You know, I’m a Capitalist. I believe in free market, I believe in enterprise, I believe that monopolies of any sort hurt industries on the whole. I believe in healthy, honest competition, because we don’t grow as a business, or as people, without it. I have very friendly, cordial, and mutually courteous relationships with companies in our industry for the most part, and I go through great pains to make sure that nothing that we produce is reminiscent of anyone else’s perfumes, be it oil or conventional parfum spray, and if something escapes my notice, I do my best to rectify the situation immediately. I do not believe that it is ethical to get ahead in life by stepping on other people’s faces. I do not believe that cheap shots, lies, and manipulation are acceptable business practices. I have never, not ONCE, had to demean myself, this company, my partner, my employees or our customers by resorting to bad-mouthing another company to prop BPAL up in any way. Every moment that I waste crawling in the muck in order to go toe-to-toe with unethical people stains me, makes me an ugly person, even if I am in the right, and I will not allow it to go any further. However, recent events have forced me to see that silence on my part does nothing more than encourage negativity from weak individuals who take my tactful silence to be an open door for further malice.

Such bullshit. Just because I refuse to fling shit with the mouth-breathers doesn’t mean I’ll tolerate getting a load in my face any longer. I guess I’m going to have to keep wallowing for a little while longer.

From the Atropa’s Cottage LJ, shown to me by my beloved Sunk:

“Atropa’s Cottage has NOTHING whatsoever to do with the crap/drama Beth (Kebechet) of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is suddenly putting out.

I have nothing to do with them or their company. I don’t even know Beth personally. I’ve bought stuff from her. Many moons ago. That’s about the extent of our “relationship.” She and her company have been a non-issue with me for months. As a professional, I wish like heck she’d leave my business the fuck alone. It’s this stupid slander that’s going to bite her in the ass in the end. No one is above the law, not even wannabe celebrities. I could say more, but…why bother. Zombies will never stop feasting on brains…or in this case, drama.

We now return to your usual programming.”

– – –

Reiterating my reply, up front for the masses, and not buried in posts:

Courtesy of Makeupalley:

by ebonykawai on 12/11/2005 3:10:00 PM
Quote from another reviewer: “Once you try Black Phoenix, you’ll never go back to department store perfumes again.” Well, I have. As a matter of fact, I can thank BPAL for sending me back to wearing fine perfumes, if I can thank them for anything. I appreciate complexity much more these days. I became disenchanted with BPAL around last Christmas, when every limited edition I bought ended up smelling like play-dough. In my opinion, nothing good or original has come out of this company in well over a year. The last thing I liked was Sugar Skull in the autumn of 2004. The wait time on orders is ridiculous. How many people are working full time at this company?? There is absolutely no excuse for this low level of customer service. It’s a great marketing ploy, however. The longer you wait, the more you want to try, the more orders you put in. BPAL has always used this ploy, at least for as long as I’ve known the company. At first they ‘got behind’ because someone was supposedly stealing all their orders from the post office. Huh?? Come on, at least be realistic. That was years ago and they haven’t caught up since. Their cult following is, quite frankly, scary. Spend any time on their message boards and you too will be insulted. The smartest thing they could do is close the board down to reviews, but they never will. It’s not exactly a brilliant company. They discontinue blends due to “scarcity of ingredients”, then sell the discontinued scents (that are apparently and mysteriously found lying around?) for 20 times their worth on Ebay. And then they bring the discontinued blends back again! Surprise! I guess the scarcity went away. Meanwhile, they just made thousands of dollars selling these exact discontinued blends on Ebay. It’s disgusting. If the feeling of being used and manipulated by the company, as well as the horrible customer service, doesn’t get to you, all the cattiness and outright mean-spiritedness of the message board eventually will. It’s enough to chase anyone away, as it has many an old and loyal customer.

– – –

This predates my post here by over a month. If we’re a non-issue, why is she posting this garbage? She wants to talk about filing libel suits against members and admins on the bpal.org forum, who have never said anything even remotely libelous, and then posts this on MUA. I had forgotten about her, and then I’m shown that review. And *I* won’t leave *her* alone? Give me a fucking break.

Grab a dictionary, Lisa! Its time for a little schoolin’!

Main Entry: li·bel
Function: noun
Etymology: Anglo-French, from Latin libellus, diminutive of liber book
1 : COMPLAINT 1 —used esp. in admiralty and divorce cases
2 a : a defamatory statement or representation esp. in the form of written or printed words; specifically : a false published statement that injures an individual’s reputation (as in business) or otherwise exposes him or her to public contempt b : the publication of such a libel c : the crime or tort of publishing a libel —see also SINGLE PUBLICATION RULE New York Times Company v. Sullivan in the IMPORTANT CASES section —compare DEFAMATION, SLANDER
NOTE: Although libel is defined under state case law or statute, the U.S. Supreme Court has enumerated some First Amendment protections that apply to matters of public concern. In New York Times Company v. Sullivan, the Court held that in order to recover damages a public person (as a celebrity or politician) who alleges libel (as by a newspaper) has to prove that “the statement was made with ‘actual malice’ — that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not” in order to recover damages. The Court has also held that the states cannot allow a private person to recover damages for libel against a media defendant without a showing of fault (as negligence) on the defendant’s part. These protections do not apply to matters that are not of public concern (as an individual’s credit report) and that are not published by a member of the mass media. A libel plaintiff must generally establish that the alleged libel refers to him or her specifically, that it was published to others, and that some injury (as to reputation) occurred that gives him or her a right to recover damages (as actual, general, presumed, or special damages). The defendant may plead and establish the truth of the statements as a defense. Criminal libel may have additional elements, as in tending to provoke a breach of peace or in blackening the memory of someone who is dead, and may not have to be published to someone other than the person libeled.

