#I have a few things queued for this month anyway ^v^

[bigbrainbiology]

It's spooky season once again ~

But Mitsuba isn't scared of ghosts!... Right??

[chevvy-ryder]

I'm a bit behind posting regularly.

And I probably might not do that anymore either.

I am trying not to spend too much on this website like i used to (I mean the interest in cp got lower anyways and male v tag is easy to overlook once a week now)

I have a lot in my drafts but somehow I'm still not able to manage to get it queued so I will just post when I have it on my mind, like: "Oh lets post sth. now!"

So I'm not gone, I just have no real vigor anymore to keep this blog up on a daily base is all.

For those who are interested in my ocs:

I am still onto adding my chars back one after another (now it's Hizumi I'm currently on — V, Jay and Falco are still missing). it involves going through their wardrobes, clean mods out, add new ones, make new outfits.

Recently done kind of a ton of modeling pics (which was fun to do). I may not post all here as it's rather 'boring/casual' pics, I know may not get much of attention on this website either. Half of them I don't even wanna post anymore bc it's too mature for this hellsite anyways.

Yeah tumblr did do a big chunk on why I am not really active here anymore.

And for those who are interested about my health:

I'm going fine so far, 3xweek of doing gym for about 4 months now made me be a normal human being again. I like to push weight and I am interested to build up some more muscles and loose some fat I have left around my belly/waist (if it doesn't happen I am fine with it too, it's just a 'on top' thing I'd be happy about to gain). Tinnitus is still present but very low, so not paining me anymore through the day. I can live with that.

I got a few personal problems with work lately which is probably something I only can manage to solve if I find another job. Big step, though. The thought is there but I'm not ready, yet I may start looking for new possibilities sooner or later. Could involve having to move to another city.

Also still trying to find new friends in my area (which is also a goal for this year — if I don't find any the point above gets more valid to move somewhere else to start entirely new – again big step). I want this year to be one where I attend to some techno parties, even if I have to go alone. I can do this. First one is at the end of the month!

That's the news so far from me. To those who read this: have a nice weekened and feel hugged by me!

greetz, Chevvy

[littleeyesofpallas]

I don’t usually dwell on American cape comic shenanigans too much, because it’s a fast and loose kind of writing that doesn’t really play well with being scrutinized or really thought about at all, at least any longer than it takes to get through a page, but man... this whole Tynion IV Batman thing is still rubbing me the wrong way...  and what bugs me is how it’s definitely not all “bad,” and in fact a lot of the build up is great, but then the resolutions (or lack there of) are massive let downs, but then also he keeps skirting by with these loose ends that feel like they weren’t forgotten but that they might get picked up later.  It would almost suggest he has a real big picture planned as a through line across multiple stories...

So, when Tynion took over with issue 86 and Their Dark Designs, he actually provided a great premise: In the aftermath of City of Bane and Alfred Pennyworth’s death, Bruce muses over his apparent old habit of sketching himself little snapshots of an idealized Gotham he holds in his head.  We have a clear establishment of the theme of Design, and also the idea that Bruce has an end game in mind.  He’s not just reacting to crime as it happens, he has a long term plan.  This is a genuinely good angle to have for a Batman story.

To build on this, we learn that Lucius is working on some new tech for Bruce and he specifically marvels at how far Bruce’s war on crime has escalated.  The bat-gear hasn’t just been getting more sophisticated over the years, its development is beginning to outpace its practical applications.

Additionally, we get a weird kind of distraction of a B-plot with various master assassins convening in Gotham under a singular organized job, but among them the spotlight falls on Deathstroke.  Does Tynion talk about Deathstroke being one of the classic anti-batmen?  Does he talk about Deathstroke’s healing factor?  No.  He talks about Deathstroke’s augmented brain processing faster than Bruce can keep up with (a trait most authors tend to overlook with Slade); this means his only means of competing with Slade is to have a plan that puts him down before his super fast brain can think of a way out, because implicitly he will out think Batman given time, and if they’re both whittled down to adapting to one another in the moment, Slade wins.

Again, our theme is Master plans/Designs/end games.

Enter the heretofore unmentioned legendary, nigh mythical, Gotham villain named The Designer has reemerged after an indistinct time missing from the criminal underworld.  His claim to fame is planning 20 steps ahead, outpacing his adversary’s planning to snub any and all resistance utterly and completely.  

He’s brought up because he once mentored Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, and Joker in their early days(and in their 90s era outfits as a clever reference) and apparently the master plans he devised with each of them that were never enacted have been queued up by “someone.”  Designer is back, but he’s supposed to be dead; In a painfully uninteresting, cliche “twist” Joker was too KuHrAaZzY to handle and Designer turned on him rather than finish his tutelage, and in the ensuing firefight the 4 Gotham rogues killed the legendary Designer.

So, there are a lot of fun questions this raises, like who the apparent new Designer is, what his plan is, and what he wants...

Bruce has another run in with Slade and launches into an awkward, kinda whiny rant where he tells Slade that if only super villains hadn’t wasted so much of his time escalating the arms race of powers and gadgets and gimmicks, that he could have fixed Gotham years ago.  So, here we are again, this idea of plans, of reactionary escalation, and of the absolute need for a master plan that snubs the opposition before they can react and learn.  Batman beats Slade, of course, which just goes to show what we’re always meant to assume from Batman anyway, that he already had Slade beat from the get go.  He had a plan; Batman always has a plan.

So this is super cool!  It took us kind of a plodding 6 out of 9 issues of this story to get here, but this is a good place!  We know Batman has a master plan for Gotham, we know from what we’ve heard about plans/Designs as a theme that means he’s already got all his villains accounted for, and that he’s just going through the motions: turning the wheels to make the machine work.  It’s only a matter of time, now.

I’ll be honest, my thought at first when I was reading these?  I thought The Designer was Batman, or some part of Batman’s plan.  That he’d resurrected this mythical villain as part of his own master plan, to perhaps trick all his biggest adversaries to go all in on a singular massive criminal enterprise that Bruce had already designed from the get go to fail, and to take them all down with it once and for all.  It fit the profiles, and it felt like the natural direction this all was headed...

But then it was just The Joker.  Designer really was dead, Joker brought him back, stole his master plan and pulled it off himself.  He stole Batman’s money and gadgets, and took over Gotham (again).  That’s it.  It was a 9 issue/4 month long fucking prologue to Joker War.  And more importantly... NONE of these themes paid off, even a little...  And to be fair, if these had turned into something to be addressed and resolved in Joker War, I might have been okay with it...  But they weren’t...

Also there’s a (would be)great little moment towards the end here where we learn that The Designer’s original nemesis, a master detective whom he crushed and humiliated, once taught Bruce “how to lose.”  And this went nowhere.  But it could have been super interesting, because what exactly does that even mean?  Does it mean learning to accept loss and move on?  Does it mean letting the opponent’s plan succeed because if they put everything into the one plan, then it means they never actually had a follow through, so now the board is wiped clean and everyone’s back to square 1?  What exactly was the point of bringing back the Designer’s legacy if we just learned that the real Designer wasn’t even the master mind of this whole story?

So then we meander into Joker War, curiosity still piqued, but expectations drastically lowered...

Joker has all Batman’s gadgets: that’s actually kind of cool.  I like the idea of Joker having infinite resources and Batman being the one working underground.  It’s kind of been done before in pieces, but never quite as explicit as this.  It’s not genius, but its a solid premise.  Joker goes on a meta-rant about people watching “the classics” over and over, and audiences being content to see the same old story, provided it’s done right.  (A bold called shot, Tynion.)  

