#Template: List with Sidebar

[nanalite]

𓈒༷♪˚.✧ How to make a mockup like this for smaus, ocs, etc. (step-by-step tutorial ☆ no Photoshop, easy, free) (requested by @lovebittenbyevans) ✿

guys this took me two hours to make and you could probably get this done in like, 30 minutes :) I hope this is coherent <3 Please look back this image for comparisons, if my explanation is not well explained, etc.

first of all, if you dont already have one, make a free canva acount. once you're signed in, hit the purple "create design" button on the sidebar. A pop-up will appear with different design template options. For this design, we want the dimentions to be 1080 x 1080, so you can either make a custom size or choose the instagram post (square) template by either searching or scrolling through the list.

2. Now you have a blank page. Zoom in with the slider at the bottom of the page if you need to (Mine is currently zoomed in 41%). Click on the page and change the color to an off black (hex code #111111).

3. Now that the color is changed, click the "elements" tab and search "line". Click the shape and it will add it to the page automatically. These line are particularly hard to navigate and hard to get it at the right angle and length so this part might take a little longer than the rest.

4. stretch it from top to button and turn in a 90 angle so its straight on the left side of the page. Change the color of this as well to a grey tone (hex code #2F2F2F).

5. Now we'll add the Instagram logo. Click the "text" tab then click the purple "add text box" button. Write "Instagram" in the box and change the font to "apricots". This is the closest font I could find that resembled the logo font but if you find a better one, feel free to use that instead. Make the font size 19.3 (you can do this manually or do it in the text options). Change the color to grey color (hex code #707070). Add it to the upper left corner of the page like this:

6. now we're adding icons and a menu inside the border we just made. Click the "elements" tab again and search for "instagram home icon" and add the element by sketchify to the page. Click the home icon, an options icon with pop-up above the page. Look for the "Position" button and click it. Scroll to find the advanced options and you can manually type in the width and height at 26.6 and 28.7.

Move it inside the border, under the logo (photo below). Change the color again (the hex code is #707070).

7. Open the text tab and add a text box. Change the font to Canva Sans and write "Home" in the box. Change the font size to 18.1 and align with with the house icon. It will look something like this,

8. Go into the elements tab again and search "instagram search icon". Scroll until you find the one by sketchify and add it to the page.

9. Shrink it so the W and H is at 36.6 and 31.3. Move it below the home icon until a purple "67" pop ups and aligns under it. Change it to the same color as the Home text and icon (#707070). Go ahead and Duplicate the the "Home" text box and clicking it and a pop-up will show up then edit the text so it says "Search" and align with the searcch icon we just added.

10. You know the drill. We are continuing to search up more icons in the "elements" tab. Search "instagram compass icon" and choose the one by sketchify (are u seeing the pattern?). Add it to the page and change the width and heigth to 33.1. align it under the search icon just like how we did before and change it to the say colors as the other icons.

11. Do the same as before and write "Explore" in a text box and align it with the icon. We're doing the same thing for all of these.

We'll be using the same search prompt for all of these icons so just change the type of icon you're looking for like we've done before hand. Next look for the Instagram reel icon and add the outlined one by sketchify and change the W and H to 31.2 x 30.9. Change the color to the ones we've used before, align it underneath the icons above and add your text ("Reels").

12. The next icon is an outlined, "sent" one. W and H is 31.1 x 27. The text will say "Send". Then an heart outline by sketchify; W and H is 34.2 x 29.1 and the text is "Likes". Next is the "create" outline icon by sketchify, W and H is 36.8.

(p.s if you are struggling to align the icons and text correctly, shoot me a message and I'll send you the X and Y positions ;D)

If you followed it through, it should look like this,

13. Now onto step 13, we'll be adding the Threads logo. You don't have to add this but to make it look more like the actual website, I will be adding it. Open the "text" tab and add a text box. Write an "@" symbol in the box and change the font to Nanum Sqaure and the size to 24.9. Add in the bottom corner below all the icons we just added to our page. We need another text box now (Color is still #707070), write "Threads" and align it to the "@" symbol.

14. We're adding another icon now. Search "Instagram menu icon" and find a wireframe menu icon by sketchify. the W and H are 42.5 x 24.6. Add a text box that says "More". It will look like this:

We are a quarter way done now :D

15. Search in the elements tab "circle frame" and look for the one with a little border around it.

At first, the circle will be green and inside the circle will be white. Change the white to color of the background of the page (hex code #111111) then change the green to a grey color (#8D8986).

16. Add a new text box, change the font to Canva Sans and the size to 22.8 and the color is white. I just wrote "user.name" in the box. the W and H will be 153.3 x 35.7.

Enter the "elements" tab and search for a blue checkmark and find the icon by Victor Aguiar. The W and H is 28.1 by 28.

17. Search in the search box for a rectangular shape and add it to the page. Place it next to your username and checkmark icon and make the W and H to 149.6 x 38. Add another and place it next to the other rectangle shape. the W x H is 111.4 x 36.7.

Change the color of both boxes to #2F2F2F. Add a text box and write "following" then change the W and H to 82.6 x 21.8 and fit it inside the first box. Add a second text box and write "message" in it then change the W and H to 77.8 x 21.8. Change both text colors to #7A7A7A

18. Add another text box. Write "<" and turn it upside down and place it beside the "following" text inside the rectangle. Adjust the size as you need to. I also like the round the corners to around 8 so its not so pointy and square.

19. Add 3 new text boxes. Write the amount of posts, the amount of accounts you're following and the amount of followers your have. Write "20 posts", "30 following" "40 followers". Bold the numbers and change the text W and H to 116.4 x 32.7. These are just place holders that I use.

20. Open the "elements" tab again and search "frame". Choose the first one.

We want the height and width to be 268 x 252.4. Place it at the bottom of the page but we want some space between the frame and the page.

Now we'll duplicate the frame we just placed (the icon between the comment and trash can on the pop up above the frame). Place it next to the previous frame but we want to leave a bit of space between them like this:

If its a little wonky, don't worry. You can always adjust it so it looks right.

Duplicate the frame again and place it next the second frame you just placed, same distance between. Make sure they're even. Now we have a row.

Select all three frames and duplicate them. Move them above our original frames but leave a little space between them.

Again, if they're uneven, adjust them as you need to.

21. Select the line again from the elements tab. Stretch starting from the top frame to the last frame and make the color grey (#2F2F2F).

Because the line is stupid hard to navigate, use something like a text box to mark where you want it to end like this:

Delete the text box and the line with be where we want it.

22. On to the highlight reels. Seach for "add button" and find the one by Barudak Lier.

Change the heigh and width to 81.1 and move it above the border.

Search for circle frames now and add this one to the page (The same one we used for the pfp), change the width and height to 85.4 and move it next to the add button. Since this is a generic, blank template, I add about 4 of these highlight frames but you can do however many you want. You can change the border color to a gradient or leave it grey.

