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  • Silvertree

    Mod post: No wishlist posts in blogs

    By Silvertree

    Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101  Thanks!
    • 5 comments
    • 6,605 views
Review Round-up!
 

Dr. John Seward

In the bottle: Why am I smelling...butter?   On wet: I'm getting whiffs of buttered corn mixed with a high-pitched floral of some kind. So far this is not at all what I was expecting - it's actually kind of scary.   Drydown: Oh...oh yes...*this* is more like it - the good Doctor's finally decided to leave his popcorn-shilling ways behind him! The scent rising from my wrist is now deep and smooth and wonderful. The darkly sweet, almost fruity mix of tonka, sandalwood, and champaca flower dominates, followed by hints of smoke-laced ginger and the occasional whisper of a dry, almost woody peppery-ness. Delicious!   Overall: Even though I was put off by the buttery popcorn + bathroom-florals-from-hell stage, and wish this was a *tad* smokier, DJS is still an incredibly beautiful blend. The drydown alone rates an easy 4/5.
furygrrl

furygrrl

0
Betty Baker's BPAL Blog
 

My Second BPAL Order

Guess who smells of Jack? Yes! It's me. I smell absolutely wonderful right now.   So? Yesterday? In a fit of decadence and stress? I bought six more imp's ears - all cat themed. I can't own a cat, because my sweetie's allergic to them (in a big, he ain't kidding kind of way), but I'm a Leo, and I like cats.   Here's the haul:   Hellcat The Lion Lyonesse Bengal Black Cat Bastet       *happydance*
bettybaker

