Today has been a really trying day. Almost from the moment I opened my eyes I realized that I was sadly reminded of an old lesson.
It's hard for me because I like to believe that people are basically honest and good and what they say is what they mean. I like to think that what I see is what I get when it comes to my interactions with others.
Coming from a small town upbringing, it is hard to not give people a chance, a second chance and sometimes, even a third chance. In doing so, often I become a rug or am treated poorly because I am deemed weak.
For the record,
I am not weak. I am a good, kind hearted soul who is tired of being treated badly by some. No longer will that happen. I just have to keep reminding myself, even when I feel like a person deserves another chance, that a leopard
NEVER changes it's spots.
Sometimes the leopard may become more slick and sneaky about their intentions and they may even put up all kinds of false fronts but under it all, nothing has changed.
The truth has been known about that even before
Rudyard Kipling wrote
How The Leoprad Got His Spots. Here is the story for those who have not read it:
IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy- yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all--a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of them; for he would lie down by a 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed! And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a 'sclusively greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together--the Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with his teeth and claws--till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn't know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They didn't indeed!
After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest--they went away from the High Veldt. They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, 'sclusively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in the 'sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their dinners and their teas had gone. At last they were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met Baviaan--the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa.
Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all the game gone?'
And Baviaan winked. He knew.
Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.)
And Baviaan winked. He knew.
Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.'
And the Ethiopian said, 'That is all very fine, but I wish to know whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.'
Then said Baviaan, 'The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.'
That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all 'sclusively speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.)
'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so full of little pieces of light?'
'I don't know, said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora. I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can't see Giraffe.'
'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra, but I can't see Zebra.'
'Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted 'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.'
'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a'sclusively grey-fawn colour from head to heel.'
'Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of the aboriginal Flora-forest. 'Then they ought to show up in this dark place like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.'
But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them.
'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.'
So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn't see it. So he said, 'Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that I don't understand.'
Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It smells like Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any form.'
'Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till the morning--same as me. They haven't any form--any of 'em.'
So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'
The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'
And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know that if you were on the High Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven't any form.'
'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you see?'
'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all yesterday. How is it done?'
'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.
They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy.
'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way it's done. One--two--three! And where's your breakfast?'
Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest.
'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal-scuttle.'
'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of coals?'
'Well, calling names won't catch dinner, said the Ethiopian. 'The long and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds. I'm going to take Baviaan's advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I've nothing to change except my skin I'm going to change that.'
'What to?' said the Leopard, tremendously excited.
'To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in hollows and behind trees.'
So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before.
'But what about me?' he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin.
'You take Baviaan's advice too. He told you to go into spots.'
'So I did,' said the Leopard. I went into other spots as fast as I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done me.'
'Oh,' said the Ethiopian, 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.'
'What's the use of that?' said the Leopard.
'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian. 'Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them per-feet satisfaction.'
'Umm,' said the Leopard. 'I wouldn't look like Zebra--not for ever so.'
'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a sun-flower against a tarred fence.'
'I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too vulgar-big. I wouldn't look like Giraffe--not for ever so.'
'I'll make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian. 'There's plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!'
Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard's skin you like, Best Beloved. Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots--off five fat black finger-tips.
'Now you are a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. 'You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular. Think of that and purr!'
'But if I'm all this,' said the Leopard, 'why didn't you go spotty too?'
'Oh, plain black's best for a Ethiopian (NOTE: WE changed the N word to Eithiopian),' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come along and we'll see if we can't get even with Mr. One-Two- Three-Where's-your-Breakfast!'
So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That is all.
Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once--do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are.
I AM the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones,
'Let us melt into the landscape--just us two by our lones.'
People have come--in a carriage--calling. But Mummy is there....
Yes, I can go if you take me--Nurse says she don't care.
Let's go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails!
Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails!
Let's--oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me,
And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea!
Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick,
And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it --quick.
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This week we have chosen James Robinson Creations on Artfire as our featured seller. We were snooping around their sutdio and found some really cool items.
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I got this in my email this morning. The timing of it was unbelievable as I have been feeling lousy about the way things are going on a particular ecommerce site (favortism of a few members / weighting of most everything to the benefit of managements favorite members and etc). 
The boy replied in stilted English, "You stop making joke on me, I stop spitting in your soup."
Facebook users will be able to use a payment application called Buxter which was developed by online payment provider ClickandBuy. 
USPS released an announcement of their future plans today that could affect online sales. 
We have been watching several ecommerce sites for quite awhile. We have to say that we really enjoy visiting ArtFire. There are many wonderful, unique, handcrafted items and the site is easy to navigate. We feel that the site is worth sharing with our readers. 
Rapid Cart - The ArtFire Rapid Cart is a revolutionary new way for our members to do business. Any member can use the Rapid Cart on any site that can accept Flash. This tool pushes the POS to customers, effectively creating remote-sale-capable advertising. When a member posts a Rapid Cart they are off of ArtFire. The Rapid Cart can show items for sale that the artisan has selected or pull randomly from their shop. What makes the Rapid Cart special is that the buyer never has to leave the blog/website that they were originally on. When a buyer clicks on a product in a Rapid Cart, a new pop-up item window is opened where the buyer can, without signing up for an account on ArtFire, complete the entire checkout process. All of this takes place without the buyer ever having to navigate to ArtFire. The entire process is secured using 256-bit encryption, and everything is tracked by ArtFire so that our members can run their businesses with the most accurate data possible.