Add a text box now. The font will be Canva Sans, the size will be 18.1 and the color will be white. Change the text to "Add" and place it under our add button. Make more of these text boxes to place under the circle frames. Depending on which frame its under, write "Highlight 1", "Highlight 2", etc. etc. or you can give them different names and such.

23. Add another text box, write "name" and bold it, change the size to 19.1 and the W and H to 69.2 x 28.8. The font will be Canva Sans and the color will be white. It will go under the amount of posts, followings and followers.

Add another box. The font is Canva Sans, font size to 20.1, the W and H is 40.8 x 31.3 and the color is white as well. This is our "bio". Place it under "name".

Yay!🎉🎉🎉 You're halfway done!

24. Search for a shape in the elements. Look for the rectangle again and add it. Change the width and height to 460 x 760.4 and the color to an off black/grey color (#191919), placing it like this:

Get the same kind of square frame we used before to make the profile grid and make it the same size as the rectangle we just added. Place right up against the rectangle like it's its other half. Add another line like before and span across the upper half of the black rectangle as a border then add a circle frame inside the border.

Add a text box, "user.name" and align it with the frame. The text is white and the W and H is 111.5 x 25.9

25. Add more circle frame along the inside of the rectangle to resemble the comment section. Make sure the W and H of the frames are 46.1.

Add more text boxes that align with the frames you just made and write "username" again and bold them. Add even more text boxes that align with the usernames and write "comment". These are place holders for when you decide to use this template.

Add another rectangle on the lower part of the rectangle and make the color black. and search for "instagram heart icon", "instagram comment icon" and "instagram send icon". Make sure the lines are thick. Find the heart icon by sketchify, and the the comment and send icon are by Mirazz Creations. Make the lines white and make sure the W and H are the following:

Heart icon: 38.7 x 32.9

Comment icon: 35.2 x 35. 8

Send icon: 35 x 32

Next, look for "instagram bookmark icon" and find the one by Adricreative. Change the color to white and the W and H to 29.7 x 40.2. Move it to the other end of the rectangle.

26. Now add three circles frames and change the W and H to 37.2. Move them below the heart icon and have them overlap each other some. Then, add a text box and write "liked by username and 1000 others". Change the font size to 13.6 and change the font to Canva sans. the color will be white. Align this with the three overlapped frames.

27. Look in the elements tab for an emoji icon and choose the one by Soni Soukell from Noun Project. The W and H will be 32.8 and the color is white.

Now add a another text box and write "Write a comment". The color will be white, the font size will be 14.2 and align with the emoji icon you just placed.

Search for "next arrow button" by Pixeden and make the W and H 42.8 then add it to both sides of the post.

And you're all done with your template! All that is left to do is fill it but before doing that, duplicate the page so you always have an extra blank mockup if you want to use it again.

To fill the frames, upload an image (or use a Canva stock photo), drag and hover it over the frame and it will fill the frame.

Hope this was helpful and you you successfully made one :D <3

[honeytonedhottie]

IN DEPTH TUTORIAL FOR MY SCHOOL NOTION⋆.ೃ࿔*:･📄

i dont know how to make templates, so instead im going to make an in depth tutorial for how i made my school notion bcuz i didn't use a template.

STEP ONE ; go to ur sidebar and where it says "private" click on the + button (it should say add a page)

STEP TWO ; click the three dots on the upper right hand corner and set the text to serif and make the page full width. title it however u want, add an icon and a cute banner. i found mine off of pinterest.

STEP THREE ; press enter as though you were about to fill the page and click on the tiny six dots. go to turn into and make it to two columns

STEP FOUR ; decorate it however u want with cute photos from pinterest. i made 3 different toggle lists labeled "resources, knowledge outside of school, and digital notes"

TO CREATE A TASK BOARD ; click the + button and scroll down to where it says "board view" and go to "table" add a calendar and label it "school calendar" and thats all ✨ have fun with ur school notion. some things u can add into it to personalize it are ;

studying playlists

studying methods

links to important school resources

SOME PHOTOS THAT I USED ; all these photos can be found on pinterest + none of these are mine 💗

here's where i posted my current school notion for some inspo.

[copperbadge]

Hello, hello, could you please say more about how you use Microsoft OneNote in your professional life? I need all the help I can get to stay organized & on top of things, so I would love to know.

Sure! I use it less than previous because there's less randomized stuff I need to do now, so I don't need such robust management, but I can talk about how my use began/evolved. I started using OneNote because it was less finicky than Word but still had an autosave function and basic formatting, so it was useful for initial drafts of documents, taking notes on meetings, and keeping track of information I needed at my fingertips frequently.

OneNote's largest "unit" is the Notebook. You can have multiple Notebooks but I've never bothered; still I can see how if your screen was public a lot, you'd want to put some things in a separate Notebook. The Notebook then breaks down into Sections which look like tabs, which I would assign to broad things like "Meeting Notes", "Assignments", "Templates", "Personal" and "Excel Hacks". Sections break down further into "Pages"; each page is a document stuck into place, which you can title so that you can have a list of "pages" on the sidebar and find the one you want easily. Text in Pages can be formatted to some degree, and if you copypaste from websites, it'll tag on the URL of the site you pasted from, although you can also turn that off if you want. You can drag and drop Pages from one Section to another pretty easily.

So, for example, I'd have a "Meeting Notes" Section, and when I clicked the tab for that section I'd have a list of Pages, each of which was notes from a meeting I'd attended. Every time I went into a meeting I just made a new page, gave it a meeting title and date, and took notes on the meeting into the page window. The "Meeting Notes" Section thus became a fully searchable record of meetings I'd attended and what was said. When meeting notes were no longer relevant I'd drag them to an archival Section to retire in peace.

Here's an example of my Excel section:

You can see "My Notebook" up in the left top corner, my current Sections as tabs at the top, and the pages list on the left (I think more modern OneNote skins put the pages on the right, I moved mine back). Each line on the left is a separate "page" that tells me how to do something in Excel, something I need to do a lot but can't commit to memory (or couldn't but now have, it's a trifle out of date). So we're in My Notebook, section Excel, page Formatting Stripes, and on the right you can see how to format an Excel sheet so that it has alternating colored rows (there are other ways to do this but this way the stripes always stay alternating no matter what moves where). In theory I could dump all this stuff into one Page and call it "Excel" and put it somewhere else, but I liked having an easily-visible list so I don't have to scroll a single document to find what I want.

There aren't nearly as many tab/sections as there used to be; "Assignments" covers "all work that is not excel formulas" and includes stuff like instructions for how to pull a query in our database, a list of what everyone does at our company, a yearly guide to our events program, a few other things. I don't have a "Personal" section any more but I do have 2-3 pages in the Assignments section that are personal notes.

There's no inbuilt tagging function but because the entire notebook is searchable, if you're really into tagging you can simply add keywords to the top or bottom of a page.

