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02/09/05 - Only two weeks to go till I go to Malaysia! It's so exciting, only thirteen more days. The Malaysia page has been fancied up a little. Still have some more things to do before I go with sorting this site and equipment for going out there. Need to get the Photgraphy section totally finished, just the Namibia Bonus album needs sorting. I've sorted out the New York album now, there's only one Bonus album for New York now, and the navigation buttons are more tidy, and a couple of new photos too. Also new to the Photography section, is the latest Baptismal Service Photos. It was nice to see another service before going away, though it's a shame I won't get to witness the next possible few.

Equipment wise, my bag is mostly packed, though a few more little bits need to be sorted. I also need to test my digicam to see what software is required to get it running, which I'll hopefully have worked out on Sunday. It's my last day at Sainsbury's tomorrow too. I've been there four years, since early August 2001. It's also going to be the first time I've been unemployed this millennium (I did a paper round since mid-January 2000), but at least what I'll be doing will be a good cause... Only thirteen more days!

09/09/05 - Firstly, I'd like to mention about the Chat Quiz on The Sims 2 UK Forums. Team Huckool (consisting of Huckool86, Kikikat8, SmileyCharly1422 and MorbidSpirit1) came in eighth place out of ten. I'd just like to say that... We got screwed! I'll never let Protag get away with him not giving a ten second warning for final answers on a question that we managed to get correct... I'll have my vengeance...

Talking of Malaysia... six days to go! I did have a brief scare with my digicam earlier on in the week. I was testing it on the church computer, fiddling with software for what I might need in Malaysian cyber cafes, then my camera went crazy! When I plugged my camera into my home computer it seemed to think it was a webcam. How strange... but I've now got some new hardware which will make the job of uploading photos heaps easier, so now there are no worries... for now... but still on the subject of photos, I saw a beautiful butterfly the other day, which you can see from the Photography link.

New stuff on the site! HuckoolProductions.Com presents SIM^TV! I finally finished that music video that I promised and is now up for your viewing pleasure, The White Stripes - Hardest Button to Button is now available. Also, we have a new forum style; we have a black and yellow theme, and even have a yellow Huckool Productions logo (usually red, but I don't have the time to change all the colours to what I want them to be, so I'm sticking with the colours the template gave).

I'm not sure what fate this Blog has, now that I have the Malaysia Blog to put what I'm up to for the next several months. I may just have the Malaysia Blog for daily events of what I get up to out there, then have this Blog as a weekly summary. But I'll do my very best to keep both blogs constantly up to date, but I don't know what internet facilities I'll have, so you'll just have to wait and see...

16/09/05 - Hello and welcome to HuckoolProductions.Com: Malaysia. As it's only Day One, this week's Blog will basically be about my last week in the UK. I managed to get one last music video for SIM^TV, though I'm hoping people don't find it too controversial, considering all the bad language and 'nudity' involved; I can get a little carried away sometimes... It's a shame though, I was on a roll, managing to create music videos with in a few days and now I'm in Malaysia, and The Sims 2 Nightlife comes out today too...

So basically my last days in the UK were spent on my PC, backing up my home area for whilst I'm away and having my site complete to a 'satisfactory' level. It was almost entirely completed; unfortunately I didn't manage to get the Bonus Namibia Photo Album up. Also I wanted to put the Birthdays section into the Miscellaneous area but I forgot about that, and it will take forever to do it with just editing html...

Depending on how used to using html I am, will depend on how often this site gets updated. It was quite a bother for me creating that photography page on the Malaysia section in html, but that should be the worst that it gets. But just stick with the Malaysia section for now if you want to know what I'm up to whilst I'm away, but it will be specified on the front page if there are any more additions...

23/09/05 - My first week in Malaysia... it's been such a busy week; I don't know how I've coped, especially those three nights in the jungle. I did not enjoy the flying, was sick on the first flight and the second was hot and stuffy... then the natural humidity of South East Asia is also bothering, but I feel I've adapted over the time now. Accommodation hasn't been so bad, the Anuja hostel was satisfactory at first, then wonderful after the jungle trek, but I saw my Placement Accommodation earlier, but I haven't had a chance to 'test' which one is better (hopefully my placement one, as that's where I am for the next three months).

The Jungle Survival Challenge (as it literally turned out to be) was quite an experience. It was a bit much being thrown in the deep end straight away, expecting to survive on only jungle resources for three days. We were supposed to imitate 'surviving a plane crash', though I'm not sure if machetes would count in those circumstances... I do feel good and bad about sneaking off to the shop though, I shouldn't have really missed one of the 'classes', but I couldn't pay attention properly without a good dose of sugar inside of me. But Sam and I did feel a lot better afterwards, and so did everyone else when that went, though it's a shame we were said to have 'failed' for doing so. I'm glad I got my bamboo cutlery at the end; I really wanted a physical souvenir from there. It was a great experience and I'm glad I lasted the whole three nights, even though I had some outside help.

The three nights in Kuala Lumpur have been fantastic. It's been so nice to have a pillow in bed at the hostel and to explore all the sights of the city (even if I do have three months to do it in... but at least I can see it all...). The views from the Petronas Towers were amazing, the food and markets have been very interesting and I hope there are more fantastic wonders as I continue...

Some members of the group feel they've been screwed over with their placements changing at the last minute. Silja can't research bats, though she desperately wants to, and this change was made the day before we left. But mine and Sam's placement have also been changed; we're no longer to the Shepherd's Centre, but the good news is that we're going to be working with a Baptist Church, which is wonderful news for me, being a Baptist... I just can't wait until we get into a routine; I just want to unpack all my stuff and get going!

30/09/05 - It's so wonderful to be apart of another Baptist Church, despite being thousands of miles from home. It feels that God has done something and is looking out for me wherever I am... although it feels a little odd that He and World Challenge want Sam and I to go straight into teaching 12-year-olds English. I feel we've been 'chucked in the deep end' again, to be expected to handle a whole class on our own. The school teachers don't seem to have much interest into what we might be teaching them, I expect they just want a break from the kids. I do find it to be an interesting contrast though, if we were in the UK it would take us months, maybe years, before we would be allowed to teach a class, but here, we haven't even signed any forms, yet we're their official English teachers...

But despite the apparent problems, we didn't have too many difficulties in teaching the class. We're learning the best teaching methods for the students, so we're currently letting them get away with certain things they may not do in their normal classes (like passing notes and copying each others work). Thank goodness I bought that dictionary last week; it's been very useful so far in talking to the students, and the maid at our residence. Hopefully I can learn a few Malay words whilst flicking through the pages of my dictionary...

Everything else is great, the KLCC aquarium was a lot of fun and going to Ampang Point Mall everyday is nice. We're off to Langkawi Island in the North West tomorrow. I'm hoping it's not similar to those British-colonised, chavved-up Mediterranean islands as the alcohol there is supposed to be really cheap. Has been quite nice to get away from the corruption of the UK... I'm adapting well so far to Malaysia, I might just want to stay...