remembering joe-blogs

it’s now a few minutes past 1.00am on a saturday of 25 oct. 2003. around 1.00am last week on a saturday, 18 oct. 2003, johan ismail of the favourite popular joe-blogs passed away. it sent shockwaves over the blogging community… to bloggers and readers of blogs alike. yes, it had been exactly one week since we heard of this sad news.

like many others, i do not know johan ismail, fondly known ‘joe’ personally. what i know of him was just through his writings in his blog and the comments he made in response to readers, including me.

the first time i heard of joe-blogs was via the beritamalaysia mailing list, when the assistant moderator, yw loke, started posting articles from joe-blogs blog. i was fascinated by this person’s writing and decided to follow the link to go to his blog. that was in early august.

ever since then, everyday i went to his without fail. it was his blog and jeff ooi’s blog that draw me online to read what they are going to post, and read other peopleâ’s comments and of course made comments myself. these 2 blogs had become like a magnet that draw me to get online.

the first time i went into his blog, i was struck by his style of writing…. direct, honest, hard-hitting at times.. but always laced with humor and wits. that’ss what attract me to return and return i did – everyday… so much so that i made it a habit (one of the must do thing) to go to his blog each time i’m online. and whenever i was there, i try to make comments, and i was pleasantly surprise that he respond to quite a number of my comments. this was also what made me return to his blog day after day as i realise that he enjoy interacting with his readers who put in their comments.

when i wanted to start a blog and mentioned it in his comments section, he encouraged me to get going, and coming from a ‘veteran’ blogger like him when he said “looking forward to your blog”, made me all the more to start my own as soon as possible. another thing is i remember he like to say “those who can do it, do it; those who can’t do it, blog about it” or “if you feel so strongly about something, speak up, blog on it!”…… those words certainly influence me to start my own blog

when i do start my own blog, i was pleasantly surprised that he drop in my blog to say hi. i didn’t expect this from him, being very busy and a ‘famous’ blogger. but like a few of the other famous bloggers, yes he did drop in to make some comments (look under the heading on my blog), and in his usual witty style this was what he said:

“does this means you are going to stop commenting on my blog and only write on yours?”

i replied:

“no way. i’m too addicted to your blog to stop commenting there.”

yes indeed i was addicted to his blog, and now that i can’t get to see him blogging away daily when i get online, it’s as though i’m missing something. thank god though that his family had agreed to have his blog up. at least when i missed his blog, i can drop in there to look through all his old writings.

i’ll never forget joe-blogs since i mentioned, in a way he influence me to start this blog.

joe-blogs will live on forever in the blogging community.