I have OneNote pinned to my taskbar in Windows, and it's basically always open but it autosaves, so adding stuff is super simple; if I find a bug in our database or a quirk I want to remember I just click over to OneNote and add it to the database file, or similar.

I don't use it on my phone or tablet, because if I'm at work I have access to my laptop generally, but OneNote does sync across devices as long as you're logged in, so if you have OneNote and a Microsoft login you should be able to access it in multiple places.

[autumnslance]

Hi! I’ve been trying to make an introductory post for my WoL, but when I tried doing so freeform it ended up overly long and full of rambling. I’ve searched for templates all over the internet, but the only ones I can find are in the general style of D&D character sheets that include irrelevant information about stats while not properly dedicating space to the actual character traits. I saw the format you used for your OCs, and it seems to be about what I’m looking for. Is there any chance you could provide a blank template along those lines for me and others who might have the same problem?

Funnily, while I keep them all similar, I didn't have a template before now. Also reminds me I need to do some updating and revision on my own OCs, it's been awhile and they can use a refresh for character and plot updates.

I recommend making static pages over posts; easier to track and edit. I am a stickler for organization, so keep my pinned post to the bare basics with links to the profiles and other pages, to keep from stretching the post to a mile long, in part, and to keep the info where it's easily read and relevant. Also because mobile app view won't show one's theme and links, and the pinned post is more likely to be seen and accessible than a sidebar or menu.

I have tutorials on how to set a custom theme (and access full blog features) as well as how to create those static blog pages. Tumblr may have made some updates since, but the gist is the same, and the Help pages have newer details if necessary.

I do urge keeping colors and format simple, accessible, and reader friendly, including screen reader friendly. A row of asterisks or tildes as a separator line are usually individually read out by screen readers, as is the code used to make those fancy hard-to-read gothic letters folks use for "aesthetics." In a lot of my profiles, I split sections with images of the character (which should also use alt text if we're trying to be kind and inclusive, and it's to the point of a profile page anyway).

I think I will put the intro and template here in the post under a cut, and then in a Reply Comment add a link to the Google Doc version, cuz of how Tumblr is about external links. An actual blank copy-pasta is on the GDoc, what's below has some thought processes for each section for guidance.

This a pretty modular template, that can be added to or subtracted from as needed. Move descriptive blocks around as they seem more or less relevant for your OC, substitute things that make sense over things that don’t; this is just a starting point!

I see these as broad strokes; a quick introduction and general overview of your character, meant to give an at-a-glance idea of who they are. It’s handy for other writers and artists, and even oneself for keeping track of some details. I recommend practicing succinct writing here; these blocks should each stay between 100-300 words or thereabouts. Use links to other pages and tags to point toward longer details and stories (and keep them handy for yourself!). It also makes it much easier when you want to revise things when characterization marches forward, or if you want to retcon something entirely.

But these are all just my opinions and ideas on how I approach OC profiles after making them in some form or another for about a quarter century. Make it as long or short as it needs to be, change it up, go nuts, I ain’t your mom, and so on 😉

-

Statistics: The basics; barebones, at-a-glance stat blocks, handy for quick reference. Can be added to or shortened as needed. If a stat starts to word wrap on a standard screen, trim it and move that extra detail to the “Description” paragraph below the list.

Race: (for FF14 fantasy possibilities) Nationality: (or Ethnicity, whatever works. Where are they from, as that helps shape them?) Height: (both feet/inches and centimeters are handy here) Eyes: Build: (I prefer this to weight, as that’s ridiculously variable depending on one’s build, which is more important visually anyway; are they broad, stocky, skinny, muscular, stringy, etc) Hair: (color, type, texture, preferred lengths and styling) Skin: (sometimes I fold scars into here, if there’s nothing too outstanding) Scars: Voice: (how do they sound?) Nameday: Age: (depends on your personal timeline for your OCs, but I recommend an age range over specifics; mid-20s, 25-35, late teens, a little over a century, etc. Less updating and fits with the handwaved time bubble anyway) Disciplines: (what are their main job[s]? The adventuring or professional skills they’ve learned?) Hobbies: Birthplace: Current Home: Occupation: (Their actual day job, different from or part of their disciplines?) Signature Items: (A particular weapon? A piece of jewelry? Always wear a specific coat?)

Description: A very short "immediate impressions" type description; what would someone "on the street" see when meeting/looking at your character on a typical day? Taking some of the info from the stats but then how you want those barebone facts to be seen; is the OC elegant, or rough? Expensive clothes or simple attire? Any particular smells, or sounds? I recommend around 100 words.

Biography: Very brief, general overview of the backstory that led them to the point where they become a story protagonist (adventurer, the WoL, or other roleplay archetype). Don't have to go into great detail, keep it short and simple; it's a blurb that sets up how they got here in broad strokes. I think my longest bio is around 300 words, and it probably shouldn’t go over that here.

To get more details, one can always link to specific stories, or to a tag. I have multiple OCs, so I might make my tags something like "Aeryn Backstory" or "Iyna Lore" or "Punchy History" or some combo thereof (I usually try to keep them consistent though for ease).

Persona: What face do they present to the world? How are they perceived by the public, acquaintances, coworkers, family, actual friends? Some of these answers will be the same, some may change depending on if and how they code switch in various social situations.

From there, what lies underneath the surface? What are some general internal attitudes, traits, feelings?

A hundred words for outward demeanor and another one hundred for innermost self ought to cover the general broad strokes.

Romance: If so inclined, details about the OC's relationship details; sexual and romantic orientations, relationship history, current situations, how they view and approach intimacy (or not!).

Links to relationship tags or stories or art can work well here, too.

Echo: Does the OC have an Echo at all? Is it a "typical" Echo, or do they have some special abilities, some things they're better at than others? How does it affect them, how do they feel about it?

This is another section that may be a free space section to remove or swap to something else relevant to the character.

Hobbies: The stuff outside of work and heroics. Ways they relax, special interests, side jobs, things they enjoy, and so on. This can be an expansion of the listing in the stat block, or you can cut out one or the other to avoid redundancy.

Companions: What’s their chocobo like, or do they have another favored mount? What pet(s) do they have? Are they practically a Disney Princess? Have a familiar? Do they prefer arcane entities? Technological constructs? Or do they eschew companions entirely?

How to find the OC in game: This is where I list things like realm and data center, and addresses for the FC house and personal house or apartment. Not necessary if you don't want folks to go looking.

Links: The links can be scattered through the post in relevant sections, or gathered together here. I tend to put my basic tag for the character, if I have an aesthetic tag for them, their story tags, any links to art references or other miscellaneous items I want easily found for myself and others. I often put this close to the top if a profile is longer and I want those links to be quick referenced.

OOC: Any particular notes one wants to make about the character from a meta perspective. Can also be combined with the Links.

