Family Visit (part 1)

Mom and dad came and visit me in Kent, Ohio. So I've uploaded some pictures. I arrive the airport, right on time, but apparently, their flight arrived much earlier, due to a tail wind, and they have been waiting for about 15 minutes.

So by the time I arrived, I saw dad waiting....
He looked tired and pissed off. Mom then appeared from the rest room and they both looked tired. So I wasted no time, took the bags and led them to the parking lot. I put their luggage in the trunk and drove ahead to my apartment. I'm sure they wanted to rest. We rested and they slept like a baby that night.
The next day, mom's friends, Auntie Marie Jane from Toronto came all the way to Kent to meet us. They drove 6 hours from Toronto, Canada. They met in a tour trip in Europe, and have been friends ever since through email. Finally, they met again, here in Kent. So we had dinner at a nice restaurant here in Kent. After the meal, we headed back to my house, to let them try some of Malaysian specialty, the Keropok.


The next day, we had lunch with Auntie Marie Jane, and her life mate at a Thai restaurant. After the meal, we continue a journey of 1200 miles towards South Dakota. It was a long drive, and it took us about 3 days to reach there. We also stopped along the way. Here are some pictures of the BadLands and me posing infront of the National Monument, Mount Rushmore.

Dead Mechanical Clock

I am not a poet, but for some reason, I can't fall asleep but I have no motivation to do work, and i feel like writing poetry tonight.
Just one of those times....don't laugh
Keep in mind that this is my first attempt, my nephew emil does a better job in writing poetry. He's pretty good actually. So here's mine and it goes like this....

I hear it all the time,
---Monotonous tick and tocks,
Without feeling or without conscience,
---As I put on my socks.
Hoping that it holds the answers,
---But define me it does not,
Contemplating the sounds of a dead mechanical clock,
---It just keep me in an infinite knot,

Like a shooting star with uncharted path,
---Towards another space of darkness,
As wisdom takes me over,
---Nothing's here except the voids of loneliness,
It moves with reason like a sentient being,
---Fully aware and yet no signs of life,
It is undead but unmotivated,
---It tries with no reason to strive,

A sudden burst of movement,
---What was in order is now chaotic,
The ticks are now increasing,
---It makes no sense, it must be cryptic,
Moving in chaos its ready to break,
---It quibbles violently displacing with time,
Everything seems wrong and uncertain--
---An explosion is near just unsure if it is prime.

Once dead, and yet alive--
---Once it was right and in order,
Time progresses and maybe one day,
---A disarray of events fall together,
What once disappeared could reappear,
---In a different form of certainty,
What was once alive in an explosion,
---Can be calm and again deadly.

by Joey aka. Rizal

Police Image

I don't usually talk about personal feelings in my blog, not because I'm cold, or indifferent, but because when I vent out, the dark side of me surfaces, and it is not a pleasant one. I don't usually talk about politics because I know that I have friends with many different opinions and views, and I try very hard not to offend their beliefs.

What I will talk about is constructive ideas. Which might be destructive, but I will try making the best of it. As we now know, the people of our country are having problems in trusting the authorities. Particularly, the authorities that are meant to uphold the law and justice are now questioned for their veracity. The recent events in our country made the police looked bad. The "vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified" (quoted from the movie V). True indeed, that once, we respected the police, we consider them protectors and they were the heroes that would voice out the truth and yet today they vitiate and we stand flabbergasted as their actions seems to be full of debauchery, and nothing less than having venal arrangement with what the people perceived as villains.

The police image is definitely infected and what they need are new ideas on how to help their image, to help morale in the police force and get citizen support to help them in their investigations. The sad thing is, there are a lot of honest police out there, and they are being discredited for their hard work. When heroes are looked upon as villains, the law and order of things will break down. And so, thats why we must help remind the good police officers the reasons for them being in the police force. People should know about their sacrifices, and the media should help in giving credit to good man and woman working in the force.

Unfortunately, for the police, everything they do now cannot be right. If they issue a summon, people will hate them, and if they don't people say they are not doing their job. If they do investigations, they are abusing their power and if they act on a hunch, their are not being thorough. So how can the police fix their image.

The solution is a reality show for police.

What if the public knows what police are facing everyday? What if a hidden camera is set up to follow a traffic police everywhere? How sneaky drivers would offer bribes to them, and how they are trying hard to avoid such corrupt practices despite their poor living conditions with the salary they are getting now? This will immediately give credit to the honest traffic police, the heroes that help our streets save, and give the respect that they deserve. Of course they are corrupt traffic police everywhere, and we can't do much about it. However, we can give credit to those who have abstain themselves from the path of corruption.

What about other types of police? What if the media shows the challenges of police officers in narcotics are facing. The fear of being poke by a needle as they come to arrest drug addicts. The fear of being shot at by drug offenders high in cocaine. These are the things that the people might not know.......and the reality of things is that the police is earning less than comfortable income, support a family with small kids while his wife worries everytime he walks out of the door, for he might not come back alive one day.

Of course I'm being dramatic. But politicians are also very dramatic, and the media extol their actions as if they are heroes. As they make seemingly biblical proportion sacrifices infront of the media, they still go back to their nice banglo houses, and tinted black luxury cars. So why not the poor man and woman who serves our country with no intention of gaining political power, owning nothing more than a motorcycle and living in rundown flats like our police, fireman and soldiers too get the attention of the media? They are well more deserving....as their sacrifices are real.