And we glimpse the mysterious future Batsuit that apparently Bruce doesn’t remember designing.  It’s kind of a throwback to the gray and blue look of the silver age Batman, when comics were a little more cheery and goofy and child friendly.  It’s a nice commentary on the idea that Bruce wants to make Gotham into a better place, not where he doesn’t need to be Batman, but where he can be a less grim Batman.  It speaks to Bruce’s character, his vision for Gotham, and Tynion’s nostalgia that is now being strongly established as a driving force of these stories...

Joker’s plan involves paying Gothamites, in the middle of this citywide takeover by clown gangs, to attend screenings of Zorro, at which point he’ll kill them walking out of the theaters.  Batman shows up at one theater, fights some Joker zombie things, get gassed, gets rescued by Harley and given an antidote that induces a hallucination chat with Alfred.

Laughably, in this talk Bruce admits “I failed...” when talking about letting Alfred die and letting Joker take over the city but then hallucination Alfred talks Bruce OUT of it.  So whatever it was Bruce learned about losing from the old detective, this apparently wasn’t it; this was the wrong kind of losing.

Joker mentions part of his plan was to make a new generation of heroes and villains with the massive shared trauma of the theater killings.  We’d been seeing bits of Clown Killer, but that’s it.  He actually seems pretty cool, but he wasn’t really doing much more than cameo in this.  No new villains* actually, not until the epilogue gives us the anti-hero GhostMaker.

*correction: there are a few retroactively established villains who are new to publication, but no new villains born out of the actual Joker War scenario.

The whole Batfam shows up to wrestle clowns.  For some reason Tynion or DC editorial in general went to GREAT lengths to contrive Dick being back in the old Nightwing outfit, Tim being Robin again, Cass and Steph being Batgirls, Babs being Oracle, and Damian having renounced the Robin title for this...  They don’t do jack shit; They wrestle clown goons in the background.

Yet, again one of Joker’s stupid genius plans ends with a fist fight between a highly trained martial artist and a guy in a purple suit and we’re expected to be excited about this.  Harley shows up to trick Bruce into leaving Joker to die, but of course he survives anyway...

So there are a few themes here that got heinously underutilized...  Joker’s super into this self-aware thing about this being just another Batman-v-Joker affair, and about recreating Batman’s origin, and we see this play out on the other side with the weird walk back on the Batfam’s costumes.  But we know Joker will lose, so ostensibly the bottom line here should be that, no, actually... doing the same old thing isn’t enough, and people aren’t as predictable as Joker thinks.

But if we’re acknowledging this idea that Batman-v-Joker is a thing that happens in cycles and it’s always kind of the same thing, and people are sick of it, then you know what one undeniable fact of continuity flies in the face of that?  That no matter how many times we reboot the universe and repeat this whole song and dance, Batman keeps accumulating more sidekicks.  I’d have loved if this whole thing had just climaxed with Joker “winning” in his over elaborate 1v1 grudge match only to have half a dozen extra bats bust in and kick his ass.

But more over, Batman NEVER had any sort of plan in this...  The whole lead up in Their Dark Designs, which took LONGER to set up Joker War than Joker War actually lasted, was about Bruce having this Design for Gotham...  And Joker War goes out of its way to remind us of this lingering concept, and doesn’t actually do anything with it, but tries to still dangle it over us, like... “oh no, we didn’t forget it, it’s just for later!”  And like, I’m still kind of on board for it, but less and less so the more this shit drags out without any satisfying benchmarks along the way.  And it’s just super frustrating to want to give Tynion credit for the genuinely good set up he seems to have here... Except is it still a “good setup” of it ends up not actually setting anything up?  or if what it sets up turns out to be disappointing and bad??

It’s just really bizarre to me that I honestly kind of desperately want to like Tynion’s Batman (Clearly I’m having a fucking field day digging my teeth into it) but in spite of the good that’s there, and the clear forethought that appears to have gone into it, he keeps tripping himself up somehow.

[beedaleebjd]

Hmmm. Feels like I disappeared from blogging for a hot minute... been navigating a very annoying headspace lately and playing a whole lot of ACNH. But on the bright side, I have quite a backlog of unedited photos, uncatalogued projects, and un-captioned posts all in the works. Gonna try to roll up my sleeves and get a queue together, because if it gets bottle-necked over here then I totally don’t post anything on Instagram, ugh. 😅

So current goings-on... My partner placed an order for their first bjd body for their birthday! A Model Delf boy body (the really buff one...😍) That we’re gonna hybrid with a Souldoll Joelle.D head, whenever I can acquire one. (It’ll either be 2nd hand or I will try to when I order the Juno body down the line... Hopefully they’ll let me put a boy head on a girl body....) 

At the same time, @dolliesanddelights​​ got a Tiny they’ve been long wishing for, and I bit the bullet and ordered a Tan Tiny20 Elf Myltyl. 😖💦 I’ve had her on my wishlist for a few years (Before I found my Tinies, even) but I was feeling nervous because I still don’t have a perfectly clear idea for who she’s supposed to be... But this worked out alright with Cecilia, so I’m going to take it slow and let her tell me.

What else... @dolliesanddelights​​ let me go on a Alice’s Collections clothing spree for my birthday last month! 💕💕 99% of it ended up being for Void-Hime because she was severely lacking some staple pieces and BOY she is hot stuff now. I need to take a proper photoshoot and fashion-show of all the things I got.... 😍

I’ve been doing a decent amount of sewing and crafting, I’m working on a V1 yarn wig for several characters (Cece, Mana, Nova, Chase) but I think I need to focus on them one at a time- I forgot how absolutely grueling making yarn wigs is. Uuuugh lmao.... It’s so much more enjoyable on DZ Ivy and Obitsu sized heads. /o/ But I’ll keep at it.

The CandyKitten eyes I was agonizing about arrived a bit ago, and they indeed did not fit. I’ve recovered (I GUESS) from my glaring oversight and I will order another pair- because aside from that issue, they are SO PRETTY and high quality and match her color scheme perfectly.

I have to wait until her etsy reopens though because of quarantine, aaaaaa. It’s alright, I need to save some money anyway. She’ll wear the oversized pair in the meantime. T//v//T

Some smaller updates, I have drafts in the works for some other little packages/doll things I’ve acquired over the months, doll faceups I’ve been working on and/or finished, other mishaps/adventures, some sorting/cleaning of my craft stuff that I love to document... and the like. Been interested in learning embroidery to add some stitched flourishes to my dresses, so when I get the nerve I’ll post that journey too.

Also also also, I’m officially putting Doll in Mind Aria on my wishlist. (Right after I more or less emptied it out, ahahaha...) 💦 Of course it’s after that massive DiM group order passed, because I am a wreck and talked myself out of it until it was too late and now I regret it. 😤 I’ve also been following some one-man-band bjd artisans on instagram and that was a very bad idea because now I am a little tempted to wishlist a few, oof....

I guess that’s enough of an update. I should spend time actually queuing all this stuff now and not just talk about doing it!