[yukicodes]

MortuuM: a Jcink board responsive skin

MortuuM is a multi-sale skin optimised for Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

LIVE PREVIEW ✱ KO-FI LINK

Basic features: → Full responsiveness for different screen resolutions, including mobile screens; → Fully customised Jcink HTML Templates (forum rows, topic rows, post rows, main profile, members list etc.); → Sidebar containing basic navigation sections; → Light/dark mode toggle; → Font-size toggle; → CSS variables for fonts, group colours (currently up to 6), background images; → Main profile includes a premade attributes and a virtues system. It also includes FizzyElf’s automatic thread tracker; → Guidebook webpage, including text styles so you can mix and match for your own templates; → Basic templates (announcements, face claim, 3 thread templates); → Full installation guide in PDF.

Before purchasing, please review my policies. You can also contact me via Discord (deathspells) if you happen to stumble on any issues.

After purchasing, you’ll get: the full XML to be uploaded to Jcink’s Admin CP; a JSON file containing the profile fields; an installation guide (PDF); policies file (PDF); text files containing some additional coding for the skin (i.e. basic templates).

[obey-me-rewrite]

Hi! just wanted to ask on how you personally use Twine I've been a fan of OM, and wondered how u made the remake in that system lmao. I was wondering if you had any tips / tutorials u used, I've spent some time testing and have got the hang of variables and linking but i was really confused on how you designed it / removed the borders around the side bar and everything, along with how you made the intimacy system, Especially the notify / achievement bar system! No tutorials were helping me lol

Sure! I'll do my best to explain below; feel free to ask me to expand on anything if it's confusing.

Changing sidebar:

The way you do this is basically through CSS ("Story Stylesheet"). When your game is open in the browser, you can inspect elements to figure out what they're called, then change their styles. For example, I removed the border of the menu buttons by putting the following in the stylesheet:

(for the overall borders)

menu ul {

border: none;

}

(for the borders between each link)

menu li a {

border: none;

}

w3schools.com is a great website if you'd like to learn CSS - it's what will help you completely restyle your story. There are also plenty of Twine design templates for something easier to use without having to learn code.

Intimacy system:

This one is a little more complicated. I'm actually completely rehauling the intimacy system for version 1.1. Right now, it uses a lot of if statements to check the amount of intimacy the player has collected with a character - and this intimacy is in a variable initialized in the special StoryInit passage. However, that's bandaid code which is messy and easily runs into bugs, as has happened ever since release lol. To fix it, I've essentially created a proper levelling system using custom macros and JavaScript. That requires a good grasp on behind-the-scenes programming, though. If your game isn't a huge project, keeping intimacy in variables should work just fine. Just make sure to keep a spreadsheet or notes somewhere that list how much intimacy is possible to gain and in which passages. It will make your life easier in the long run.

Notifications:

This one I actually got from one of Chapel's custom macros! They're super easy to use and do a lot of cool things. I highly recommend checking these out because they can make your life easier: link

Achievements:

I'm going to assume you're talking about achievements that persist over different saves - for this, you'll need to utilize Twine's special StoryInit passage again. In case you are not sure of what that is, it's essentially all the variables that will be initialized when the game is first loaded into the browser. Your achievements and important story-spanning variables (like personality traits, intimacy counters, etc) will go here. To create an achievement, you'd put something like this in your StoryInit:

<<set $achievement1 to recall('achievement1')>>

If the player hasn't obtained the achievement, $achievement1 will automatically be set to false. To have them actually get the achievement, put

<<run memorize($achievement1, true)>>

<<set $achievement1 to true>>

in the passage where the achievement is gained. Also, be sure to have your players know that keeping saves and achievements like these relies on browser cache - if that's cleared, their progress will be lost.

Hope that helps! I wasn't sure how familiar you are with Twine beyond variables and linking as it's a pretty big engine with many things, so I just covered things without going into deeper mechanics like Twine's special passages, scripts/stylesheets, macros, etc. I'm happy to explain those too if you're having trouble. Also, everything I explained is specifically in the Sugarcube language - it won't work in Harlowe, Snowman, etc.

Helpful links:

Twine cookbook

Chapel's custom macros

Cycy's custom macros

Albie's Twine Tutorial with tons more resources

[magickalsapphic]

Evernote to Notion Tutorial!

As an avid Notion user whose first love was Evernote, I was also very upset at the sudden high charge and limit of Evernote to 50 free notes... I already had 565 notes in there, and was a fan of the simplistic yet useful mechanism for taking notes with a click, organizing them in notebooks, and being able to use tags, archived files, etc.

So I have taken it upon myself to recreate the mechanism as closely as possible.

This is my final result: easy to make into your own!

Template link, though I suggest looking over this tutorial most of all:)

I also have to say, I love how it is relatively great for the mobile option as well! Especially with my gallery views and button for new notes.

**I recommend using a computer/laptop for this!

Step 1: Importing all your notes

- Instructions directly quoted from the Notion website:

You can import all of your Evernote data into Notion in one go, and retain its organization.

From the import window, choose Evernote

Sign into your Evernote account.

Authorize Evernote to connect to Notion.

Once your Evernote account is linked, check the boxes next to the notebooks you'd like to move and click Import

Your Evernote notebooks will appear as pages in Notion's sidebar. Inside, you'll find your notes as items in a list database.

Each note can be dragged and dropped anywhere else within Notion

Step 2: Move notebooks into ONE database

Let all your notebooks load correctly -- I personally checked the amount of notes each notebook had to match the ones in Evernote. The notebooks will go into the Notion pages on the sidebar like the picture, and each page will automatically add the notes into a NEW DATABASE table, which tells the amount of notes at the bottom.

Create a new blank page: this will be your EVERNOTE HOME layout

Inside this page, create a New Database (preferably in Table form)

This will be the MAIN DATABASE

In this database, click ...

Then click + Add a new property and click Select.

I named the property "notebook". Then include in the options all the different notebooks you had in Evernote! Here is my specific example:

4. Add ALL the notes to the new database

Each "notebook" is automatically a separate database, we don't want that!

With tedious work, copy all the notes from the first notebook into the new database

Go into the first "notebook" (on the sidebar, just imported from Evernote) and press CTRL-A or Command-A to select all the notes. Then copy them with CTRL-V or Command-V.

Then go into your EVERNOTE HOME LAYOUT

Paste the notes into your MAIN DATABASE

Make sure the notes are inside the database, they will be part of the MAIN DATABASE table!

WARNING!!! BEFORE PASTING THE OTHER NOTEBOOKS' NOTES:

After pasting the First Notebook notes on the MAIN DATABASE, put the correct notebook property in each one!

I could not find a better way to do this than selecting a Single Note > Click on the "Notebook" property > Select the preferred notebook ("plot/story ideas") > click away > click back on the square until it is selected (the whole square turns blue) > then copy it (CTRL-C or Command-C) > then select the rest of the notes in that property column (like in picture 3) - and pasting the property to all of them at once.

