Skip to content
Contents hide
1. This Section is About Me
2. [Note: Last Update as at 8 Feb 2020]
2.1. Blog’s journey
2.2. Making Changes Through Writing
2.3. Share this:
2.4. Like this:

This Section is About Me

[Note: Last Update as at 8 Feb 2020]

about

Sometimes it is hard to say things about yourself, trust me, it is tough. You do not want to be seen as self-praising but not to the extent of self degrading.

I started blogging in late 2005 (I know then I should have started much earlier) and what a journey it has been!

Blog’s journey

Like most of us, I started blogging in Google blogging platform at Blogger in 2005 before moving to WordPress in 2007 as I felt the interface & controls were slicker in WordPress. Of course, Google revamped their platform better couple of years later.

As many of us, I too was excited on blogging and had thousands of ideas and contents to write about but considering blogging is not full time, in the end, my passion to write had to take a back seat whilst I focussed on work and family. So the years of 2016 to 2018 were quite horrible when it comes to blogging.

And in 2019, I decided to move from a free WordPress.com platform to a self hosted website, still running on WordPress as the base. There are couple of reasons for it but to be frank, I had a very good offer to move on – an offer I could not resist.

Further I was determine this time, to ensure I remained active in blogging but at the same time juggling work and family matters which remains a high priority. It is rather stressful having a lot of thoughts and opinions but without any avenue to express them at the end of the day.

I have clocked 1,682 posts (at time of this update and counting) and now moving on a self-hosted website, I am more motivated to continue blogging. I am still learning though – in blogging, language, SEO and general knowledge.

Making Changes Through Writing

I started blogging with no particular theme but seeing how some Malaysian citizens are treated as a second class citizen in their own country, how prosecution has been selective and how corruption & race based policies is widespread, this blog has slanted more towards Malaysia and the political situation – something that I would deemed as very necessary especially after having children of my own.

What kind of future awaits them and their generation? We cannot afford to continue to be in ignorance and walk the other way when we see something that is very unfair happening in front of us.

These were the thoughts that was running in my mind before the last general election in 2018 and I am glad that we bloggers contributed in small way to make the necessary changes and although we have a New Malaysia lead by Pakatan Harapan, we are not done yet.

Malaysia is great and I am proud to call myself as a Malaysian but we have a long journey ahead of us if we want to make this beautiful country a paradise to live in and certainly one level higher than the rest of other countries. There are many things to be done – as a blogger, I hope to participate in this change in a small but active ways.

But I also blog on other issues – current event, family, childhood memories, motoring and more (just click on the sidebar to see all categories & tags). And by doing so, it makes this blog with mixed topics unlike those specialized ones. Depending on the readers, it can be a bad or good thing.

Please do leave your comments in this blog – either on the posts or suggestions on making this blog better. Comments from readers give more inspiration to write better and interact with the readers closer.

Please read the disclaimers & the security policies as well.

Happy blogging and reading!

40 thoughts on “About Me 101”

  1. dhruv511

    I strongly agree with you, Bala! Try and say something about you as you would want the world to see you as…maybe that’ll bring out the truth.

  3. waqar azmi

    Hi ,

    i was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be wow.. u write
    well.. why don’t you popularise it more.. ur post on Quotable Quotes 2 took my particular attention as it is an
    interesting topic of mine too 😉

    BTW I help out some ex-IIM Ahmedabad guys who with another batchmate run http://www.rambhai.com
    where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was
    the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share
    links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best
    make it to the homepage!

    This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could
    become your ardent fans.. who knows.. 🙂

    Cheers,

  8. Michael Chick

    Wow, glad you decided to put up the “new and improved” version of the Origins of the Malays. Just a quick question, how do you guys put up photos next to your names? I’m kinda new to blogs, although everyone thinks I am part of History. You can send the answer to my e-mail. Thanks

    PS. Thank for the “creative edit” added a nice touch to open and sum it at the end again. Hopefully UTANO would hate race classifications a little bit now.

    Cheers Man

  9. Balajoe

    Hi Michael – I edited your post just to improve readability, I hope you don’t mind. Probably you wrote in a rush…haha.

    On the photos, it is a wordpress feature. If you have a wordpress, there is an option to add your avatar. So, when you comment in a wordpress type blogs, your photo will be displayed automatically.