bettybaker

2
Do you have a flag?
 

My problem(s) with Heaven & Earth Essentials

[instead of posting in the H&EE thread, I told people there that I would write my opinions here instead.]   Very brief background if you have no idea what's going on here: Heaven & Earth Essentials is an etailer that sells perfume oils and bath & body products. The owner's name is Michele; her account name in this forum is anxious1. She has been a member here since November 2005. The thread for her business was started here in January 2006.   So, let me give you a hypothetical scenario.   How well do you think it would go over if a new BPAL competitor joined the BPAL forum and almost immediately asked what the most popular BPAL scents are? And what if she also asked how people were getting a hold of unreleased BPAL scents? I bet people might think that was odd -- if they knew she was a competitor. However in this scenario, the new competitor hasn't revealed herself as a competitor yet. She has only said that she is the business owner of an unrelated business and a LUSH fan.   OK, what if she then started buying a whole bunch of BPAL bottles, and then she resold them to BPAL fans on the BPAL forum for a profit. Say you look at her sales post in March and you see FORTY-THREE BPAL GC 5mls on her sales post for $14 each. Think that would go over very well? Yes -- you read that right. A BPAL competitor making money for herself off of BPAL products directly under the nose of the BPAL owner. Not only that, but you happen to notice in someone's post from April that this new competitor was also putting samples of her own oils in with the BPAL packages she sold to people.   How about if she then started talking up her own company on the BPAL forum, communicating directly to BPAL customers about her own business. She was answering questions about her products, telling people when their orders shipped, and announcing new product updates on her site. (You are aware that running the BPAL forum takes money and time. You think it's strange that this competitor is allowed to use the BPAL forum for free as her own personal communication tool for her business.) Say the forum administrator warns the new competitor a couple of times that she's breaking the etailer rules -- which are outlined clearly for all to see -- but the new competitor doesn't change her ways. The forum adminstrator then makes her customer service posts invisible and restricts her access to some of the other parts of the forum. The new competitor says it was just a misunderstanding on her part.   Keep in mind that until this new competitor had her access restricted, she had access to all the members' posts about which scents they liked and didn't like. Just like any other forum member. She had access to etailer threads of her other competitors, where she could see what people liked and didn't like about those businesses as well. [ETA: please see shriekingviolet's comment below for a correction about the above paragraph.]   When people on the BPAL forum ask the new competitor about her ingredients in her oils, the new competitor says in one case that she has made a couple of mistakes on her site and that she doesn't really use a Chocolate EO; in another case she said that she uses real ambergis. At that time, she also had Lily of the Valley EO and Lilac EO for sale on her site -- but you've been reading this newsletter, which contains some conflicting information. A little bit of foreshadowing here: Later, in a post in another thread, she says she's been a "perfumer" for 20 years. You might wonder how a "perfumer" with that much experience would mix up what's an essential oil and what's not, or how a person with so much experience in the field could possibly not know that real ambergis is illegal.   Then this competitor comes out with a new perfume that is remarkably like one of BPAL's most recently released AND most wildly popular Limited Editions. She mentions that she "has been told" that her version has more buttery vanilla. She says it's a coincidence and nothing more. When asked about her ISO for that particular BPAL LE only a few weeks before her own very similar oil was introduced, she changes her tune and admits that she did in fact try that BPAL oil (she hasn't just "been told" about it), and she says she wanted more of it because she liked it. She claims that her version of the scent had been in the works for months. Just coincidence, she said.   During the blow-up about this remarkably similar product, the new competitor states that she loves BPAL and respects Beth, and in fact she only wears Beth's oils and not her own. You can't help but notice that for all her proclaimed love of BPAL, this new competitor has up until that point posted exactly one BPAL review in the forum, and it was to say that MB Closet smelled like cat pee.   In a discussion about using stock oils in scents, the new competitor calls herself a "perfumer" and says "I don't do dupes and I don't relabel." Yet when you look at her site you see a dupe of LUSH's Karma right there!   And say that BPAL has been doing, oh, I don't know, a special Limited Edition scent called "Cinco" on Cinco de Mayo for the past two years, and suddenly this new competitor comes out with her own product called "Five" especially for Cinco de Mayo too. But she says, once again, that hers has been in the works for a long time and that it is merely another coincidence.   Finally, the forum administrator of the BPAL forum comes into this new competitor's thread to explain that the new competitor's account has been suspended because she broke the forum rules by creating a duplicate account. She used the duplicate account to get around restrictions that were placed on her first account so that she could snoop about BPAL's business and BPAL's fans some more. The administrator can prove this with IP addresses showing duplicate accounts accessed from the new competitor's home and work. (And your husband is a Database Administrator, so you know perfectly well what IP addresses are and how they are logged.) The administrator also says that the new competitor has been borrowing a friend's login to browse the BPAL forum as well. She says she was posting under the friend's login as well.   At this point, how many people do you guess would be big fans of this new competitor and unwilling to believe that she has exhibited some shady business practices?   You guys, Michele has done every single one of those things and they are all recorded in the BPAL fan forum. Check her posts. It's all right there. (Except that her customer service posts in the H&EE thread were made invisible, so I'm just going off memory there.) I swear to you, I am not making this up. Every single bit of information in that huge "hypothetical" scenario above came from Michele's own posts and the H&EE thread. All I did was put it in one place.   Please note that you can look at all her posts yourself by going into her profile (anxious1), clicking on Profile Options, and choosing the View Member's Posts option. This is all right there, out in the open for anyone to see.   So here are my major concerns:   - I don't like re-selling BPAL for profit in any case, but I think it is especially reprehensible behavior for a BPAL competitor. Bad form. To the nth degree. - On top of that, I think that slipping some samples of her perfume oils into her BPAL sales packages is... well, I want to say it's a dirty trick, but I'll leave it as just saying completely disrespectful and inappropriate. - She was not upfront about her status as a BPAL competitor when she joined this forum and started asking questions about the most popular BPAL scents and how people get a hold of unreleased scents. That's called market research. This tactic in particular makes me angry. I did not write my reviews and posts here so that a BPAL competitor could come along and use what I've written to think up new ideas to make herself money. I resent that. - I might have bought her story about one "coincidence" of copying BPAL. Maybe. But two? Nope. Fool me once... - Someone who supposedly has 20 years of experience with perfumes really ought to know what's an essential oil and what's not. She also ought to know that real ambergis is illegal. I don't believe she's telling the truth about her experience. Also she claimed to have a Lilac EO (and a couple of others). I don't believe she's telling the truth about her ingredients, either. - She refused to sell her products to olympia301, citing oly's post in the H&EE thread as the reason why. (Oly questioned a couple of Michele's ingredients.) Nobody, and I mean no one, should get retribution from an etailer for comments they make about that etailer on bpal.org. That's just wrong. By the same token, people who consistently post glowing remarks about the etailer in bpal.org should not receive preferential treatment by the etailer. - She used bpal.org as a free service to communicate with current customers and answer questions of potential customers. No, wait, I should clarify that. It was free to her -- but it was not free. Someone was paying for it. The fans of her competitor were paying for it. The only thing that stopped her from using it for her own purposes was having her account restricted. Just asking her to stop didn't do the trick.   Michele has said several times that the reasons for issues with her were misunderstandings or coincidences. I just flat-out do not believe her. She said she is the manager of a Fortune 500 IT department, and she owns her needlework business as well as her bath & body business. Clearly this is not a stupid person. I think she knew exactly what she was doing when she came to the BPAL forum: She was reading all our posts and finding out which scents we like best and why. She was studying up on other etailers and their products. She was noticing how much money people are willing to spend on perfume oils and on bath and body products. She was buying up Beth's oils like mad and then just sniffing or testing them and re-selling them for a profit. She found a HUGE potential market here -- not to mention free market research -- and she exploited it. In my opinion, that's the bottom line. She saw what was going on here and decided she wanted a piece of the action.   Let me draw some comparisons between Michele and roostersgrrl. Both of them: - Tried to come off as BPAL fans in order to be welcomed into the community. - Were secretly (or not so secretly) using this community to pad their own pocketbooks. - Hawked their own wares to BPAL fans inside the BPAL community. - Claimed innocence and misunderstandings whenever anyone brought up issues with them. - Showed a blatant disregard and disrespect for the Lab. - Had nearly every mod breathing down their necks at every turn... which they used to try to convince people that they were being unjustly persecuted and singled out.   In roostersgrrl's case there was a very good reason for that attention from the mods -- don't you think it's likely that in Michele's case there's a very good reason for it too? I look at that H&EE thread, and I see red flags everywhere. Warning sirens screaming, horns blowing, the whole nine yards. And I'm quite sure that the mods know a lot more about this situation than they're telling us.   Roostersgrrl got basically exiled from the community for what she did, but people are still buying Michele's products and talking about them in bpal.org. A lot of people have said things like "well, that's between Michele and the mods" and "whatever else she does doesn't matter because she's nice to me." That's exactly what people said about roostersgrrl too, you guys. I said those things. Then later I felt like a schmuck for having been duped by roostersgrrl. I don't want that same sort of thing to happen all over again -- a lot of the people who post in the H&EE thread are people I like and care about. I think Michele is pulling the wool over their eyes, and it bothers me a lot. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the mods are wrong, maybe everyone who has noticed something fishy about Michele is wrong. But there are quite a few of us who feel this way.   So do I have too much time on my hands and should I get a job in a research library? PROBABLY. However, I'm not posting this for my sake. What I want is to put this here so that in the future someone won't end up in the situation I was in with the roostersgrrl fiasco: "Why didn't anyone tell me about this stuff?!?" Here it is. I'm telling you.   If it seems like I'm singling out Michele, it's because I visit this site every day, and I read a lot of the threads. I haven't noticed any other etailer behaving like Michele has. Not one. She's the only one who is doing this. I don't have a problem with her products -- they're not for me, but I'm not going to say that no one could possibly enjoy them. That's just not true. Plenty of people like them a lot. What earned Michele my criticism isn't her products or her company -- it's her behavior here in her competitor's fan forum. If she had never come into this forum, I probably wouldn't have ever said a bad word about her.
filigree_shadow