(select property + CTRL-C or Command-C)

(select the rest of the notes - for ease, click on one, then press SHIFT and arrow down!)

(Paste the property to the rest of the notes all at once)

-- Thank you @ myself for complicating a very simple procedure --

Continuing:

5. Next - copy and paste the notes of each note book into the MAIN DATABASE, each time making sure you add the "notebook" property as said in Step 4.

For ease: I found it helpful to sort the notes (... > Sort > Updated > Descending)

When this is done, you should have all your notes into a single database (MAIN DATABASE), organized by notebooks.

Make the Evernote Home Layout - 2 options

*If you're new to Notion, you will slowly get the hang of databases, don't worry. I am making this as detailed as possible:)

Option 1: Use my free template!

Please let me know if you have any problems accessing it.

Option 2: Follow my instructions and make your layout your own

You can follow my steps as I create my preferred layout, and change things around (magic of notion) to make this into your own.

I prefer to make my page Full Width, Small text, and change the font (upper right corner: ...)

With the space bar I give some space to the whole ordeal.

Now, what exactly am I saving from a normal Evernote Home Page?

Recent notes

Scratch pad

(Would be so very easy to get a pinned note, and recently captured as well, though I don't do this in this tutorial)

Notebooks Gallery Tutorial

Press anywhere on the page > Click + > Scroll and Click on Gallery View > Click New Database

It should look like this

This here is a new database that we will call "Notebooks Database"

Each page shown there can be each notebook, and if you don't wish to show it in Gallery view, and instead have a simple list, you can!

For that Press ... > Layout > List

I will continue showing how to make the Gallery View like my own layout however:)

You can customize each page by clicking on it, changing the name (to each notebook you have), adding a cover and icon, however you wish.

Notion Tip: Instead of having to download images, you can Copy Image Link to almost any GIF of image on Google, Pinterest, etc, and then pasting the link!

Make sure you select "Page Cover" to be shown for your Notebooks Database Gallery View!

... > Layout > Gallery > Card Preview > Page Cover

My final result:

Notion Tip: To hide the name of "Notebooks Database", click the three dots ... next to it and click Hide Database Title

2. Recent Notes Gallery Tutorial:

To explain how to add the RECENT notes view I will make a video:

This is exactly what I do:

Make space after the title > Move a Block next to another Block to create 2 columns > Drag the Notebooks Database Gallery to Column 1

In column 2: Add a New Gallery View > Choose Main Database > Add whatever Properties you would like shown > Sort > By Created Time/ Updated Time (depending on preference)

For this one, make sure you put "Page Content" to be shown

... > Layout > Gallery > Card Preview > Page Content

3. New Note Shortcut Button Tutorial

To add a button so you can quickly add a new note like in Evernote, do the following (shown in the video below)

Click anywhere > + > Button > Add page > (Add page to) "MAIN DATABASE" > (Delete the name property) > + Add another step > Open Page > Select Page > New Page Added

Explore all the other features of this new button!

4. Finally, customize each Notebook Page:

Click on each Notebook page > Add a Gallery/List/Table view > Filter > Choose selected notebook tag > Sort > Updated time > Descendant

(video/gif tutorial shows how i personalized mine, I still have more stuff I want to add but those are the basics!)

BONUS: Add a Scratch Pad

Click anywhere > + > Add a Toggle List > ::: > Customize color

OR

Click anywhere > + > Add Callout > Customize color and Icon

Thank you for following this tutorial and I hope it was helpful and less daunting for new Notion users after the Evernote downfall:) Please send any questions, feel free to add your own ways to make things easier and other tips and hacks you may have!

[koncodes]

ATLAS OBSCURA (60$)

ATLAS OBSCURA is a fully flex skin optimized for Chrome but has been adjusted for compatibility across Firefox and Safari. A low contrast, dark background is recommended. A live preview can be requested at any time through my support discord. PURCHASE HERE: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/740013f3a4 WEBPAGES HERE: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/07654e42a0 TEMPLATES: https://ko-fi[DOT]com/s/020489ee5a

Includes:

light/dark toggle sidebar that auto transitions to a module for mobile custom forums, topics, memberlist, posts (optional larger post avatar with sticky) tabbed, popup application profile member group colors set up across the skin css variables set up for images, fonts, and colors for ease of editing guest to member links on login for easy navigation various indicators for messages/alerts customized tooltips tabbed header basic post template with all basic styles (bold, italics, h1 through h7, blockquote, hr, lists, etc)

Files:

full xml file html templates xml file easy to import field set json file general installation guide pdf skin specific instructions with member group prefix/suffix codes and user fields

Policies:

credit must remain intact and unchanged you may not claim my codes as your own at any point, nor may they be used as a base for other projects I offer unlimited support for bugs present at purchase

Please review the rest of my my policies prior to making any purchases: koncodes[DOT]tumblr.com/policies For questions or a live preview, you can contact me through ko-fi or my support discord: discord[DOT]gg/MXD5nDgDzq

[softfuzzyships]

zach / 27 / they/he 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ / interacts from @/rabblerauser

hi! you found my blog! this is not a fandom blog, this is a kissing fictional characters blog. you've been warned.

i'm zach, your local beast, and this is where I collect blorbos. I love men who crave vengeance and women who need vacations. my brain cell is constantly being stolen by one f/o or another.

my blorbo from real life is @suzakus-canon-wife 💖

my main f/os are:

🔥 lio fotia (promare)

👑 lelouch lamperouge (code geass)

✝️ nicholas d. wolfwood (trigun)

🐑 mithrun (dungeon meshi)

💎 edmond dantes (fate)

⚜️ integra hellsing (hellsing)

commission info | vgen | my art | f/o list | s/i list

desktop sidebar by @/starscloset

picture frames in banner from @/lavendergalactic

heart template from @/vergils-beloved

rainbow divider from @/howdymrfinch

dividers from @/cafekitsune

[ethereal-themes]

AMITA: PERSONAL THEME BY ETHEREAL THEMES

View on payhip ($5.50), check out the preview or support me on patreon for more themes + pages, header templates, coloring psds and more every month!

🎊🎆🎉 COUNTDOWN TO NEW YEAR: Get this theme + many more as we countdown to the new year over on my Patreon! 🎊🎆🎉

Personal Theme

Navigation Links: Home, Contact, +6 additional links

Dark or light custom tumblr tools control

Un-nested captions + NPF support

Color options for: background, text, links + border, content, container, container shadow, two accents, sidebar, links, popup styles + more

Sidebar:

280x240 Image + popup links (and posts if enabled)

Scrolling Description

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Other Options:

Posts show as popup or on hover (on/off toggle option)

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Dark or light custom tumblr tools control

Popups:

Navigation/Tags - Two styles, single links and link groups that include a section title*

Muses - Image icons with hover character names, unlimited amount + sizes up to you to fit your post size*

*All styles included (blockquote, pre, lists, etc) to create unique pages

Do edit any feature to make it your own.