  11. radient

    Im kinda believe its good to mix blog with everythig come up inside our head.we dont need to be so specific because its good to do everything that is good. as long as we can cope with it.
    i dont know why, bloging actually difficult to me because i dont like to tell about myself to public actually.because we human tend to make mistake and simply difficlut to retreat what we are talking sometime..so in multi racial country,it good to hear about “there is no such racial” from you. (although sometime we have).
    this kinda good, to improve the goodness of nation, politics actually always cheating, nomatter government or the opposition party right?

  12. Balajoe

    Radient – I think what we do to make things better for everyone counts, and it is up to us on what we want to go about it. Politics screwing things up for everyone, all the time but it is important on how we engage such politics – with a rationale mind or with an emotional feeling

  13. Step Up Your Game (Gnarfard)

    4 years of blogging…

    how does it feel?
    it feels great to be talking to someone with 10 times more experience at my pasttime, than me. 🙂

  14. cendana287

    Hi,
    Am doing some research to write something about KijangMas/DemiNegara. I’m struck by your line here of “weird things can happen to you”. Yeah, tell me about it!:-)

    Anyway, I like the general tone of your blog here – especially the SANITY of it (especially yours). I’m impressed that you don’t simply stereotype KijangMas as “right-wing extremist” but was fair with your evaluation of that particular post.

    Best of luck. I’ll come and visit again.

  16. K.Venugopal

    Were you in La Salle Brickfields? I studied there till 69 and left for India in 1970 (after the racial riots, when non-citizens were asked to take up Malaysian citizenship of leave. My father opted to return to India.) But I guess wherever we are, we cannot get away from who we are. Though we tend to think we are what we have acquired, be it citizenship, educational qualifications, financial assets, our network of relationships etc., in the end we have to confront ourselves. We are, I would say, how our minds have become. Ah… I am getting abstrusely philosophical.

  18. David Tan

    Joe,

    I studied at La salle Brickfields from Standard 1(Yellow) in 1969 right up to Form 3, before they ‘promoted’ me to the Kg kerinci Sri Pantai school to do my Form 4 & 5.

    I do not know if you were my senior or otherwise.

    As my dad worked with KTM, I stayed at the then Railway Quarters in Bangsar (Bangsar Utama now) & I walked to school everyday.

    All these bring back fond memories.

    I am reachable at cityproperty@gmail.com.

    I live in Subang Jaya today.

    My brother who is 7 years mys enior also spent 9 years at La salle Brickfields.

  19. karamjit singh

    Hi,

    I have studied at la salle brickfields from year 1970 to 1975. I am trying to be a member of ex-la sallians, how i do go for it.

    tk

  22. Austin Robertson

    Im kinda believe its good to mix blog with everythig come up inside our head.we dont need to be so specific because its good to do everything that is good. as long as we can cope with it.i dont know why, bloging actually difficult to me because i dont like to tell about myself to public actually.because we human tend to make mistake and simply difficlut to retreat what we are talking sometime..so in multi racial country,it good to hear about “there is no such racial” from you. (although sometime we have).this kinda good, to improve the goodness of nation, politics actually always cheating, nomatter government or the opposition party right?
    +1

  23. Prem

    Hey Joe
    I just happen to stumbled on your blog. It’s a very blog and kinda informative as well.
    I do write some as well and im just wondering if we can link each other’s blog.
    Mine is a personal blog..just some ramblings on whatever that i might find interesting.

    Anyway, i have added yours already. Hope you can do the same for me as well.

    Take care and happy blogging.
    Prem

  25. siva

    hi.. my name is siva shangari. i would like to find out about the school la salle. my dad studied there in the year of 1973. he would like to find out on his frenz. may be ur reunion project may help him.. more details please
    tq

  27. Jeff

    Hi, i am in Ghana currently and was looking for some info about Ghana and came across your old blog in 2005. This is a nice blog, keep up all your good works! 😉

    Regards from Accra,
    Jeff

  28. Puravin

    Hi B.Joe, I am trying to create a photographic database of temples in Malaysia and in the process of doing some research on temples i discovered your post on temple architecture. I took the privilege to use it in my website, with citations to your blog, but I suppose it would only be proper to write to you for your approval, besides, we would love to have you contribute photos of Malaysian temples of any size, from any part of Malaysia. Please drop me a note if you would like to be a contributor.
    Keep up the good work.
    Regards,
    Puravin.