filigree_shadow

60
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

The Way Life Is Supposed To Be

The title of this blog entry is the name of a Bob Schneider song. It has a few nonsensical lines in it, and according to Bob, those lines were word phrases that came to him in dreams or just bubbled up out of his brain. I've always listened to that song when things are going on in my life that I simply can't explain. Ain't that the way life is supposed to be? I 'spose so.   So as I write this, I'm sitting with Mugzy (the Boxer), Ella Bean (Basset Queen and current avatar) and Puddin' Tom all watching me. Yes, Puddin' Tom! I've been bringing him inside and with the advent of cold weather, he's staying indoors more and more. They all get along. Ella Bean really wants to lick him and mother him, and he's just not ready for that, but his way of repelling her advances is to just hold his paw up in the air, as if he's going to bat her. She knows enough to stay away. Mugzy just ignores him, although Puddin' usually gives the Mug-Bug a friendly "hello" meow when they encounter each other. I'm very proud of all of them.   I saw a couple of people in the last day who make me really, really happy. I was incredibly mellow and calm this afternoon. Then I came back to work after lunch and discovered that my former coworker (the one I mentioned a couple of entries ago) is very, very, very sick. He should be in a hospice, but being either very stubborn or in total denial, he won't admit he's dying.   A guy in my office, who's one of the sick guy's best friends, told me that when he was at the hosptial on Friday, the sick guy was talking about how I'd come down to his office a few times, once to give him coffee beans, and once to give him a vintage TV show photo (of Richard Boone in "Have Gun Will Travel"). He said it meant so much to him, and I had absolutely no idea how it had brightened his day. Hell, and I thought it was my bra! Well, that too. That, to me, is proof that you never know when you're doing something that is a big deal to someone else, either good or bad.   Don't get me wrong; I have another friend who's been a black hole lately. She and I used to have a friendship based upon a certain mutual regard, but in recent years it's become a very needy, one-sided thing for her, where I'm supposed to be Ms. Sunshine-Logical-Never Has A Problem. She and I have both been there for each other in difficult times in the past, but honestly, now it's all about her. I'm nice to her, but I hold my space rather intensely these days. Even when she's nice to me, it's as if there are strings attached, and my crap detectors really start to ping. I wish I could be like Puddin' Tom and just hold up a paw at her Ella Bean-like approaches and get her to walk off, but I think people are more clueless than animals would ever dream of being.   It was a day of ups and downs. I don't know how to feel, except lucky that I got to see people who really rock my world and I was able to enjoy them. Ain't that the way life is supposed to be?   It strikes me that this entry had a bit of a Carrie Bradshaw quality to it -- you know, starting out with a question and taking off from there. It annoys and amuses me that "Sex And The City" has affected my writing style, although I never recall Carrie writing about death and sex, although she should have. Intense sensory experiences are often when we feel our most alive and embodied, and that includes really good desserts, sex and shoe sales. And how could I forget? Sniffing the best perfume oils in the world, and we know where to find them!
valentina