Don’t use as base code, remove credit or claim as your own.

Everything you see can be edited including colors, texts and much more. This theme was made with personal (and muse / rp) blogs in mind.

Basic - Advanced HTML to edit depending on what you’re editing. There are settings in the default editor, but being an personal theme you will need to add details such as the navigation and muse popup info, etc. Please reblog or like if using. And let me know if you come across any issues.

[chaosincurate]

My top 40 albums

Find out more about the albums and my thoughts on them below!

So I've been gone a little while, and part of that just comes from demotivation from a feeling that the work I'm putting in is going to waste, at least in the way I'm doing it, but most of it was the fact I was doing this. Turns out listening to about 50 albums and making a top 40 out of them isn't a quick done-in-a-month project. Whodathunk?

Sidebar: Anyway, I'll get into the write-ups in just a second, but I want to establish something first: this list is very subjective and one of the most obvious ways that shows itself is in regard to the ages of these albums. I grew up in the 00s and 10s and generally find it difficult to really connect with a lot of highly acclaimed and influential releases from before then. I never got into The Beatles all that much, I don't get the hype around Pet Sounds, and Nico & The Velvet Underground largely underwhelmed me. I don't doubt the artistry, I just feel like a lot of that music is very of a time that I have no real connection to, so it always ends up being a very analytical listen as opposed to one where I am just enjoying the album. Because of that, the albums on this list skew newer. A lot newer. I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not saying "old music bad" by excluding so many of them. It's a me thing. Anyway, onto the list!

40. Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux

Genre: Emo Alternative-Rock Highlights: Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet, I Don't Care, What a Catch, Donnie

For me, this album comes across as a funeral for the emo scene of the 00s. Shortly after this, Fall Out Boy would go on hiatus and haven't been the same since in my humble opinion, Paramore would go on to absolutely kill it with a shiny new sound, Panic! At the Disco would become a one-man ego trip, and My Chemical Romance released what is to this day their last album. All that being said, this doesn't come across as somber. Yes, there is a little angst, there's an acknowledgement of the unfairness of it all, hell, there's even a few guests making things awkward with their self-destructive depression. But despite it all, you get the impression that there is something to celebrate here.

39. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Genre: Indie Rock Highlights: 505, Fluorescent Adolescent

Any album that has 505 on it is gonna be a good one in my book. There's a reason it's a fan favourite. It perfectly balances the depiction of fawning anticipation with the need to keep things interesting enough that the listener can actually get to the payoff. It's immaculate, but that isn't all that the album has to offer.

Throughout the whole album, there's a little added complexity where the rawness of their debut once was, and sure, I prefer the debut, but it makes this a distinct enough experience that you aren't going to constantly feel like you'd rather listen to your preferred album, which I find is a trap that many young artists end up falling into. It still keeps a lot of what made the debut so exciting though, which is also a virtue, as much as I do love a lot of their later experimentation.

38. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Genre: Glam Rock Highlights: Moonage Daydream, Hang on to Yourself, Starman

There are a lot of reasons this is a must-listen for any prospective or established rock fan, and the quality isn't even the main one in my opinion. Yes, this album is fantastic - so fantastic in fact that I had a tough time picking just a few highlights - but it's an album that, whether it hits for you or not, will tell you so much about what you do and don't like in the broad umbrella genre that is rock music. That trait is a result of the sheer amount of early exploration and pioneering Bowie does on this record. It's all close enough that it feels like a uniform experience, but you've got early templates for the all-out anthemic rock sounds with the likes of Moonage Daydream, a more dynamic, yet still anthemic style with Starman, the rock ballad of Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, and the early punk stylings of Hang on to Yourself. It makes for a great beginners guide to rock music, or simply further vindication and understanding from more experienced listeners who may just have a blind spot with Bowie.

And all of that upside comes in a rock opera package with a loose but coherent story.

37. Sampha - Lahai

Genre: Alternative R&B Highlights: Suspended, Spirit 2.0, Only

If you put a gun to my head and told me I could only use one word to describe this album, that word would probably be 'thoughtful'. Fortunately though, there's no gun to my head, so I'll expand on that.

First, the lyricism consistently comes across as mature and enlightened in the most humble way possible. It's similar to the Kendrick album he featured on in that way: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. It reads as someone taking your hand and calmly guiding you through difficulty in life, as opposed to a self-indulgent lecture, and it's very easy to get something wrong and have a well-intentioned message come across as the latter if you aren't very thoughtful about your approach.

Then there are the instrumentals, which I've described before as something akin to a living thing. There is so much relaxed intricacy to the sound that all weaves together so naturally that it sounds like a melodic breath of some beautiful fantasy creature that you can't fully understand. It's what makes writing about it so difficult: it's got to be all about the emotion it evokes, not how it's evoked, because understanding how it works is both difficult and feels like dissecting a magnificent creature.

36. Denzel Curry - Melt My Eyez, See Your Future

Genre: Conscious Hip Hop Highlights: Walkin', X-Wing

If you've ever tried to dive in at the deep end of a genre that you've not listened to much of before, you'll know how I felt listening to this for the first time when it came out a couple years ago. To be clear, this isn't the most hip that ever did hop or anything, but it's a pure enough form of the genre that I didn't really know how to really approach it outside of the very surface level interaction of listening to it and either liking the album or not liking the album. Even individual tracks didn't stand out to me that much because I simply didn't speak the metaphorical language of this genre, so my feelings were essentially all vibes based. I bring that up to say that revisiting it with a little more experience under my belt made me worried that I wouldn't like it as much this time. As you can tell, I had nothing to worry about.

Melt My Eyez, See Your Future is a fantastic album about continuing to mature while comfortably into adulthood, exploring trauma, and criticizing various elements of culture that made growth difficult. It's intelligent, thoughtful, and the touch of psychedelia in the sound of the album pairs incredibly well with the lyrics about self-realization.

35. IDLES - Joy as an Act of Resistance

Genre: Art Punk Highlights: Never Fight a Man with a Perm, Samaritans, Television

Joy as an Act of Resistance is exactly what the title suggests and a little more: a punk album about how, despite everything, joy is very powerful. There is a particularly refreshing angle to that though, as throughout the album there are moments where it becomes explicit that this is from the perspective of someone who has felt pressure to live up to patriarchally masculine ideals of stoicism, and some focus is given to how that is harmful to men beyond the simplistic buzzwords that get thrown around so we don't have to actually talk about it. It's rare and important that men are told, as men, that they can and should express all emotions, including joy, and the fact that it's purpose beyond the personal benefit is so clearly laid out is the cherry on top.

To be clear though, this isn't a pushover punk record, not by any means. The vibe of the album is well summed up in the line "this snowflake's an avalanche". A bold statement on how an emotionally enlightened community can become a powerful force for good, especially en masse.

34. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

Genre: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock Highlights: Cornerstone, Crying Lightning, The Jeweller's Hands

The first sign of real experimentation from Arctic Monkeys was one that disappointed me personally on first listen, but eventually grew on me, with the leisurely pace that most of this album is moving at. It's a really laid-back listen for the most part, one that invites the total opposite experience to that which they were - and, arguably in the UK, still are - known for. Where they once kept it fairly light on the thoughtful aspects in favour of an adrenaline-pumping, raw rock sound, they were now placing intricacy, both in songwriting and lyricism, at the forefront.

As I alluded to, it took some getting used to, I was a fan of the fast-paced Arctic Monkeys of their debut and sophomore attempts first and foremost, but now that it's finally clicked, I can appreciate the boldness on both an analytical level, and an emotional one.

33. Paramore - This Is Why

Genre: Post-punk Highlights: Figure 8, Running Out Of Time, This Is Why

This is why I love Paramore. They have such a creative integrity about them that is on full display here. While their contemporaries have turned into desperate trend-chasers or cheap nostalgia acts, Paramore keep reinventing themselves with a sense of sincere curiosity and adventure, while also nailing every single sound they've attempted. This newest sound is a natural progression from their initial sound almost, taking the maturity of their albums post-punk-sound and combining it with elements of their pop-punk roots, adding some extra musical complexity, and coming out with a post-punk album that feels like such a natural fit that in retrospect it seemed inevitable.

But all of that is pretty conceptual. It tells you where it sits in Paramore's discography, and that of their 00's pop-punk contemporaries, but not how the album holds up on it's own. Naturally, with it being on a list like this, I'm going to say it holds up well, but this is a question of why, not if, and I think there are plenty of reasons. First I'll start with Hayley Williams' lyrics, which are, as they have been for a while, refreshingly emotionally mature. Then there's the willingness to try out some really unique guitar sounds and effects for a band this popular. They really push the instrument further than most things you expect to chart. I'm trying to keep this brief, so I'll aim my last compliment towards the vocals, particularly on Figure 8. There's such a visceral strain that makes it hit so hard.

32. Michael Jackson - Thriller

Genre: Dance Pop Highlights: Billie Jean, Thriller, Beat It

Is a write-up really necessary for this one? It's held in high regard as one of the best pop albums - if not the best - and it is a well-earned title. This album is stacked. There are the three highlights I've listed above, sure, but I feel like it'd be sacrilegious not to mention the likes of P.Y.T., Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Baby Be Mine... Basically anything but The Girl Is Mine feels like it warrants a mention here. It's all Thriller, no filler. If you haven't listened to it, what are you even doing reading a music blog for music recommendations? Go listen to it. Learn simple addition before learning about the niche shit that'll never come up in your daily life. And when you've done that, you can thank me and we can talk about stuff that's a little more niche. Seriously though, how haven't you heard this yet? Don't they play it when you come out of the womb?

Anyway, yeah, good album, Billie Jean is a masterpiece (and has aged very well considering we now know that he was more likely to sleep with the child than the mother), but you probably knew that already.

31. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Genre: Chamber Pop, Indie Rock Highlights: Neighborhood #1: Tunnels, Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies)

I don't think I've ever known an album to be so against the idea of you listening to songs from it individually. Don't get me wrong, I've heard better album experiences, more cohesive, better paced, more highly conceptual albums, but something about this album screams "don't you dare listen to a song off this thing. It's all or nothing". I really I can't even put my finger on why, exactly, but what I can tell you is that it makes a write-up significantly harder. Usually I can draw on my long history of casual listens to individual tracks to pick out highlights and to get a more intimate understanding of the sound of an album, but here, I've only got a handful of excellent experiences with the album that were, frankly, pretty spread out to go off.

What I can offer using that experience though, is that this album embodies a certain emotion really well, and that's the feeling of running away from home after the situation there has become untenable. It's not really something I'd call an explicit theme, but there are moments where it feels like a bittersweet nostalgia, like the feeling of someone describing a video game as a sanctuary from early familial turmoil. It's a focus on something warm in the blistering cold of a hard life.

30. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

Genre: Prog Rock, Art Rock Highlight: 21st Century Schizoid Man

45 minutes, 5 songs. That should give you some idea of how this album sounds. Each song is it's own sprawling, epic masterpiece. It spends minutes that would typically be spent on a song or two simply teasing you with playful mid-song solos that feel incomplete, only to then give you the full picture you got used to in the beginning in a satisfying explosion, bringing with it a new drive to propel the songs over the finishing line. There are of course variations on that formula to add the slight freshness required to keep these five tracks from getting stale, but regardless, you will need to approach this with patience, and if you can do that, it'll reward you for it tenfold.

29. Paramore - After Laughter

Genre: New Wave, Synthpop Highlights: Hard Times, 26, Idle Worship

I have a lot of love for After Laughter. It was one of the first albums I remember actively listening to on it's release, and was a superb example for me of a band radically changing their style in a way that feels sincere following a wave of albums that seemed like cashgrabs to a 16-year-old me. And I liked it plenty back then, sure, but it's grown on me massively in the years since then.

The way the whole album appears to be built around the concept of smiling through pain, putting on a happy act when you feel like your world is crumbling around you... It's awe-inspiring. I've mentioned it before, but the way you are pulled into that groove in the first 5 songs on the album, getting comfortable with the idea of happy pop songs with a darker underbelly, 26 comes in and absolutely blindsides you with a rare moment of lyrical-musical harmony as Hayley Williams sings about her regrets surrounding the pessimism she espoused and bought into, and how she feels trapped by it in the present. It's brutal. And then, while you're sitting with that, you're thrust right into the peppiest song on the album yet in Pool, which leaves you feeling the exact emotions the album is built around. I caught myself thinking "Wow, that's really fucked me up, but this is a really upbeat song, I'm not in the right headspace here, I gotta cheer up". I don't know if it's intentional, and the fact that the A-side ends on 26 when listening on vinyl leads me to believe it wasn't, but it's powerful all the same.

Other than that though, as much as I've seen opinions to the contrary, I believe this album is remarkably consistent. I even love the experimental spoken word track No Friend. It also happens to be an excellent showing of the band's versatility. It doesn't get much further from Riot than this, and it still just seems so effortless for them. Like a second nature. It's crazy. This is why Paramore are the sleeper GOATs of the 2000s pop punk movement.

28. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Genre: Indie Rock Highlights: When the Sun Goes Down, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, The View From the Afternoon

The first effort from Arctic Monkeys being this good was a blessing and a curse all at once. It feels harsh to say they peaked with their first album, but in this case, I mean it as a positive. I still love the newer stuff from them, even their very divisive most recent album The Car, but the energy of this one can't be denied. It takes you by the wrist and charges forward at full pelt, prepared to drag you along if you can't keep up, and only really gives you a couple breathers.