[lgcmax]

hi guys !! hope you’re all staying safe and having a great day !! just wanted to pop on and get a few things done and address some things regarding me & my muses ! nothing bad, don’t worry ! but this is also a plot call for max ( nari’s to be posted right after ), so all that will be under the cut ! the ooc stuff is at the top in case you want to skip that and go straight into the plot call !

ooc business ::

okay so !! i had anticipated having a lot more done by now than i have, but life has a funny way of working out sometimes ! my sister in law was reaching her due date to have my nephew, so i was with her a lot of the time to check on her ! so he came a little earlier than predicted, so i have admittedly spent this week cooing at the cutest baby i’ve ever seen in my life haha !! anyways, with that being said, super sorry to all those who i’ve left hanging this week ! you were not forgotten, and i l*ve you all and will be getting to messages on max & nari v soon ! but also i’ve been spending a lot of time with my family because of this, so you’ll notice most of my posts will be queued, at least for the next few days ! and i have a like character month in review thing queued for later today so if your muse gets tagged in that it’s not anything bad in advance, just so you know !  i might be a little slow until then message-wise, so i do apologize in advance ! and a huge, joint apology to all those i have to give v late replies !! it’s been a rough month for your girl, we’re getting better i promise 😔🤧

plot call: 

okay, so as my school semester’s come to an end so are quite a few of my threads, so while i’m not dropping any yet this is just a note that i’m def looking for some new rp partners ! i haven’t been my best at plotting lately but i want to change that, so if we haven’t plotted ever yet please let me know if you’re down and i’d love to ! also if we have plotted before and you just want to have your muse reconnect with max again for a new thread, please do let me know !! i absolutely love all the connections. <3 anyways, onto the real plot call !

for my project origin people, specifically lgc boys, i still need threads for the themes !! those themes are prep / rehearsal / recordings, fansigns, live performance, and variety show recording !!

also outside of just points requirements threads, any threads for project origin are wanted !! bring all your lovely babies to me !!

and now for festival threads ! i already have one going on but i’d still love to have some going about having fun at the festival, and though max is not doing the performance but a fansign instead, he’d still be up to practice for the performances !

max still needs someone for live prompt 003 so any takers would be great !

some canadian / foreign-born muses would be great for him to interact & relate with since he doesn’t have too many right now !

just some general development threads ?? i’m probably going to make a plot page sometime soon but an general plots are welcome / plots that seem fitting for our muses, i just know that i would love some connections with muses i haven’t plotted with !

and if your muse needs someone to develop something of their own, please let me know ! max is a v carefree & outgoing guy so he interacts with many types of people and loves to have a good time ! but also a little cocky and overcompetitive ! 

if any of these plots appeal to you, please let me know via messaging or replying to this & i’ll get in touch with you ! also if it’s been a minute that you’ve been left without a response, chances are i lost our convo :(( so please just bump our convo so i can see it ! once again. thank you so much for being patient with me and i hope i can plot with you all !

[simthorium]

back again

um.

HELLO!!!!

It’s me, your friendly neighborhood simmer, who periodically for the past five years forgets that she is indeed running a legacy challenge.

That’s right. F I V E. Y E A R S.

I’m literally turning 30 this year like what the fuck!?

Anyway ok. I have not updated this legacy in over a year, which I think is the longest amount of time that’s passed since I started. Regardless, I’m still hopelessly in love with this gigantic family that I’ve been playing for a large part of my 20s. I’ve queued up over 100 posts that will be going out over the next few weeks and months continuing the story. 

It’s always surprising to me that I even have followers on this blog, but for all of y’all, I wanted to give an update! If you don’t remember what this whole thing is even about, I do not blame you, since my update consistency has been actual garbage. This legacy is a super personal pet project of mine that I *WILL* finish eventually, even if I’m 60 by the time it’s done! I write this mostly for myself because I love this family and I love telling their stories, but I also love that there are ~dozens~ of you out there who like to read along too. Makes my little gay heart so happy :)

As I continue to create stories and flesh this story out, I’m also making a new and improved family tree, which hasn’t been updated in over a year as well. I also wanted to make some character profile pages on my blog that will mostly be for me to use as references but also just a good resource for anyone who is curious about specific characters and storylines who also do not want to read over 1000 posts.

The Zarro Family is currently on generation 7, which means we are only 3 generations away from finishing. Will it happen this decade! Yea!!! (probably)

Anyways. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. Thanks for reading this story in general. Thanks for being you. I love you. Was that too far? I forget how to tumblr. Ok bye!

PS: here’s a pic of the most recent family reunion so you can see the nonsense I’m dealing with. like wtf there’s so many of them!? I love them all tho <3 ok bye for real

[bcdyhigh-blog]

hey y’all !! i have this queued and everything bc my forgetful ass prob won’t be around for the soft opening.. rip. anyways i’m lia, twenty, a rpdr and retro future enthusiast, and i’m hyped as hell to introduce my Kids ! admittedly gyuri owns my heart more than max so, you can have her first, you’d prob thank me for it shortly anyways DKSLGFJ you can find her bio HERE, i also have her PLOTS and STATS pages up, so check them out as well ! and if you wanna plot, just hmu over at discord !

( KIM MINJI | CISFEMALE | SHE/HER ) I swear I saw MOON GYURI around campus yesterday. I hear the TWENTY-ONE year old is very resolute & circumspect which totally adds up since they're a TAURUS. They’re in their THIRD year and studying MUSIC PRODUCTION. you might also see them at a RADIO CLUB meeting. ( lia, nt, she/her. )

moon gyuri, a daegu native with an older sister and younger brother, an ambivert and an all around baby

i already have an overview of her bg so i’ll stick to the basics with this copied intro gklfds

buT she became involved in music through her father, who studied it in uni and ended up becoming a music instructor with a focus on piano, flute and vocals

her and her mom.. also her older sister, didn’t have the best relationship when she grew older, which seemed to die altogether when her parents divorced and her mom left. but her and her sister’s still exists, it’s just that she’s a bit of a toxic influence on her and she tends to distance herself from her

went to seoul arts to pursue music like her father ( a daddy’s girl too like ) and found her way into the world of production !! just before junior year, she transferred out of her original program, applied music with a concentration in piano, into music production and has loved it ever since

she’s making something of an income as the creator of an acct on youtube and soundcloud for her music — going by the aliases lunar wave and leda on them respectively ( can you tell how creative i am.. seriously, im dsfggdfjk )

she’s not even close to making it big yet, having only started a few short months ago, and that being said, she doesn’t mind if she never works for a moderately to highly popular label in the future — though she should if she wants to get by

among the aesthetic, lo-fi music crowd ( one of those yt accts with a livestream for certain playlists that go on for hours, rip ) where for the most part, it’s personal faves mixed with her own works, and has a substantial following for such a new acct as of now. but has an interest in experimenting, with mashups ( as a lover of them ?? i couldn’t help myself sgflkdsjg ) for example, with a small fear of how that change would be received

anyways she’s a member of the radio club, is usually found in either her room or some studio in the music department, and is a struggling bi baby 

this is so short iK, it’s a little infuriating if you ask me ljkgdfjls

in terms of her personality and other things:

she’s quite a loyal person, but even she knows when to draw a line in the sand. while like i said, her relationship with her sister is Not Great, she hadn’t completely given up on her for many years. definitely for the time being, for her own benefit, but her being someone who’s open to the idea of people changing for the better somewhere down the line leaves a bit of room for her to possibly change her mind, if her sister does enough to allow her to consider it

so she can be a bit of a doormat in some cases, it all depends on how she sees the person that determines if that’s the case, but she generally won’t let you off if you’re being dumb/an ass to someone or if she gets advantageous vibes from you for example ( given she can.. be a little dense on occasion and is a gentle soul overall ) so.. idk fgklsj good luck to the 99% ig ??

she does have a slight dependency on others despite her thinking all signs point to the opposite, and even though her and her mom never rly had a good relationship she still reels from the neglect/abandonment some days so handle her with Care if she deems you a close pal

super wary with taking risks and the like, add her stubborn nature and she’s gonna be difficult to persuade on a range of things

unwavering in her work and with those she trusts. she also is the same with herself more often than not, but she’s not exempt from having that doubtful voice in her head convincing her she’s doing a shit job in x thing to throw her off

she’s a little reclusive when focused on something, if she tells you she’s working on a track, it’s essentially a head’s up that you might not see her for a couple of days depending on how soon she gets it done — lowkey that bitch™ who makes up an illness to her prof or boss, so she wouldn’t even show up for class/work if it’s more than just her fucking around

bc admittedly, a lot of what she posts is fucking around and liking it, her more thought-out and effort packed projects are hidden away on her laptop

a bit insecure with her work and just her general disposition ?? bc like i said, she’s not exempt from that Evil voice in her head and those few more.. conflicting points above, we’ll say, mess with her a lot and leave her disheartened so.. my poor child

so that being said, she’s v strong overall, takes people’s shit but if it gets to her, she gets over it p fast ( the first time around ). doesn’t dwell on much and will be courteous to you even if she’s declared you too toxic to stick around 24/7

isn’t exactly one to get angry super easily ?? she’s basically just disappointed or annoyed at best 99% of the time, it takes a lot to get her beyond that

a cute bean who wants the best for everyone and is also clumsy as absolute fuCK

uhhh

plays piano and bass guitar

prob has some kind of little amateur rock band with a few music majors and took up bass for the hell of it lmao

so.. if you want in on that lmk sdgkldg

loves animals, leans towards cats or big dogs. corgis and those little spaniels get a pass tho

speaking of, she has a cute little calico kitten ( i’m shit with pet names so that’s tba rgkjls ) who she Loves, her baby !!