valentina

3
Filling the Periodic Table
 

Kiva makes me smile

I've signed up to fund two different loans so far (I'm sure I'll add more over time) I love the concept, and I'm enjoying being involved in the whole micro-loan thing.   Araceli Romero Herrera  Walter Siavichay   I am looking forward to watching these business prosper. And I can't wait to see how far they expand into more countries.
antimony

antimony

0
Sourball Ho!
 

General happenings

--I got my big birthday order yesterday (Saturday 10/21, 5 bottles! Woo!), which was held up for Pumpkin Queen. I the Lab because I think they threw in a couple of extra frimps, probably because the component issue of PQ held up the order. Worth the wait! It really perked up my week. I even got a frimp of Vice, which has been on my wishlist for forever and a day.   --I have my current job for another week, then who knows? No one's given me a definite date. I called my previous job, and the HR staff supervisor said she was "thrilled" that I would return, but she had to "crunch some numbers" to make sure they can fit me in salary-wise. I was happy, then sad. I still have a bunch of friends there and the money was good, so I hope to hear something this week.   --[minor rant]You know what's the worst about losing this job? Losing my laptop! I fell in love with this over the last 16 months -- I can sit wherever I want in the house, I can travel with it, I can stay online as long as I want even if DH wants to be on the main computer. I have the opportunity to buy it back after I leave for a good price, but Boss Lady said I have too much "importance" on it and she needs it after I leave. Nonononono! *hugs laptop in death grip* Hopefully I can get her husband to do a data transfer to her computer (he's the techie of the two) and then I can get Lappy back.
dawndie

dawndie

2
...and him, Really Interesting Guy...
 

Mystery box sets or no?

I've run into this little problem where I just have WAY too many imps and WAY too many boxes to hold them all. So, I'm considering trying to sell it all off as "mystery box sets," including the really cute boxes. I have 3 that I currently use for bottle and imp combos and two for just imps, not to mention 3 more that are slightly on the plain side, but would look quite nice with stickers or the like. Yeah, that's 8 boxes I want to get rid of. Minimum. I'd probably do 10 imps and a bottle or so for the big boxes, 10 imps for the small boxes. (Yes, I really do have that many imps to get rid of, shush.)   Question is, would people really be interested?
Tess

Tess

0
ceshka527's Blog
 

first entry, first bpal

My first bpal arrived yesterday. I am starting slow because well frankly I am poor.   I got Dana O'Shee, which I am in love with, milk and honey, very sweet, and bf likes it too, it is good on me wet, dry and it lasts. A larger bottle will be in order of this one.     Twilight is another story. I do not hate it, it goes on very strong, I get a very strong chemically jasmine scent from it, but as it stays on the honeysuckle comes out and goes a little more powdery, I like it after a while.   I am awaiting 7 more imps I have won from ebay. I am most excited about The Raven.     I am pretty intimidated by posting on the message boards here everyone has really great icons, blinky stuff and I am without a clue as to how to get stuff like that on there.
ceshka527

ceshka527

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

I nearly pulled a muscle...

I am a sucker for a Scottish accent, so of course Craig Ferguson is way cute to me, but here's a link to a political blog that has two really really funny segments from his show. I thought for a minute that it was real, then realized they're screwing with the tape to make it sound that way, but methinks they didn't have to screw with the tape that much. I nearly pulled a muscle laughing at it.   If you venerate our current president, and not my favorite ol' poonhound and ex-president, William Jefferson Clinton, then don't watch this. (BTW, it's worth it just to hear "Bush" said with a Scottish accent. )   http://www.crooksandliars.com/index.php?s=Craig+Ferguson
valentina

valentina

0
Betty Baker's BPAL Blog
 

My First BPAL Box!