Facebook Kiosk - The ArtFire Facebook Kiosk is a one-of-a-kind Facebook application that allows any pro ArtFire member to import their studio and sell their goods right from their Facebook profile or fan page. Once the application is linked to a member's studio there is no more work to be done, the kiosk auto updates as changes are made to a member's studio. Much like the Rapid Cart, the Facebook Kiosk allows anybody to shop and checkout without leaving Facebook. Buyers are not required to sign up for an account during the process, which allows members to market their work to their fans, friends and family while also selling on the largest social networking site online.
Coupon Codes - While coupon codes in e-commerce are a staple of the industry, the ArtFire Coupon Code system is the first fully customizable coupon building system available to an artisan marketplace. ArtFire members can make coupon codes that apply to any item, entire orders, studio categories, or specific items. They can choose from dollar off discounts, percentage off discounts, free shipping or free gift options. Every coupon can be set for a limited run date, set to run in the future, set to limited uses, or be valid for up to a year. The coupon code system also offers the ability to issue Gift Certificates that are tracked by ArtFire and make for great gifts on holiday occasions.
Market Hub - The ArtFire Market Hub is a tool we provide all of our members to help build their brand online. When a member updates their Market Hub, it allows shoppers that artisan's other web presences; the Market Hub is a tool we provide so that our members can link out to their own website, blog, Etsy shop, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube Profile, Indie Public, or MySpace profile. We believe our members should have multiple profiles and selling venues so we built Market Hub as a way for our members to tie their profiles together. Market Hub improves credibility and trust for artisans and helps them to overcome one of the common obstacles to online sales-uncertainty for buyers.
Atomic Mall is pleased to announce the addition of direct credit card acceptance for our sellers through Authorize.net, the internet's largest and most trusted credit card processor.
In less than 18 months out of Beta, Bonanzle has reached the 200,000 member milestone. It all went down just a second ago. And the forum party on the site begins... and rightfully so.
The world will step aside for one with clearly defined objectives and a strong desire to attain them.
You have the power to control your own destiny. You may not feel at all comfortable with that, or want to own up to the responsibility it implies, yet it is true nonetheless.
Xerox is suing Google, YouTube and Yahoo due to infringement of Xerox patents on integration and search technologies. Xerox filed the documents about a week ago in Delaware US District Court.
Our featured seller this week is Periwinkles. Periwinkles sells on eCrater. 
Metalcraft Florals #7048 which is Chrysanthemums in a brass teapot. This picture is actually molded into the third dimension so that the highlights truly stand out...the shadows are really there. This picture is 9 1/2" by 11 1/2" and the frame itself is 12" by 14". It is in very good shape but does have some discoloration on the mat.
Lenox Ming China salad plate featuring a flowering pink cherry or dogwood tree, beautiful butterflies and flowers. It has a blue design across edges, trimmed with gold. It's 8 1/4" in diameter.
Grand piano music box that is for a 50th wedding anniversary. On the lid are two bells 50th Happy Anniversary!! and musical notes. This music box is from Schmid musical collectible. It has a lever on the side to stop the music playing. It measures approximate 2 3/4" high, 3 3/4" wide and 4 1/8" deep. It is in very good shape. 
Miniature tea set - All the pieces have a Asian scene. There are three figures on a bridge, a pagoda and flying birds. The teapot measures 1 3/4" tall, the creamer, sugar bowl, cups all measure 3/4" tall. The saucers measure 1 1/4" across and the platter measures 3 1/2" across. This tea set is in great shape. 
For a long time now, sellers have been saying that they would love to rate eBay on customer satisfaction. Well, ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) does just that. Of course, their scores do not come just from sellers but the ratings are listed for eBay. 
Milward Brown's new report states that consumers have rated Amazon.com to be the top performing brand in the United States.
Wal-Mart plans to purchase the internet movie service called VuDu. Financial terms of the deal remain confidential.
Vudu created software that integrates into TVs and Blu-ray players. Vudu allows users to rent or buy high-definition movies and television programs over the Internet for immediate viewing. The service is very convenient because it eliminates the need to connect your TV to a computer for browsing and purchasing films.
PayPal announced a change to their user policies just over a week ago. Many sellers are not happy. The changes will go into effect March 10, 2010.
Today has been a really trying day. Almost from the moment I opened my eyes I realized that I was sadly reminded of an old lesson. 
Want to make success a habit in your life? If you’ve got determination, it may be simpler than what you think. All you need is a slight change in your thinking pattern. Changing your thoughts will change your beliefs, your expectations, your attitude, and consequently, your behavior. A change in behavior will eventually lead you to a change in performance. And when you perform at your peak, you succeed. It doesn’t matter where you are in life, or what you do for a living, if you just modify the way you look at things, the way you think about things, you can achieve success. 
eCrater has added a wonderful new feature that makes viewing additional item pictures in the listing really slick. 
eCrater just seems to be getting better and better! The little extras are not heavy on older computers or for users who may still be using dial-up interent services. This means that sellers get the extras they need to be successful and shoppers can shop without having to upgrade their computers.
We have been on eCrater for several years now and we love it! Every year we see our sales increase and their support staff is more than willing to help whenever you contact them. eCrater also has a community forum filled with a wealth of information. Did I remember to tell you that eCrater offers you an ecommerce store for FREE? Well, they sure do. Sellers keep all of the money when they make a sale but for the amount that the payment service charges. If the seller is paid with a check or money order, all of the money is theirs!