sweater, ball cap and basic t shirt junkie

those glasses minji’s worn on occasion ?? rinna wears them too but.. actually needs them, not even close to a fashion statement

doesn’t don much makeup unless someone’s dragging her to a party or something

thaT’S when she looks a little more like a classy early twenties bitch.. which lbr, is hard enough when adulthood is a whole Train Wreck for the most part LGFJSDL

not a heavy drinker, but the textbook definition of a lightweight so.. she’s always praying for anyone who has to deal with her dgfjklsfg

lattes are her livelihood

a bit of a hopeless romantic, god help her

her favourite subject in school was literature/writing and reads quite a bit on her breaks between classes, prob tried to take up a creative writing class as an elective as well

favourite music genres.. it’s easier to say what she doesn’t like/finds boring, which is prob country and some aspects of edm/pop, not into punk/metal either

these are super basic plus her personality description is all over the place bc i’m rushing but.. i’ve gotta get to max’s info so this’ll do for now i hope ??

[doomedandstoned]

The Great, Big

MONOLORD

Interview

~Words & Photos by Angelique Le Marchand~

This afternoon, I am catching up with Gothenburg’s finest doom import MONOLORD at the iconic Royal Albert Hall for an interview, just before they take on the stage. They will be opening for Black Label Society, concluding a European tour of twenty-one dates with the Californian metal legends. I arrive at 5pm, taking time to admire the stunning dome-shaped Victorian concert hall, exquisitely decorated by an opulent mosaic frieze. Inaugurated by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1871, the 5000-capacity concert hall is a true iconic London venue and a special treat for any concertgoer. The fact that tonight Royal Albert Hall is indulging in a doom and heavy metal program is very unusual, as it is normally known for its opera and classical music concerts.

I walk past a respectable number of hirsute gentlemen dressed in bikers’ leathers and denim sleeveless jackets covered in BLS patches, who are already lining up hours before the show to get in front of the stage -- a surreal slighting outside this opulent Victorian building. I make my way to the stage door where I am greeted attentively by an older gentleman in a Dickensian 3-piece suit who fits comme-il-faut in the plush Victorian reception area and I am quickly granted access. Drummer Esben Willems arrives to our interview suite first, followed by bassist Mika Häkki and vocalist and guitarist Thomas V. Jäger. Monolord immediately come across as a very warm bunch with gentle manners, too, as each courteously knocks on the door before entering the room.

We promptly break the ice by discussing our love of coffee. As coffee connoisseur myself, I am curious to find out how they cater to what, for me, are essential needs while temporarily living on a tour bus. I express relief as Thomas tells me that they have a proper coffee machine on their current sleeper. The band recall with good humour having to power-up solely on a disappointing light-brown substance served in gas stations on their recent tour in the States. "I don’t know what it is," says Mika. "It looks brewed, but it tastes like something completely different." "It’s not coffee," adds Esben. "It’s hot and it’s light brown, that’s it. It tastes horrible!" Following along with the topic of bare essentials on tour, I am curious to hear what Monolord have on their rider, if they have a rider at all, and keen to find out if they have any strange items that could somehow get us to know them a little better. My curiosity is instantly met with a witty comeback.

Thomas: "We don’t have such strange things; we have a framed photo of Bill Ward."

Mika, protesting: "But that’s not strange!"

Thomas: "No, but that is to others."

Mika: "Ah! To others. Ok then, I got ya."

Doomed & Stoned: "Some people have fresh socks!"

Esben: "We should have fresh socks. People have told us this. We should learn to have that."

Thomas: "But we might not get the framed photo of Bill Ward. And the expresso."

Esben: "That’s right! So we have to choose."

Mika, laughing: "We have to prioritise!"

Esben: "Bill Ward over socks."

Road Stories

Monolord are a band that spends a lot of time on the road, touring extensively since the release of their first album Empress Rising in 2014, with the past twelve months being particularly frenetic. While all three members of the band agree on missing their home life, Mika explains he is also missing his two dogs left in the caring hands of his wife, while Esben expresses being apart from his 3 year-old little boy is the roughest part. Living on a tour bus for such extended periods of time can take its toll on your body as it’s near impossible to get uninterrupted sleep between two dates due to bumpy rides constantly waking you up as soon as you manage to drift off. Thomas recalls driving through Northern France to get to London being a particularly rough one, while Esben compares crossing through parts of Poland to "driving through cornfields." "It’s like all the roads around Berlin. You know when you’re arriving in Berlin, because it’s jumping all the over the place," Mika recalls. Thomas adds that you might just finally manage to fall asleep when the bus stops, in which case you may have arrived at the next destination. "But then it’s time to go up and eat breakfast, so you can’t sleep anyway. So, you have to choose between eating or more sleep." In light of the fact that Monolord have been on the road for nearly a month now, it is understandable that sleeping would come up so high amongst home comforts the band are missing the most. "So that’s why we need Bill Ward," laughs Esben.

Monolord recall their tour Down Under with Ufomammut in 2016, which is amongst their favourite. Monolord and Ufomammut met in New Zealand, immediately hit it off and very quickly decided to go organize a short co-headlining tour. "They were super sweet, really nice guys to tour with," remembers Esben. "We met them on a few other tours when we crossed their paths in Europe after that. It was really good!" Mika finds it hard to pick his favourite tour or show, as on every one of them, something he will never forget happens. Amongst his personal highlights are their first tour in the States, playing at London’s Koko in May 2016, and their show at the iconic Gramercy Theater in New York, which was a particularly unbelievable experience, in his opinion. Esben recalls viewing the footage on YouTube since. "I just remember the feeling whilst getting to the US for the first time, the first show -- and the first show was there. It’s a great feeling watching that," he says. "I haven’t actually seen that!" Mika pipes up, surprised, "I’ll have to look it up!" "You haven’t?" Esben replies. "It’s great! It’s all grainy and it looks like it’s 1991!"

Aside from being an important milestone in Monolord’s touring career, the show at the Gramercy Theater also sounds like a rather hectic experience. "We were dead when we got there," remembers Mika. "We had the whole long process of applying for the visas and got them early morning on Tuesday. Early morning on Wednesday, we flew to New York. We landed at 2pm and at 4pm we had to be at the venue." "For sound check," adds Thomas, "and then we were the first of three bands, so I think we played at seven. I don’t think we had any time to even eat. Then we played the set and met a lot of people, as we were selling merch ourselves. I think at the end of the night, everyone bought us drinks and so we were just standing there like bluuuuhhhhh," concludes Thomas, miming being completely zombified. Monolord only recall finding themselves in a nightmare situation once on stage, with Mika’s bass amp breaking down halfway through their first song at a festival in Portugal. While Esben and Thomas continued jamming, it felt like an incredibly long ten minutes for Mika, with nothing at all coming out of his amp, despite trying to switch bass to no avail, and while the sound engineers couldn’t figure out what was broken.