I got my first BPAL order! I got seven little imps:   Jack The Black Tower White Rabbit Zombi Blood Kiss Kumiho (frimp!) Grand Guignol   At first, when I smelled the cluster of imps, I was dismayed. Oh no, I thought. This smells like an incense store! I hate incense! I'm so disappointed. But then, I opened my vial of Jack.   Oh Lord. All you BPALers out there aren't nuts. First, I got a snootful of butter and rum, and then I got... flowers? Flowers from Jack? Color me confused. But that first sniff indicated to me that yes, BPAL scents do morph, and yes, they do smell divine.   So I put on some Jack. Had a little trouble getting the imp closed and leaked oil down the side (aw, man) but I rubbed all that oil all over my other wrist.   Ten minutes in, Jack keeps wafting cinnamon at me, with occasional shouts of butter. I'm amazed. I'm delighted. I'm in love. When I leave my hand down low by my hip, I smell like pumpkin pie. Good sweet Lord in heaven. I was afraid to believe. Now I do.
bettybaker

bettybaker

4
Squash Soup
 

pending orders

I'd really like to place an order right now but I can't....not for a couple weeks at least. I'm a bit broke right now. But because I can't resist plotting future orders, here is what I'm planning.   Next order: Pumpkin Queen (yes I'm caving!), Jacob's Ladder, Knecht Ruprecht, a 5ml of Sloth and maybe an imp pack of the Salon scents.   I want to have some nice warm, spiced scents for Autumn (my favorite season) and then I'll start planning my winter scents.   Winter order: Stardust, Lick It Again (!!!!), The Winter of our Discontent for sure and then something for a good friend who I'm trying to push nudge over into the dark side. Although I don't know what scent I should get her....maybe an imp pack to try??   Okay seriously, back to work.
jessiesquash

jessiesquash

0
Eoywin's Blog
 

Not As Married

Todd and I keep our money separate, and we have never wanted to merge our money, even after we got married.   Well, I mentioned in my lj yesterday that he had lent me some money for my new glasses, and that got one of my lj friends up in arms.   Apparently we are 'less' married, because when you are married you must have your money combined. The lj friend even went to recommend a book to 'help' us with our problem.   This pissed me off, because our way of dealing with money works for us, and how dare someone who doesn't know us judge?   Well, I posted a pissy vent in one of the lj marriage communities, in which someone responded that she also thought we must merge our money, since marriage is about 2 people becoming 1, and therefore married people must never have separate money.   GRRRR!
Eoywin

Eoywin

8
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

My good habits and blind-ass luck

Hey there everyone... Given the somewhat decadent image I tend to craft for myself on the forum, I really do more than check my manicure and pedicure, fuss with my hair and peruse shoe departments and Victoria's Secret catalogs. (Although those are some of my favorite things to do.)   I also go up to the gym and ride cardio machines and I lift weights. I've become fond of doing lunges holding a 12-lb. medicine ball all the way around the indoor track. That would be approximately a block long. It's good for the legs and the bum, and at my age, I need all the help that I can get to keep the bum suspended somewhere above the back of my knees.   And I take vitamins, mainly out of habit, because when I was going into high school, I'd apparently had a bit of a rapid growth spurt that caused me to become really anemic. I had to take slugs of vitamins until that was remedied, and then I just kept up the habit.   I drink, but it seems that I've always tended to either get full (if drinking beer) or fall asleep before I get really drunk. I also had a formative experience on my 20th birthday that perhaps altered any tendency to drink a lot. I was living in a resort town for the summer and some girlfriends took me to a bar for birthday drinks. Various tourists hanging in bar kept sending me drinks. The notion of the lascivious geezers who were sending my innocent 20-year-old self tequila makes my current self shudder and thank the powers of the universe that I had several friends who didn't ditch me. Anyway, my friends deposited me on the front door of where I was staying, I crawled in and made my way to the shower. My roomie and her boyfriend kept waiting for me to scream and I didn't. I happily showered for about 15 minutes, puked and fell into bed. It seems the hot water heater had died and I took an ice-cold shower without knowing it. The hell that I felt the next day is something I still remember.   And I don't smoke, and I never have. I tried, but was hopelessly incompetent at it. I guess that was my good luck. And now I'm going to sound like a harpy old lady, but if you smoke, do think about quitting sooner rather than later. A guy who worked in my office up until a year ago, when he took a different job in the same building, was diagnosed with lung cancer about 2 months after he started his new job. He'd stopped smoking a year earlier. But he smoked entirely too long and didn't quit soon enough. I don't think he's going to make it. This sucks. He used to have a gorgeous head of thick wavy hair and now he's bald from chemo and he's holding onto the walls to keep his balance when he walks down the hall. When he stopped working in my office last year, I took a photo of him, copied it a number of times and "Andy Warhol-ized" it by coloring over it with pastels. I modified his hair, put glasses on him, turned him into all sorts of things. He loved it and took it with him to put away as a keepsake. I really don't want to see it hanging up on one of the memory posterboards that you see at a funeral, but shit, I think that may be what's going to happen.   Weird thing is, this guy was the king of kvetchers when he was well. If his lips were moving, he was probably bitching, albeit in a likable, often funny sort of way. After his diagnosis, he developed a shockingly good attitude. It's amazing. He's tried to work and stay social and even go on his powerwalks when he had the energy. And he never complains about being sick or losing his hair, and he flat adored his hair. It makes me really sad.   And my blog has recently sounded like the old lady in the retirement center with her endless stories of people dying, and seriously guys, this has been an unusual stretch. Lest you think I'm not myself, let me tell you this: I went down to my ailing former coworker's current office to say hi to him one day in late August. I wanted to give him a hard time about something or other, because he loves to be harassed and treated like nothing is the matter. I had on one of my summery wrap dresses that can dip kind of low in the front. Normally I'm pretty careful to keep the foundation garments out of the public eye, so I'd frequently check what the neckline was doing. So I was sitting there talking to him, and I knew my bra was showing a little, and I just let it. I know he noticed because he called a mutual friend and told him all about it. And I didn't care. So there. Vaguely naughty is a good, good thing.
valentina