Now, who has committed libel? You didn’t even have the balls to divulge to the admins on MUA that you were a retailer, and your “review” of BPAL contains a staggering amount of slanderous, libelous, deliberately malicious and false information. What purpose does it serve other than to malign our shop, and thereby promote yours?

Give up the martyr act. It is unbecoming. You bring all your misery on yourself. As I said before, I’m sick of you relying on my tact and decency as permission to continue your self-serving, uncouth smears. Grow up. You keep threatening legal action against me, the boards, the members… all over the fucking place. You know why it isn’t going anywhere? Because /you don’t have a leg to stand on/. No one has said jack shit about you that can be construed as illegal, and your own words betray you. The next communication that you receive from me will be from my legal counsel. Save up your nickels and dimes, babyface, because I am not going to take your hollow threats any longer.

Some mean spirited soul has reported me to Kraft. Velveeta will be replaced by government cheese as of 2/1/06 and may result in the discontinuation of several blends. More news as it becomes available…

This was brought to my attention yesterday:

http://cataptromancer.livejournal.com/224351.html?thread=1393503#t1393503

I’m posting this against my better judgment because I thought her potential customers might want to what little regard she has for us and for the community. Do you really want to send someone hundreds of dollars when they’re obviously gouging you for a profit?

This is something that I’ve been keeping to myself for eons, so eat me if anyone thinks its crass for me to post my thoughts on it in my own LiveJournal. Here’s the irony: her bestest buddy Lisa, who owns Atropa’s Cottage, posted the most incredibly false and insulting review of BPAL on MUA. This, after threatening to /sue/ the members and administrators of the bpal.org board for libel and slander. She neglects to mention that she herself owns an oil company, and that her review is nothing more than an attempt to enlist shady business practices in order to slam another company.

That, in itself, is disgusting, but it is neither here nor there. Let’s get to what’s relevant, now that I’ve set up the scene:

In her post, she accuses BPAL of making all their money on eBay sales. Darlings, all of our auctions start at the original cost of the bottle, and as everyone is well-aware the proceeds of those auctions have gone, almost entirely, to charity: various rescue and conservation organizations, the CBLDF, disaster relief and the Native American Elder relief fund. Even if that weren’t the case, there have been a whopping 100 or so auction since our inception, and believe me, that is NOT going to pay our staff’s wages, our rent, insurance, bills up the ass, restock, whatever.

After having to choke this down, I see that her best friend, Missanthropy, is selling off our discontinued and LE oils at an EXHORBITANT price on eBay. Many people have done similar things in the past, and honestly, I really don’t care, but… even though I’ve developed a thicker skin in the past few years, and I really don’t care much what people say about us, I DO have a problem with someone posting unfounded, vitriolic garbage about my friends and loved ones on LJ and the BPAL forum. I am EXTREMELY disgusted that someone that tried so hard to be part of our community is now not only so derisive of the people she called “friends”, but is also perfectly comfortable with trying to profit off of the people she holds in such little regard. How ugly, how petty, and how vulgar in its profiteering. It is especially galling that this occurred AFTER Lisa’s rant about us. In all truth, our customers make more on aftermarket sales than we do, and I have no problem with it. What I have a problem with is hypocrisy, crass behavior, and nasty business practices.

– – –

Oh, well. Guess Missanthropy realized that her venom was going to cost her some sales. Her snark was deleted.

If you’re going to insult our customers, insult me, insult the store and rave like a screeching, breath-holding, tantrum-flailing infant, at least have the balls to stand up. If you’re going to talk shit about me, about my livelihood and about my friends, you had best have the balls to step to me, and not delete all your venom every time someone calls you on your bullshit. Coward.

– – –

As of 1/22, I have chosen to edit out one single word from this entry. I am making no apologies, and that word was chosen carefully and with intent. I never say anything carelessly. However, it seems that some people, for whatever reason, cannot read anything beyond that one single word, and I will not have a single expletive mar everything else that I have been forced to write. It is absurd to me that one word would cripple anyone’s ability to read anything but that word, but alas… I do have a flaw in my personality that causes me to constantly give the world at large way too much credit.

[from msnbc.com]

Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo
‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ zookeeper says of unlikely pairing

TOKYO – Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one’s a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a yard-long rat snake.

Zookeepers at Tokyo’s Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster — whose name is a tasty rice dish in Japanese — to Aochan as a snack in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice.

But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the furry rodent, according to keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a cage since.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Gohan sometimes even climbs onto Aochan to take a nap on his back,” Yamamoto said.

Aochan, a 2-year-old male Japanese rat snake, eventually developed an appetite for frozen rodents but has so far shown no signs of gobbling up Gohan — despite her name.

“We named her Gohan as a joke,” Yamamoto chuckled. “But I don’t think there’s any danger. Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan’s company very much.”

The Tokyo zoo also keeps a range of mostly livestock animals, and promotes “cross-breed interaction,” according to Yamamoto.

But Gohan and Aochan’s case was “was a complete accident,” Yamamoto said.

I feel like I broke my tailbone. Oops.

I’m high on Nyquil, so I stole a quizzy thingum from gothabillywench:

Sweet Jeebus, I even chase underage Libras!

I want a trampoline, a new leather bracelet, and three hermit crabs. These needs are totally unrelated.

I have to buy a trampoline.

::|:| just in time for christmas |:|::