    1. B.Joe

      Hi Puravin

      Thanks for visiting my blog. By all means, go ahead to use the images and the posts in this blog but please provide a link-back in your post.

      I have visited your website and it is fantastic – finally a place to check on all the temples in Malaysia. I will add it into my RSS feed and also list of blogs at the side of the blog. If I may, I like to suggest that you also add a simple direction map (or cut-paste from google map) with any landmarks to make it easier for anyone if they want to visit the temples (see an example of the simple map here – http://kyspeaks.com/2012/04/11/ky-eats-al-amar-express-fahrenheit-88/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+KySpeaks+%28KY+speaks%29)

      And considering that we have too many temples in one small area (usual case in urban areas) and some of them have not been registered or cannot expand anymore, it will be good also if you could address these issues in your website. Yes, we have to preserve some of the older temples especially those more than 100 years but at the same time, if there are more than 1 temple in the same area, we need to consolidate them into a bigger temple (with better financial management as well). I raise this in my blog as well – see https://bjthoughts.com/2009/09/04/temple-fiasco-revisited/

      Thanks again

  30. Logeswaran

    I am logeswaran here…thanks for your kind opinion from you & really appreciate and will give my best performance in future

  31. Aruna

    Hi, I’m from the Star newspaper.. would be great if i could interview you about your preparations for Doomsday.. if you are interested could you drop me an email with your contact number at aruna@thestar.com.my thanks!

    1. B.Joe

      Hi Aruna – if you had read my posts on 2012 and doomsday, my preparation actually goes beyond the 21-December 2012 doomsday deadline.

      I think everyone should prepare themselves on food, water, first-aid and shelter when there is an emergency and they are unable to get help or buy stuff from the supermarket. I feel that we take certain things for granted. How many of us in Malaysia actually think about a bug-out-bag for instance. You can also search “Mayan” and “doomsday” for my other posts and thoughts on this matter. Thanks

  33. Aruna

    Hi Joe, thanks for the reply. Do you believe that there is a possibility that something drastic will happen over the next few days? And why? And what kind of precautions will you be taking tomorrow. Will you be staying home?

    1. B.Joe

      Hi Aruna, based what I have been observing and also checking on other “2012” sites updates for 21-Dec-2012, it is very unlikely that something drastic will happen in the next few days. Then again, no harm to be prepared as we may not get all the updates.

      The key possibilities like Planet X or asteroids (if you have check the internet) seems to be low or non-existence for now. But there is a great concern on solar storms which some expecting to peak during December – January 2013 period (the sun is going through it’s 11 years cycle) and the impact on the power grids. Seriously I have not seen any updates or notice from our TNB on this. So it remains something that we need to look at for – if not in the next few days, then in the next few weeks. Based on NASA’s estimates, we should get 2-3 days notice before that hits the power grids.

      Yes, I will staying home for tomorrow but it is something I have planned for sometime and not because it is doomsday deadline (if you think about it seemed to be a good day to be at home and with the family anyway). No special precautions other than stock up on some sundry items and fuel for the car, perhaps (I heard some places have run out of candles and charcoals).

      Thanks

    2. B.Joe

      Just to add further – I think it it better to highlight the need for people to have a sense of prepping instead of on the doomsday itself. We are known to have a culture of doing things at the last minute (e.g. submission of income tax or paying traffic summons). I believe that there are more people in the US with the mentality of being ready for any emergency than people in countries like Malaysia. I think that need to change.

    1. B.Joe

      Yes, it will be easier to do that but I hope you understand that I would prefer to communicate via this blog (it will be easier for me to draft my replies)

  37. Aruna

    The thing is that the story is for tomorrow, and it takes more time to do it this way. In that case, I will just quote you based on your blog if that is okay. Would you happen to have photos of your doomsday storeroom that you could share with me?

  39. marcharmon

    Hi B.Joe,
    Thank you for linking my story, Creating Your Preppers List (eprepperslist.wordpress.com), to your site. I am looking for guest bloggers on my new site EPreppersList.com if you are interested. Thanks.

Comments are closed.