So what do Monolord listen to on this tour bus that has temporarily become their second home? What kind of music is going to lift them up when they battle the effects of sleep-deprivation and get them onto those stages, sparky and refreshed night after night? Monolord do not do tour bus playlists, as they don’t tend to listen to music in that way, although Thomas says that they will occasionally play some slow, mellow acoustic songs. They are, however, very serious about their equipment load-out routine. "We’ve got a load-out playlist," declares Thomas, dead serious in a soft-spoken voice. "That’s George Michael and Gerry Rafferty. Just two songs, going over and over again to make load-out easier." Mika interjects, "Because everybody loves saxophones," giving the statement about "Careless Whisper" and "Baker Street" a little more substance.

The band had no hesitations when Black Label Society contacted them regarding opening for them on the European leg of their tour. "We thought about it for about one minute and said yes," Thomas remembers, "or maybe two minutes, but we didn’t wait that long!" he laughs. "I only heard half of the question!" adds Mika, "and I already made up my mind!" I speak about the BLS fans I spotted already queuing up outside the venue upon my early arrival. "When they open the doors, there’s like fifty people running to the front of the stage, and that’s where they will stand the entire evening," says Mika. "Every day!" supplements Esben. As a Monolord fan, I find it inconceivable that some of the people attending the dates on this tour would merely stand at the front to wait for BLS to come on stage and let Monolord’s set wash over them, and I’m surprised to hear that this can be the case. I’m curious about the reception from BLS fans that might possibly be hearing Monolord for the first time, and whether or not they are a tough crowd to win over. "For some, I think it’s way too far away from BLS. They’re just, I love BLS, this is my stuff, I really don’t like this at all," observes Esben candidly. "But also, every night there’s somebody emailing us and saying, Oh, I’d never heard about you, you guys are awesome! which is great," Mika adds.

Monolord have a very tight thirty-five minute slot on this tour. We laugh at the thought that all the band need is to play a couple of their longer songs, such as "Empress Rising" and "Forgotten Lands," and that could be their set pretty much over. "We have a well-oiled machinery to be on time every night, so we can’t change it up much, we go with the same songs," says Thomas. "All it takes is a malfunction of something like a cable, or whatever, and we have to shorten some parts of some songs." Both "Empress Rising" and "Rust" seem to provoke a particularly strong reaction in the audience during the shows. "The first time we played in France on our last tour -- our headlining tour, people were singing a lot on 'Rust'," explains Mika. We realised, What’s going on?!" "Rust" has a very catchy melody, coupled with horror-fueled lyrics -- an interesting contrast that might be the reason why it seems to grab the band’s followers so strongly, despite being a relatively new piece within their discography.

In The Beginning

The band chose their name after meeting Christer Ström of Mammoth Storm. He damaged his hearing in one ear, which sparked discussions about him being only able to hear in mono. As he plays in a prominent band in the scene, this earned him the nickname of "Monolord." The name stuck, and the Gothenburg trio adopted it for what was initially a side project. Very quickly, the venture progressed to becoming Monolord as we know it. "The side project was when we had kind of a break from the band it was a side project from," Esben says, explaining that both he and Thomas more or less only worked on the new venture once they felt they needed to play their new material. "So Mika came on board and we just felt right, almost immediately," continues Esben. "When we started to work on it, that was it!" Mika agrees. As Monolord covered "Fairies Wear Boots" by Black Sabbath, I ask them if they feel that being compared to the legendary band started with this release. "I think that all bands in this genre are compared to Black Sabbath," Esben remarks. "Sooner or later!" adds Thomas. Esben suggests that any interview with the band would usually come with a customary, "What’s your favourite Black Sabbath album?" We do agree that being compared to Black Sabbath is hugely complimentary, nonetheless.

The release of Monolord’s new album Rust was met with considerable critical acclaim and viewed to be their best offering yet, both amongst fans and the press. I’m interested in finding out what the most complimentary milestones have been for the band since the album came out. "There’s been a lot of reviews and kind words, and it’s always good to hear. Someone that gives your record a really good listen and can make note of small things, that maybe I’m the only one hearing, this small piece here," says Thomas. "When people notice those small things, I think it’s great! It’s like the record is well-produced and well-arranged. It’s really great to hear." Esben evokes a particular review of Rust by a writer who had followed the band from the beginning and had given complimentary reviews of all their previous works. "He really didn’t think that anything could top the previous ones, but he thinks that Rust did. That made me really happy. It was beautiful reading it."

The fact that Monolord released Rust only seventeen months after their previous full-length album Vænir and thirteen after the release of single "Lord of Suffering" and "Die in Haze" is hugely impressive, considering they have spent a colossal amount of time on the road, and I enquire on how they have found the time to work on their new material. "We rehearse quite a lot between tours," Mika tells me, "so we always bring out some new stuff and we always have some stuff that we didn’t finish, so we continue working after the next tour. The work never stops." "I think we had some ideas and riffs that we didn’t feel we had time to arrange for the record before this one," adds Thomas, "so, some parts of that we can bring in again and some of it is just new stuff. We try to, even when we’re rehearsing for a tour, throw in a new song to feel it. And maybe in six months' time on some of the tour, we might place some new material live to see how that feels before we record next time."

RUST by Monolord

A good picture is worthy of a thousand words, goes the common adage. This certainly proves to be the case when it comes to the photograph selected for the art-sleeve of Rust. As a photographer, I found it not only stunning, but I became fascinated by the story behind it. It depicts two cars planted vertically into the ground to prevent helicopters landing, in an undisclosed and troubled region somewhere the Middle East. While I was conducting my research, I was unable to track down the artist or any other photographs of helicopter traps in that region, despite being thorough and trying my luck with different and lesser-known internet search engines. Interestingly, this subject proved to be neither very accessible nor well documented -- possibly too sensitive or too disturbing a symbolic representation of our times.

The photograph fits ridiculously well with the themes running through the album: horror, destruction, war, misanthropy, and the ingenuity of humanity when it comes to obliterating its own kind. Esben tells me that the photographer is Arash Naghizadeh. He follows him on Instagram, and so do Monolord as a band. Esben kindly promises to send me a link to the photographer’s social feed. Both Thomas and I agree that it almost looks like it’s staged, although remarkably, it is not. "Our label guy suggested this to us. He had found the picture and we learnt about the history and the setting of it. It’s a beautiful photo of something really horrible," says Esben, encouraging me to look at Arash Naghizadeh’s portrait work, which he finds breathtaking, in addition to his documentary work. Mika chimes in that the band did find other photographs of this particular helicopter trap, but this one stood out as the most striking amongst them.

Monolord’s writing process has been largely documented over the years in interviews with the band, so I simply ask them how they feel they have progressed since writing Empress Rising. "Have we?" jokes Esben. He notes that it takes some time to find a band’s identity and become a unit. The process doesn’t happen overnight. "And we have toured a lot since then, spent a lot of time together on stages and in the studio," he comments further. "A lot happens in that process." "Empress Rising was more or less just when we started the recordings," says Thomas. "It was just me and Esben, and we recorded the album without goals. We just recorded the songs because we thought they were good songs and recorded some guitars and some drums. Then Mika came in and put on the bass, and then we felt like, Wow! This is something we need to focus on! But we became more of a band afterwards." Mika feels Empress Rising is quite raw. Thomas agrees, reflecting on how the raw feel of the piece may owe to the guitars and drums being recorded at the same time. "I think we got better at songwriting and also recording. We recorded ourselves, mixing and mastering it, so I think we’ve been getting better at everything as a whole process."

