nearing 150,000 spread across 13 nations. Mother nature did not care about age, about sex, about riches, beliefs or creed. It showed no bias and rampaged and spun a chaos of destruction through communities, cities and villages. After the initial news, I practically went about my business with a radio glued to my ears trying to keep up with the latest stories coming from that region. And the latest rumors are saying that some people are pointing the fingers at the U.S. for not being able to warn the nations in trouble by the coming tsunami. It makes you wonder, with all the great technology that we have. With all the equipment that can monitor hurricanes, storms, tornados, earthquakes, and yes, even a tsunami, what happened here? What in the hell went wrong that we overlooked a phenomenon such as this!! How could we have missed this disaster that now has has claimed 150,000 lives??! And who is to blame?! Alas..........here it is. Here is a terrible truth that is slapping us in the face. Technology is NOT everything! Technology CANNOT be trusted 100% to cradle our lives from every danger the world may hurdle at us! And the ultimate truth? NO ONE is to blame! It's so easy to blame someone else, or in this case, another nation because we did not experience what they experienced, or we have better technology. To some, it would be because we are "different", whether it be by religion, by nationality or creed. As much as we desire to save every man, woman and child from every harm, every destruction, every obliteration, we cannot. And when the harm, the destruction, the obliteration happens, the blame cannot be pointed to any one body or bodies. We as human beings are so quick to point the finger, as we are doing now amongst this Asian disaster, that we forget that all of us, even with all of our fancy technology, are only human! So you see, nobody is to blame! If you want to toss around blame, then do so at mother nature.....maybe even God, but not another person or nation for how can any one of us control or have any say in what Earth decides to toss at us? But you know what? What is truly amazing is the fact that in the end, when the destruction has happened...when the lives are lost.........and countries are pushed to their knees by such powers that can ultimately effect all of us, we as human beings, as diverse as we are, somehow, we band together. We toss all of our differences, all of our opposing religions, all of our opposing ideas, beliefs, social and monetary status and join hands to wipe each others tears. And upon the wake of the tsunami, it is clearly evident. It is clearly evident that for once, and maybe it will only be for a split second, that we, all throughout the world, have become one nation.