Today is the first day of a long Easter weekend.  I have not been out for a really long time.  Hence I will take a break to thoroughly enjoy myself.  It is also a good time to recharge myself and to reflect on the results of my action plans so far.   There are lots of work and homework to be done next week, but  I will them leave for now and just relax this weekend!

My Little Pony toys, especially those G1 ponies from the 80’s and early 90’s were sold together with either a brush or a comb, for their owners to groom their manes and tails with.  Over the years, I had accumulated many different toy brushes and combs while collecting My Little Pony toys.  I observed that ponies with straight hair tend to be packaged with brushes, while ponies with curly hair were usually paired with combs. 

I have used both brushes and combs to groom every single pony (of the thousands that have passed through my hands) in my collection, and I find that I prefer to use a brush than a comb, even if it was on straight-haired ponies.  Although I have had access to dozens of different My Little Pony brushes and combs, I only use 1 pair of non-My Little Pony toy brushes for grooming all my ponies, and even my She-Ra dolls and horses.  I have no idea which toy line these 2 brushes belong to but I find them very versatile and easy to use on all my toys with brushable hair.

I am not a hairdressing expert but I do find that since brushes have many more ‘teeth’, they are able to ‘catch’ more hair to de-tangle the hair more easily without needing too much force on my part.  That is kinder on the hair, which is usually more than a decade old already, and can sometimes be a bit ‘brittle’.   I find that combs are not as effective in de-tangling hair and in styling curls.  Most toy combs do not have a long handle for a better grip with my adult hands too. 

Nevertheless, the brush or comb is only 1 of the ‘tools’ needed for grooming My Little Pony toys.  I shall make another post on this topic at a later date.  Till then!

If all goes as planned, there will be a mini My Little Pony meet here in Singapore on this weekend.  That is where me and other local pony collectors meet up to catch up on the latest pony news, and also to show off our latest prized acquisitions to one another. 

As posted a few days ago, currently it is a good time to go online shopping for the toys that are missing from our collections.  I wonder what ponies the other collectors have bought in the past few months.  Anyway, I will post an update on our coming pony meet after this weekend! 

During my numerous trips to the toys sections of departmental stores, I had often come across some interesting trivia that took place there.  There were times when I observed a father holding a boxed toy (usually Transformers) and scrutinizing the toy very carefully.  He looked like he wanted to buy the toy and was probably checking it for possible painting defects before heading to the cashier’s counter. 

He was not alone there.  His young son would be standing next to him, looking rather bored!  Maybe his dad had refused to buy him new toys but the dad set ‘double standards’ by buying himself new toys instead.  And the son was not allowed to touch his dad’s toys too.  Now that was only my imagination!

What a change this is from the old days when kids were mainly the ones having their eyes and hands glued to the toys while their fathers and mothers got impatient instead.  Times have changed people’s behaviour indeed!

I just re-named Toys and Cartoon Videos Central (TCVC) to just Vid Central (VC).  The new name is shorter, more generic and easier to remember.  Besides, the videos that you can find at this website are not just limited to the list of toys and cartoons at the left panel.  You can also use the ’search’ box at the top left hand corner to find other videos that are of interest to you.  I had great fun last week using VC to view and enjoy the Lamborghini (yes this is my dream car!) videos there, including the exciting test race between the new Lamborghini Reventon, and a jet fighter!

Once again I have to remind all visitors that VC can very addictive and can cause you to lose track of time there.  Hence only venture there if you very keen to watch lots of videos on end, and when you have lots of time to spare!

I realised that half of March 2008 has already gone by.  I am still experiencing a ‘toy drought’ here.  Even with the low US Dollar (USD), I did not find anything interesting enough online to purchase and take advantage of the favourable foreign exchange (forex) rate. 

Currently I am so bogged down by my work and studies that I did not even step out of my home during this weekend.  For a brief moment, I even felt disempowered and my goals did not seem exciting enough for me to strive for.  It does not help that I am embarking on this long and hard journey alone. 

The people around me do not share my visions and hence they cannot really empathize with me, and what I am going through now.  I wonder how long do they want to stay in their comfort zones and continue ‘complaining’ about their lives, instead of demanding higher expectations of themselves and take charge of their destinies.  I know many things are easier said than done.  However, taking action is still within everyone’s control.  It is mainly their emotions that stop them.

While writing this post, a friend emailed me on some interesting online products and services.  I took a glance and found them interesting.  Those products are not toy related but are applicable to everyone.  I will find out more and then perhaps I will blog about them next time.  This is all for today, come back again tomorrow for the next post!

In my previous post, I mentioned about when the energy around us reach their extreme states, they will eventually change to move in the opposite direction.  It happens in the natural world, in our emotions and also in our economies.   A fine example of this ‘energy cycle’ in the economy is the current strength of the US Dollar (USD) against the other major currencies of the world.  Most people do not really bother about forex matters unless they trade currencies or do business transactions in foreign currencies (meaning other than in their home currencies). 

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It has been raining almost continuously here in Singapore for the past 1-2 weeks, or perhaps even longer than that.  The skies here just opened up and let down the seemingly endless stream of precipitation for many days and hours on end, whether it was day or night.  It is also unusual to have such a huge amount of rainfall this month and at this time of the year. 

Despite the inconveniences caused by the prolonged wet weather, I still appreciated the occurrence of the rain.  Rain always reminds me of an episode from the 80’s cartoon called ”My Little Pony and Friends”.  That episode was known as “The Magic Coins”.  Basically in the story line, the little ponies started out having a picnic on a bright and sunny day.  Then halfway through, the rain came and they all had to end the picnic earlier, much to the utter disappointment of a particular baby pony.  While leaving the picnic ground, that baby pony wished that it would never ever rain again.  She also happened to step on a magic coin when she made that wish.  Immediately the skies cleared and the sun was out again, and the ponies happily resumed their picnic.  However…

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Hah! I finally missed out blogging yesterday.  I know this was going to happen sooner or later.  Anyway, lately I have been working on some internet projects and I aim to get some of them up and running by the end of this month as a trial run.  There is so much to do and so little time to rest.  Sometimes I end up doing my work till past 2am and I still have to wake early the next day to continue doing, plus I need to catch up with my studies and homework as well. 

I also realise that I can get so engrossed with work that I hardly drink water throughout the day.  My ex-colleagues used to be so appalled at my apparent lack of thirst and my ‘inbelieveable’ ability of not drinking water throughout office hours; that they once insisted on watching finish an entire mug before I could knock off! 

Anyway, time management is indeed very important when one has many projects to do and with tight deadlines to meet.  It will be a very long and busy year for me.  Nevertheless I know that the rewards will be well worth it because those are the things I want most and hence I am committed to do whatever it takes to achieve them (within legal, ethical means of course)!

I just wish to drop a note that the domain name where Toy and Cartoon Videos Central (TCVC) is sitting on right now will not be its permanent url.  I just parked TCVC there because it was my spare domain name that had no website yet.  That domain will eventually serve its original purpose that I have planned for it.  By then, I will shift TCVC to another url which has not been finalized yet.  Nevertheless, I will have the latest link to TCVC on one of the navigation tabs on the top part of this website and blog: JulianaHeng.com.  Till then, do continue enjoying TCVC at the present url!