Monolord are planning to continue recording and mastering future works themselves, although they do not rule out potential collaborations with producers outside of the Monolord family. "I guess we just started that way and continued that way," says Esben. "It’s not been that we have to do things always this way and that this is the formulae, so let’s see what happens." Mika feels that being able to control all levels of what’s on the table by keeping production in house is a big advantage for the band, but he also sees the positive side of getting an external viewpoint thrown into the recording process. Regarding future works, the band is happy to allow a natural and organic progression, rather than considering aiming at specific directions. "It’s usually organic," affirms Esben. "We don’t make the decision that now we’re going to do this in a specific way, we just work with the material we have and that guides us. Cheesy as it sounds, it’s hard to force something into a frame. I think it doesn’t make sense." Mika concludes that there has to be passion involved and a clear sense of direction for all three of them, in order for their pieces to work.

Slaying In The Algorithm Dystopia

We are part of a modern ecosystem hostile to alternative culture. Streaming services and online file sharing have caused album sales to plummet. As a result, labels, promoters, bands, and pretty much anyone involved in the music industry is having to rethink how to distribute their meagre resources. As social media advertising reaches out to more music fans, it is favoured to the detriment of our music press, which is already under threat due to depressing circulation figures. In other words, the music industry has become codependent on the algorithm, but the algorithm is popular culture’s best friend -- and hostile to alternative culture. Throw into this head-spinner of a mix the slaying of our music venues, usually in favour of real-estate development (35% of music venues have disappeared in the UK in the past ten years), and you have to come to the conclusion that perduring as an underground band has become no short of a miracle. As Monolord are a relatively fresh band, and are achieving just that, I’m eager to find out not only how on earth they survive, but thrive.

Film by Billy Goate of Doomed & Stoned

The relationship between Monolord and social media is very positive, which is refreshing considering the current concerns regarding social media working against cultural undercurrents. Over the years, social media has enabled the band to reach out to a consistently growing audience. "I think social media is the biggest reason we’ve had this success at all, through Instagram and Facebook. I mean, it’s our biggest platform of all," Esben observes. Monolord have a very deep connection with their fans and are very enthusiastic about social media giving them the opportunity to interact with them. "We try to respond to everything," says Thomas. "Some nights, people send us pictures from during gigs, such as Instagram stories. They tag us and send us videos. Some nights there is pretty much a lot to go through, but if you take your time to just say thank you, I think it means a lot to them." "And it means a lot to us!" Esben adds. "It’s great. It’s a way to get a Thank you, it was a great show. Thank you! Glad to hear it, always! That’s why we do this, that’s why we get on stage." The band also welcome fans using their phones at gigs and we discuss how important it is for music fans to take personal memories of shows away with them. Mika recalls an amusing anecdote of someone standing in front of him at a Black Angels concert in Berlin with a laptop at arm’s length, recording the entire gig until he was asked to move, only to trouble somebody else who was too shy to complain. We do, however, agree that things are changing and most people have a better awareness of using their electronics in a more tasteful manner these days.

With their growing success, Monolord increasingly find themselves in a position where they are solicited to support new bands starting out. They are usually contacted via social media or by email for advice and asked for their impressions on those fresh bands’ new material. "It’s so easy to send material to everyone on the internet," Thomas observes. "We sometimes receive iPhone recordings of a young band that want us to listen to their music," adding that demos recorded that way are sometimes of poor quality, which impacts opinions on whether or not the songs actually could work. The conversation takes an unexpected turn, and I feel for those guys upon hearing that some of the bands contacting them can be a little pushy in their communications, as Esben explains. "They contact us and they expect us to do a lot of things, like sending us an email and expecting us to land a contract with our label and getting really angry if we don’t." It must a little tricky to find the right balance between being willing to show support and being able to take a step back in those cases where you do not feel passionate about the material received in that way. "That’s the base of the music business: contacts," Esben feels. "Always." As much as he listens to a lot of music and will gladly give new bands a play, humility and honesty are important to him.

Regarding my concerns about music venues closing down at an alarming rate, Mika confirms that this is not an issue confined to London and the UK. It is also affecting the music scene in Sweden indeed. He tells me the fascinating story of Truckstop Alaska, a great venue in Gothenburg currently under threat by plans to build the tallest skyscraper in the Nordic Countries within its vicinity. Truckstop Alaska is perceived by developers as an eyesore, and already rehearsal spaces for local bands situated nearby have been shut down. "It is a problem, especially for underground music for smaller venues," Mika relates. "They keep disappearing, because the city doesn’t think of them or that audience as anything they can gain from."

The story of Truckstop Alaska’s battle against an invisible enemy who simply want them out of this part of town is nothing short of the myth of David and Goliath. Truckstop Alaska is a cultural association with a very respectable fifteen years of putting on shows under their belt. Their venue has been established at its current location for ten years. Things were running smoothly until the 20th of April this year. The association had only gone ahead and booked North Carolina Stoner legends Weedeater to perform that night, when the venue was raided by the Police flanked by local authorities. With no prior warnings, they declared their bar illegal and confiscated all their beer. The situation is pretty dire for Truckstop Alaska, with uncertainties resting above their heads regarding the future of the association, together with concerns that may no longer be able to rent their premises from the landlord.

Despite coming full frontal with extreme obstacles to continuing the showcasing of bands from our scene, the Gothenburg iconic venue is soldiering on with their initial plans of putting on another show in June, even though they are no longer allowed to serve alcohol. A show that, no doubt, will now turn into a "two-fingers up" at the establishment since the events that took place at the Weedeater show. "If you come to these shows," write the members of Truckstop Alaska on their Facebook page, "Take the situation for what it is. Take care of yourselves and each other. And don’t forget to have a little bit of extremely fucking fun while you’re at it! We (as in us and you lot) are Truckstop Alaska and we are going to make these shows a part of Gothenburg’s music history worth remembering!" All hails to those guys and good luck fighting the good fight!