valentina

6
Squash Soup
 

long time no obsess

Well not really, I'm always fighting the urge to buy buy buy and I'm sure many of you sympathize with me there. I just placed two orders that I'm dying to finally get! The first one consists of; Lucy Westenra, The Carpathian Mountains (because how awesome is it to have Dracula-themed scents), Dia De Los Muertos 2006 (my only Halloweenie scent) and three CD scents; Carnival Diabolique, Midnight on the Midway and The Candy Butcher. These will be my first CD scents so I'm super super excited about it! I feel like I'm the only one not talking about them!   My next order is a bit more conservative and includes; 13 (because I couldn't resist), a 5ml of Loviatar and two Yules (Snow Maiden and Snowflakes) that I hope work on me although I don't have high hopes. It's funny, I have a zillion imps waiting for me to try, I belong to the GC swap circle AND I still haven't made up my mind about the Dark Moons and yet here I am needing more! I guess I'm just crazy.   I've been trying, rather unsuccessfully to get a few local friends equally obsessed but so far, nothing. I even bring out the imps when people come over and have them sniff! What's wrong with these people!? I'm planning a party for this Saturday to break in my brand new apartment and (ultimately) seduce a guy I know and I'm not only planning food and drinks but also scent.......do I want to go sexy or innocent? I'm thinking of using Red Lantern, Underpants, Loviatar or Alice. Red Lantern and Loviatar might be a bit overpowering and Underpants maybe too sweet but I feel like Alice is an everyday scent and not so much party material. I suppose it all depends on what I want to project; decadence, sex, dominance or innocence.....although Loviatar might give me some much needed confidence and maybe I could layer it on top of Follow Me Boy or #20 Love Oil for extra oomph. I just can't believe more people don't understand the importance of the right scent for the right occasion. Hasn't anyone else heard that adage; you wear clothes for other women but you wear scent for a man. I don't know if he's a scent guy at all but it can't hurt to have that in my corner.   And I'm done preaching to the choir.
jessiesquash

jessiesquash

0
Is Anybody Out There?
 

The roommate situation

He called his mother, asked her for money to get his car fixed so he can get home, and she is sending it. She asked to speak to me. She was in tears- worried sick that he might hurt himself instead of going home. I promised her I would keep a lookout and let her know if anything happened. She said they were thrilled to have him back, but she knows how much it hurts him.   She left her home phone number and her cell phone number. I do plan on calling her and speaking with her about him. If she really wants to help him, I can point her in the right direction. I also want to know if she knows the magnitude of his debt up here, both personal debt and public. She didn't come across as the cold hearted bitch he's been portraying her as, but I'm not convinced he was lying about that, simply because my father can put on a good show when he feels like it. Still, it seems fishy. A lot of it does.   This is a bad week to do this. He has a week to get the money from her, and then a week to get his car repaired. Otherwise, we buy him a bus ticket and off he goes. At this point, it's a small price to pay.   But next monday is my big midterm in psychology. I get my math work done at school, and I've been really working hard on it. Difference of trinomials was where I got completely lost last quarter, and I have those suckers down pretty well. However, I've been doing really poorly in psychology. And today I think I guiltily realized that I'm a little bored with this particular instructor. I love him to pieces, but it's a format that's been repeated three times now. I'm still planning on taking archaeology in the spring, but I think I'll give the social sciences a break winter quarter.   Okay. Feeling better. Compartmentalizing stuff is a useful thing sometimes.
smallvoice

smallvoice

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Is Anybody Out There?
 