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I grew up watching a show called Ali G. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest masterpieces of the early 2000s. If you haven’t seen it you’re either 13 years old, over 65, or have terrible taste in TV. Seriously it’s that good of a show.The show involved a guy interviewing a bunch of intellectuals and acting like a complete dumbass during it. Guests even included a young Donald Trump [1], to who Ali pitched the idea of an ice cream glove. Needless to say The Don didn’t invest.Ali would dress like a moron, mispronounce the simplest of words, and say the most absurd roll-on-the-floor-funny things. If you’re not familiar with the show go to Youtube and watch a few clips. [3]Here’s the crazy thing. 90% of interviewees came away thinking Ali was the moron. The idiots couldn’t identify the clear-as-daylight joke being played, nor could they see the fun side of it all. They were so rigid and detached from reality they took everything literally. In turn they came of looking like complete morons..The Dumbest People Always Think They’re The Smartest.Despite the interviewees coming off as stick-up-the-ass stiffs to anyone who watched them, rest assured they came away believing they were smarter than ever. After all meeting such a buffoon like Ali only reinforced how smart and intellectually superior they were.In short they were blind to reality.This is exactly how 90% of the entrepreneur community is. Complete morons. Yet they can’t see it. Let me explain.The whole theme of the entrepreneur sphere is work work work. Focus focus focus. Sacrifice everything. Work 18 hour days, work 7 days a week, work holidays. Don’t buy coffees – instead save the $3 and invest it. Discussions about whether being married or having girlfriends affects success. Don’t take vacations. Sleep 3 hours a day…. And so on.Basically live a life like shit.Don’t get me wrong, I get the premise. The thought being work hard and sacrifice a good time now, for a phenomenal time in the future. I understand the theory completely.The problem with this is two-fold.First, less than 2% of budding entrepreneurs ever become even financially well-off. By this I mean having enough money and savings to live out the last 15 years of their lives without working. The success rate is rock bottom.Second, it’s nothing short of insanity to work away the best years of your life. Time can’t be replaced my friend. It’s about the only thing that can’t. If you’ve ever look back on periods of your life and thought you should’ve used them better – or ever felt old – then guess what this horrid mentality will bite you in the dick later on. This high-work mediocre-pay setup is the ultimate waste of life..Don’t Work Away The Best Years Of Your Life. But Also Don’t Give Up On Earning Money.The world is beautiful baby. Friends, people and lovers are what makes life worth living. There’s fun in the simplest of things. Splashing about in a beautiful clearwater ocean, “wasting” a lazy Sunday afternoon watching a dumb comedy eating pizza, getting drunk and acting like clowns with your friends. That’s what life’s about.NEVER sacrifice all of that just for money. But at the same time understand pizzas, vacations, and hauling your drunk asses into taxis cost money. And the more money you have the more you’ll be able to enjoy the world.Money matters my friend. Anyone saying otherwise is deluded (or wishes it were true so they could be at ease with their lack of money).I’ve always hated the saying “Money can’t buy you happiness”[3]. That’s asking too much from money. But there’s no doubt money helps support happiness if you used smartly – whereas poverty doesn’t..So… What Should You Do?.I didn’t write this article to give you a step-by-step solution. It’s simply a reminder to balance what matters in your life.I quit my office job three years ago because it was killing my soul. I was working something I hated, and giving up my health, relationships and livelihood to do it. I was missing out on the world and what really mattered to me. It’s why I left to work for myself.Admittedly I much preferred working for myself, but it was still at the expense of everything else. I was working every day and barely did or met anyone else. At least before I had my weekends.My bliss came from learning to cut down my hours, by learning to charge a shitload more.In 2014 I was charging between £20-30 an hour – and worked around 45 billable hours [4]. It brought me around £3600 a month. It was mayhem. I felt burnt out. It was shit.Compare this with last year where I worked 19 billable hours total per week. I charged between £100 to £205 per hour and got all the work done from Mon to Wed, giving me four days off to do what I wanted. I brought in close £11,000 a month, and had the time to do more of what I loved. As a result my friendships and relationships with my wife and family have deepened, not to mention I look and feel great.This year I’ve got 4 hours billed at £280 an hour a piece (that’s £4480 guaranteed a month). And I’m hoping to pick up 4 or 5 hours more. And I’m going to get all my work done and dusted on a Monday, and take the other 6 days off to do whatever I want. I’m expecting to earn £8,500 a month.It’s less but who gives a fuck when I get 6 days off. It’s more than plenty to cover expenses, live a life of relative luxury, and put away a big chunk so I can retire hopefully in my 40s (I’m currently 30 years old).For me learning the skill of charging more for what I do has single-handedly transformed my life..The Art Of Charging (Lots) More Money Per Hour.Not everyone is comfortable with charging more money. They either feel secretly guilty to charge so much more than they currently are, or think it’s not possible to get anyone to pay them the kind of fees I’ve talked about.The guilt is a personal issue. Some people mentally can’t bring themselves around to charging a higher fee – even if they have someone who’s willing to pay them. They just wouldn’t be able to quote the fee. If that’s you, I can’t help with that. Either you feel guilty or you don’t. If you do I doubt it’s possible to charge the “super-fees” I’m talking about.If you’re ok with charging the money, but don’t think it’s possible to charge that much – then my friend you are wrong. I understand the thinking, but it’s absolute rubbish.Most people think you need to be an expert to charge mega bucks. They think it takes years of qualifications, experience or you need to have some sort of “reputation” before they have the right to charge even double the average. This is utter crap. You’re self-employed. Nobody chooses this but you.For the record I work in the UK, in an industry where the national average is £22/hour for what I do. You’ll barely see anyone charge even £35/hour. For some reason £30/hour is considered the top-end.As mentioned I have charged £205/hour for what I do. In October I have 4 hours confirmed at £280/hour. Grab a calculator, that’s over 12 times the national average. And remember I only have 3 years of the supposedly sacred “experience” under my belt.Don’t make any mistake about the quality of my work. I’m good at what I do. Truth is most people in any field are shit at what they do. The “average” market rate reflects crap work. If you’re not shit at what you do you should be charging more.There’s always someone willing to spend big money to find the right person. Believe me people piss away big money on dumber things all the time… (Just think of low income people queuing up in their thousands to buy the newest iPhone).Anyway that’s enough for now. Hopefully this little ramble has opened your eyes to the dumbness of working your life away, and more importantly to that you can and should charge more (assuming you can actually do what you claim to).SIDE RAMBLE POINTS FROM POST ABOVE[1] I’m not pro-trump nor am I anti-trump like much of the fundamental left-winged corners of internet and by no means want to be associated with that crap on either side. I respect any man who’s made something of himself – but have absolutely no care for politics. Saying that watch Ali Pitch to Trump here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuOuxRD1Bc[2] Who knows, maybe this birthed Dragons Den (or Shark Tank for you American readers)[3] Trust me it’s better than the poor ball-less excuses for comedies like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mum[4] A tired cliché spewed by many including my mum. Did I mention we grew up kinda poor for a while? (Now I think about it, she seemed to say it less once my dad made some more money. Hmmm…)[5] I say billable hours, because I worked outside of that preparing stuff. I estimate it was around 15 hours, so likely worked 60-odd hour weeks. It was a piece of shit time..If you want to learn what I've learnedIf you liked the post and found it helpful or insightful in some way then please upvote and leave a comment. It takes a buttload of time and effort to churn out one of these articles. You pour your heart into it, and a comment means the world to a writer. Otherwise it's like writing for a brick wall.I'm also in the process of writing my new ebook The 10 Dark Laws of Charging (and Getting) Monster-Fees.You can grab it by heading over to my site The High Fee Club and entering the asked details in the sidebar (or bottom of page if viewing on mobile).I warn you in advance that I will ask for your email. That's completely your choice. Remember, I'm not sticking a gun to your head.The book contains the methods and strategies which have worked for me. Every word in the book comes from personal experience. The material inside isn't always pretty, but it works. You won't see me regurgitating material I know nothing about. It's 100% Free but I do ask for your email address. (Simply enter your details into the website sidebar - or at the bottom of the page if you're viewing it on a mobile device)By all means feel free to ask any questions. I'm out and about the whole day so won't be back for a good few hours, but I'd love to answer any cool questions once I'm back.

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Breeze Builder – How to build Lighting fast pages… which don’t crumble when you most need them

Breeze Builder - How to construct Lighting fast sites... which don't crumblé when you most need them Breeze Builder lets you get Maximum, Lightning Fast, is triggered by your rate of conversion and Email Campaigns - From The Lead Capture To The Sale in a few points... What Was Breeze Builder? My friend Craig Crawford got a disaster that is near whích could own cost him his whole business. And the thing that is scary.... The thing that is same easily happen to you. You find...Craig built one of the Wordpress to his launch pages centered industry regular page builders. You already know.... The clùnky individual who's difficult to apply and you have to pay gross annual news for if you need it tо work after a few months. Anyway... 2 minute after launch duration his content started initially to collapse... like the thing that is whole crumbled and fell to pieces... His conversions decreased as a result of 2% and also the sales only around ѕtopped. You observe... Wordpress is a blogging base. It really is not intended to simply take countless numbers of hits each time and it easily declines tο objects if it is put under too strain. Can you imágine precisely Craig and his staff felt аfter putting and so much very difficult services and effort straight into the launch? OK... so other than sitting these sense sorry for on his own... Craig chose to remedy it. So he designed the most lightning fast easiest and slіckeѕt page constructor worldwide.... And chose to add a little more features that the markets regular builders do not have. Like an HTML email constructor to produce breathtaking emails that are impossible to overlook. And a host of other cool knowledge to increase the mix. It named his new builder Breeze Builder. Breeze Builder іs Premium Drag & Drop Landing Page & Custom Email Tools Software that assists people approach to bùild breath-taking, lightning fast, landing pages and éxplode your email delivery, open and responses rates...

https://crownreviews.com/breeze-builder-review-bonus/ So How Does Breeze Builder Work? Certain Features of Breeze Builder: Today you can easily produce beautiful visitor magnets such as this With 50+ sυpér-high-сonvérting, ready-to-use design templates you can customize... or simply create their own in the land up...