I don't know what to say here

I've been putting off writing about this, but it is another thing that is weighing on me and I need to just write it out.   My dad's first wife has advanced cancer- Colon cancer, I believe, though I may be wrong. She might not last the year. I keep hoping that she won't die on Thanksgiving. Or in November at all. Deaths seem to be piling up around November. And... this is awful... but I keep thinking that it's like having a messenger preparing for a trip to see a bunch of people I love and can't communicate with anymore... could you just find Christy and tell her... and Robbie... and Paul... and... most of all, my grandmother. After you die, could you just please find these people for me? Run some errands out and about? Could you tell them that I am happy, finally?   It's awful. And I know it's hurting my brother and sister, and I hurt for them, but I keep obsessing over the fact that she could be seeing all these people I love before the year is out. All these people who hoped that I'd be happy. All these people who loved me.   I don't want her to die, but I'm trying hard to get to acceptance.   I hope she knows her kids love her. I'm going to tell her I love her. I'm not going to ask her to run dead messages around for me. A part of me just wishes I could.
smallvoice

smallvoice

0
Betty Baker's BPAL Blog
 

In the beginning there was BPAL, and it was good.

I was happy being poor. I lived on the ragged edge of "squeaking by", clipping coupons and buying budget coffee. Along came BPAL, and everything changed. I applied for a third job. I created a budget. I haunt the BPAL website in my spare time, and now I'm wasting away on the forums.   There are imps on the way, oh yes. They'll invade my house and settle on my pulse points. They'll drive me to distraction with conflicting emotions, and in November I will place a second order.   I'm doomed.
bettybaker

bettybaker

2
Is Anybody Out There?
 

Too long

There's something up with my inner ear. I've had an earache all weekend, and my balance is messed up.   It's been too long since I wrote in here. So here I am.   Knitting has come to a standstill, as I sort of began feeling hopeless with it. It also got pushed way down on my list of priorities.   I am going to be baking cookies to include for my switchee. Possibly fudge.   So, my husband and I had a long conversation about weight and stress. We need to bite the bullet and just stop. And I can do that if he tells me that's what we're doing. But if he wavers at all, I'll hit a craving and justify it like woah. So, no more snacks. Instead, we will have real meals. And salads. With Newman's Own dressing.   I pointed out that when we need time to ourselves, away from the housemate, we always go out to eat. We could easily go walk around Hastings and pick up a game or a few books for what we spend on eating out. We need to reward ourselves in other ways. For me, that's easy- BPAL, Villainess, and other e-tailers that I've grown fond of.   Noumenon wrote something in (If I recall correctly) a wanted post recently, and it really sort of hit home for me. She said something to the effect of: I've been here a short while now, and I spent the summer nailing what I wanted in the GC. Now I want to seek out some limited editions.   I haven't done that. Even though I tend to enjoy the GC scents more, I am obsessed with LE's. OMGWTFBBQWhatifInevereverseeitagain!!! This could be my One Chance!   I still want Pumpkin Queen and Sol Invictus, but I think I need to focus on the catalog for the time being. There's no reason for me not to have bottles of Alice, Sudha Segara, Dorian, Arkham (!), Port-au-Prince, O, and others. Even though I've loved Arkham since Kmasden was nice enough to send me a decant in February, I believe, I didn't order a bottle when it was brought back. I love Alice! I sing her praises constantly! But no bottle.   So I'm going to lay off the LE's, and I'm going to treat myself, when I can, to GC bottles. First up: Arkham.   I am going to try and participate in NaNoWriMo. I'm worried I'm stretching myself too thin, with school and swaps and knitting and the holidays and everything going on. But I am already writing down the dares I'm pondering adding to my story. It should be entertaining.   Take care, loves. I'm out of steam.
smallvoice

smallvoice

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Do you have a flag?
 

Nuts! I'm dumpy.

I made the awful mistake of returning to MySpace after an absence of several months. The MySpace group for my little group of college friends apparently had people flocking to it in droves while I was away, and now it's full of people I knew 15 years ago in college.   Clicked on the picture of a girl who didn't like me because she thought I caused her boyfriend to break up with her. She's gorgeous now. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated on and off for a few years but lost touch with. He's a damn fine-looking man. Clicked on the picture of a guy who was full of himself and was a dick to me. Still looks like he's a dick. Clicked on the picture of a guy I dated for a couple of years. He's been hitting the gym. He never looked that good when he was with me.   And what do you see if you click on my photo? A dumpy-looking middle-aged woman with a stupid hairstyle who has gained 25 pounds since college and looks like a mess. Niiiiice.   I was feeling pretty embarrassed about the whole thing and ranting about it in an exaggerated fashion to my husband -- he pointed out that it is impossible for everyone I knew in college to be better-looking now than they were then. I know that. It's not everyone. Just everyone I dated. And the girls who were catty to me because I went out with the lovely sensitive goth boys that they were all swooning over. I would not be at all surprised if some of them looked at my photos and thought, "HA! She got fat and ugly. Good."   I usually don't think I look that bad. I think for whatever reason people often tend to be close to people who are more or less at the same level of attractiveness, and in my current circle of RL friends I don't feel out of my league with any of them. But when I was in college, I paid a lot more attention to my appearance. (These days I'm lucky if I'm wearing two shoes from the same pair half the time.) If there was such a thing as a beautiful people goth/skater clique at my university, I was probably in it. Those people wouldn't give me the time of day right now. They don't let you back into the beautiful goth people club if you gain 25 pounds and move to the suburbs.   In a couple of days this probably won't bother me any more, but right now I'm unhappy that I thought I was comfortable with my appearance and where I am in my life right now... and apparently I'm not. Apparently I am embarrassed by it. This revelation is unsettling to me.
filigree_shadow

filigree_shadow

3
circe_blue's Blog
 

Feeling Accomplished (for once!)

Ah, Sundays. I always have a love/hate relationship with Sundays. On the one hand they always signal the end of the weekend but on the other I love Sundays because usually I just lie around in my pajama pants reading the newspaper, drinking tea and eating things that are bad for me.   Today, I (kind of) did just that *and* I managed to get some much needed work done. The boy spent the weekend at my place so today we had most of the afternoon together before he drove down back to his place. We finally went to Rita's. All you East Coast-ers know what I'm talkin' about. For everyone else, they sell delicious icees, ice cream, cream-ice and "gelatis". They're only open during the warmer seasons and we were lucky enough to catch them for the very first time today. It also happened to be their last day open until March 1st. The boy got a banana gelati, while I got a cookies and cream gelati. Their gelatis were...interesting....but very good. A Rita's gelati consists of a layer of frozen custard on the bottom of the cup, a layer of flavored ice in the middle, and a topping of more frozen custard on top. Mmmm.   Well, after we went to Rita's we got lunch which allowed the gelatis to melt and mix in the cups in the car. I went to a Halloween party store where we discussed our costumes. He still has no idea what he wants to be, but he's seeming very excited to go as Vincent from Pulp Fiction 'cause I hinted that it would be cool to go as Mia and Vincent. Also a plus, a Mia outfit would be super easy to put together. All I really have to buy is a wig. I already have a white dress shirt, black pants and if I do this costume, I will place some powdered sugar on my nose and have a little droplet of blood coming out of my nose My other costume option would be a devil/schoolgirl thing, or Asami from Takeshi Miike's Audition. May be a little obscure for some people at the party who've never seen it, but man will it be freaky for those who have! ("kiri kiri kiriiii....")   We also watched Dead Like Me on DVD today. It was a great show, I'm sorry I never got a chance to catch it on cable before it was canceled. George's character need to stop with the whining for, like, *one* episode, please.   After he left, I got quite a bit of my take-home midterm exam done. I only have a couple questions left and I should definitely be done by Thursday (due date) *knock on wood*. And can I just say how much I haaaaaaate take-homes? They're always a million times harder than in class exams (because you supposedly have more time to research/prepare it) and it always stresses me out more. I have two separate study groups I'm going to on Tuesday for two different classes...oh man I hope I can get some pre-studying in beforehand. -------------------- Yule Update! Tentative To Buy List: Lick It Again - peppermint + sugar (supposedly more than last year! yay!) Brides of Dracula - almost based on name alone. I'm hoping this one at least smells pleasant on me even though I know florals generally aren't my thing. Sugar Skull '06- mmmm, sugar And imps of: Arkham Miskatonic University Night Gaunt Black Lily Shadow Witch Orchid Zombi
circe_blue

circe_blue

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