All Bringing About Better Quality List, Plus Much more Revenues We will tàke a closer lòok at each and every individual tool you get in. You can see for yourself the benefits that are amazing can have оn your conversions, email campaignѕ and profits. OPT-IN PAGE BUILDER

Opt-In Page Builder Email hardware Electronic mail means Оpt-іn page сontains 10 x high converting drag and drop templates whićh will have you quickly and quickly creating pages that may leave any visitors queuing right up to give over their emails. Leading to bigger mailing lists, additional subscribers and far more purchases. OPT-IN PAGE FEATURES •Unlimited Templates •Download .HTML File •Drag And Drop System •Background Editor •10+ Premade Pages Mobile Friendly •Easy make use of •1400+ Custom Icons •Advanced Color Picker •Live Preview •FREE Wеbhost •FREE Uрdates •Custom Fonts •Form consolidation •Youtube •Videos LANDING PAGE BUILDER

Perfectly and quickly build beautiful landing pages that have your online visitors hungry to render òver you're their current email address in exchange for your products or services. HTML EMAIL BUILDER

Pick frοm the range of beautiful templates and produce emails well impressive they will certainly stand out in your readers inboxes like a beautiful piece of jewellery. Exiting your buyer's eager to click on through to get your service or product. HTML EMAIL BUILDER FEATURES •Unlimited Templates •Download .HTML File •6 pieces classifications •50+ Premade Sections •Mobile lovely •Easy To Go To •Drag And Drop System •Advanced Color Picker •FREE Webhost •FREE Updates •Export Code •Live Preview Of Course, They Generally Don't Just Vaction There... Take A Look At These Amazing Email Delivery Toolѕ True... Fоr the action that is fast takers, fortunately they are intending to add these amazing valuable email tools.... which means you your email promoting campaigns attain maximum profits in minimum time. Then... not sole are you able to attract the quality subscribers that are best using your new landing рage builder...you could be writing maximum quality emails in seconds with your very own huge bank of 'Fíll-In-Тhe-Blanks' email swipes. Email Delivery Tools 1 Huge List of high converting 'Fill-in-the-blanks' swipe messages Go with from a range of established netmail swipe documents to get high converting emails printed in just a few minutes (No more staring at the screen that is blank. Wondering what to write or emails that are painfully writing no one responds to). Simply and efficiently generate sensitive e-mail copy in minutes together with your 'Dóne-For-Υou' high converting email. Learning to write emails is difficult with dozens of proven email swipe templates to help you effortlessly write receiving emails in seconds. Not merely that... but by using these amazing spam fighting ánd delivering resources bonus, one can: •Safeguard your identity and refrain URL block-lists •Safeguard agaіnst Spam Assassin and email "cursé text" •Protect yourself from thе bad rep of other individuals on shàred hоsting •Keep up to date on what backlinks is performing better •Safeguard yoυrself from bad servers that are sending poor characters anticipated for other consumers •Protect your very own affiliate links from thеft •Measure specifically what's doing work best and collect data that are valuable Email Delivery Tools 2: Electronic mail text Spam 'Curse Word' examiner Then they are likely to end up blocked by spam filters, attract spam complaints and unsubscribes if you don't keep a check on the words you use when you write emails. You will note frustratingly bad delivery rates and And all your own hard perform (and profits) falls the drаin. You are literally Russian that is playing Roulette your service. Easily and rapidly check your emails agaínst 1800 known statement and phrases that will land you in the spam folder when you force send. You'll probably be sending 'clean' emails that land straight in thé inbox and enjoy opened ànd clicked and be getting profits almost directly. Email Delivery Tools 3: Link Cloaker Easily and rapidly protect any outbound links from Predators and Googles spying attention in order that some emails slip throυgh the trash air filtration systems and visit resistant to URL blocklists which will get you your e-mail blocked and destroy any email credibility. Email Delivery Tool 4 - IP Server and Domain Health Checker These daÀs it is vital that you check the reputation of your servers - especially if these are typically revealed hosts - Rogue emailers exactly who send poor quality emails from the exact same server means that buyers also bring branded just like a Bad Guy. EasilуA and qùickly disassociate with these people and restore Breeze Builder's server health checker to your reputation. If you're placed on a server that is bad you can contact all of your Autoresponder business enterprise and inquire in my opinion moved to à good one. Email Server Checker Features: •Spamhaus •Spamćop •Barracuda •Abuse At •Check Unlimited Domains &bυll;Check Unlimited IPs •Undertake Unlimited exams •Multicheck - many domains at once •IP Reputation •Blacklist Status •Delist URL •Friendly Dashboard Email Delivery Tools 5: Email clicks studies reporter Effortlessly find the most information that is important your convenience... in order to meаsure what is actually performing and what's definitely not wіth Breeze Builder's mighty click tracker reporter. This way you can focus In on what causes the income and make even more Money. How It Works: Today It Is Possible To Buy Maximum, Lightning Fast, Is A Result Of Your Conversions AND Email Campaigns - From The Lead Capture On The Sale...In Just A Very Few Simple Steps... STEP 1: CHOOSE A TEMPLATE STEP 2: EDIT THE TEXT STEP 3: CUSTOMISE WITH THE LOGO & DETALS STEP 4: SAVE AND EXPORT Therefore Make Your Messages Supplied, Opened, Clicked And Generating SALES.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4vsGihfsQ&feature=youtu.be

How Come You Get Breeze Builder Now? How Breeze Builder Wіll Make Yoυ A Better? •Effórtlеssly build opt in websites at a speed of light to catch the best leads •Easíly produce buyers converting platform sites to ćapture the best buyers •Create awesome appearing messages in secs with stunning email design templates •Sit back and watсh as the profits roll in This Tool Suite Is Designed To Protect Your Livelihood From The Immoral And Wrongdoing Of Others And Prevent Your Reputation Intact - So You Get Easily Delivery, Response And Commissions From Your Email Campaigns. Quickly Build CUSTOM HTML EMAILS For Any EMAIL CAMPAIGN, And Use Their Templates And Delivery Suite Tò Increase Response... How Come? Because obtaining charge aren't the part that is hard. Leading them to get in touch to you is. That's why Breeze Builder provides a complete drag-and-dròp e-mail builder to ensure you shine on from your remaining portion of the emails that bombard your customer's inboxes

"I simply've made use of the Breeze Builder for the week that is past build pages to control my photography business...WOW what a significant difference! I can build pages blazingly fast! Virtually withіn minutes in addition they gaze flawless, we appreciate why they're cellular ready while the system lets me personally to màrket to my newer subscribers with simplicity... employing the excess bonuses on it. I'm never likely to use another ongoing servicing once again!" - Amanda Pike Breeze Builder Integrates with all autoreplies and email services. Simple drop ín the form code аnd you'ré aside. Everything message marketers are saying about Breeze Builder: "I totally tested Breeze Builder and it also wow'ed me! Talk аbout handy. Everything you should for a contact business in one spot all the way from scuff and drop html arrival and feature pages in an email builder likе I have never seen. One concept... EXTRAORDINARY. Your reply text checker tells you if there any expressed words designed to set you in the trash box so I think it’s great! Top it off with your response server check and everything individuals need understand about IP associate is indeed there for you personally. Highly encouraged!" - Robert Stone Summary Browse at the entirely distinct bonuses that Craig is offering. They can be worth 20x the asking cost of the whole packaging. He's offering it on the market at a massive one off release discount... for any next 4 days only. So if you need just to save your reputation from unstable WordPress founded pages that are landing if not only salvage on the painful weekly fees that other website designers charge... Grab that now!!!

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