It's because of that pace though, that one of my favourite aspects of the album often gets overlooked (even by myself initially), and that's the lyrics of the album. Now, sure, they aren't pure poetry or anything, and Alex Turner does go on to improve in that regard, but it all sticks to the theme of a young Brit's night out, and paints the picture fantastically, with all the awkwardness and charm that comes along with it.

27. Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

Genre: Anti-Folk, Chamber Pop Highlights: Us, Chemo Limo, Ode to Divorce

I've written a lot about this album since starting this blog about 18 months ago, and I'm frankly running out of new things to say. If you want my in-depth write up about the album, I did one towards the end of last year, but to keep it simple, the highlight for me is the really cool and unique lyrical style in which Spektor phrases simple things in a strange enough way that you're forced to actually engage with the simple truths that often get abstracted by modern life. She doesn't say something you're likely to have heard before, like "people don't care about you as much as you do", she says "people are just people like you". The former is used in such a way that it's easy to ignore based on how people have used it before (after all, some people just are judgemental, which isn't always acknowledged). But when Spektor says "people are just people like you", it's prompting you to think about yourself acting in the way you expect others to, and how you wouldn't be so unkind. It makes it more powerful because you actually have to think about the type of person you'd have to be to judge someone so harshly, and how their opinion ultimately shouldn't matter to you.

26. black midi - Schlagenheim

Genre: Experimental Rock Highlights: bmbmbm, Of Schlagenheim, Ducter

When I say this album is incredibly overwhelming, understand I mean it in the best way possible. There is so much going on at any given moment, and so little time to wait for the next moment, that it took me several listens before I felt I could even truly grasp it. And usually when I say that it comes from a lack of experience with the genre, but while I hadn't heard anything quite like black midi, I have been a fan of rock and rock-adjacent music for most of my life. It's just so much album that it took a while for me to digest it all. And even now, every listen feels fresh because it's so difficult to memorize every aspect of it.

Another crazy thing about this album is how it doesn't even feel like your typical balance of intensity and intricacy, which is probably a massive reason for that overwhelm I mentioned. It's not less intricate in favour of intensity or vice versa, they just turn both of them up to 11 and expect you to get with it, and I have a lot of respect for that approach.

25. MF DOOM - MM.. FOOD

Genre: Hip-Hop Highlights: Deep Fried Frenz, Rapp Snitch Knishes, Kookies

If you want the delectable dessert of DOOM's discography, dare I say it doesn't get more delicious than the divine rhymes of MM.. FOOD. Maybe Madvillainy is more of a main course meal; the mandatory musical meat that you must make your way through first, but the flavourful fun follows shortly after for me. MM.. FOOD is a concept album, using food metaphors throughout, and that sounds like a really cheesy idea, but it's surprisingly satiating in practice, and is the ingredient that really elevates the album to point where, to me, it's a classic.

24. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet

Genre: Dream Pop, Indie Rock Highlights: The Body Is a Blade, Boyish, Road Head

What's not to love about Japanese Breakfast? The instrumentals never failing to perfectly replicate even the most specific of moods, the evocative and often wise lyricism, the soothing vocals... This album in particular is often verging on meditative, with even most of the upbeat songs having a comforting quality to them that makes them work as a late night lullaby. Even the one song that I'd consider a poor choice for a sleep playlist, 12 Steps, feels like a rock song in a fluffy jumper. It's got all the elements you'd expect from something abrasive, but performed in a way that makes it sound sweet and cozy instead.

As for the wise lyrics I mentioned, it doesn't get much better than The Body Is a Blade in Japanese Breakfast's discography. It's about the idea of perseverance, basically, but in a way that feels very passive, like all the effort the protagonist can muster is put into keeping it together and the rest of their life is on autopilot. It's excellent and well worth a listen. It also stands on it's own if you don't feel like listening to the whole album.

Try not to get so righteous

About what's fair for everyone

Find what's left in you

Channel something good

23. Björk - Homogenic

Genre: Electronic, Art Pop Highlights: Bachelorette, Hunter

On Homogenic, Björk creates a balanced, maximalist electronic soundscape that lends itself to repeated sessions of critical listening, which serves as a backdrop for her passionate, emotion-filled vocal performances. It's an immersive style that really needs to be felt and not described for it to really be understood, but suffice it to say that if you're a fan of music that rewards focused listening, and are not averse to electronic sounds, you'll find something to love here.

22. Jeff Buckley - Grace

Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Alternative Rock Highlights: Hallelujah, Lover You Should Have Come Over

The one and only record from one of music's most overlooked great artists, Jeff Buckley, is a beautiful and thoughtful album. An expression of pain from a tender soul, communicated by way of one of the most beautiful voices to grace a rock-adjacent sound atop instrumentals that at once accept flaws as part of the process and demand perfection to the greatest extent possible without losing the human touch.

21. Alvvays - Alvvays

Genre: Indie Pop Highlights: Atop a Cake, Red Planet, Next of Kin

The first and (in my opinion) worst of Alvvays' albums still gives me enough hits of dopamine from their euphoria-laced sound to make it near the halfway point of this list. The only thing that is really lacking in this album for me, which they will go on to address in future listens, is the rough edges in their production (nothing quite seems to pop like it does later on) and the monotony. Luckily though, the one tone they did run with was one that I absolutely love, making listens great fun regardless.

For more of my thoughts on this album (and the other Alvvays albums we'll get to), check out my Alvvays discography post I made last year! It was an early one of mine, so it might need some revision at some point, but most of what I say in there should still stand.

20. Black Country, New Road - For the First Time

Genre: Experimental Post-Punk Highlights: Sunglasses

As someone who enjoys long songs but short albums, this is almost my dream. 6 songs over a 40 minute runtime. It's not quite around the 35 minute runtime that tends to make me love an album, but it's damn close, and those extra five minutes or so are hardly felt anyways with patient behemoths of songs being held down with an awkward post-punk groove you will have come to expect if you're familiar with the 2020s wave of British post-punk.

I've spoken a lot about how debuts can often sound a little unrefined in their sound, and usually that takes on a slightly negative but totally acceptable connotation, but here they lean in fully and it makes that rawness one of the best elements of the sound. From the album's title, to the theme of immaturity and childhood popping up on occasion throughout the album, to even the jazzy sound that sounds somewhat improvised, they don't shy away from how far they have to go, and that makes for a far more enjoyable experience.

19. Radiohead - OK Computer

Genre: Alternative Rock Highlights: Paranoid Android, Karma Police, Let Down

This is the second time I've had real trouble picking highlights for the album, because practically everything here is pure alternative rock gold. Paranoid Android and Karma Police were mandatory, sure, but beyond that it is almost literally the whole album (minus Fitter Happier for reasons obvious to the masses of people who've heard this album) begging for a spot there. Ultimately, I chose Let Down, with the deciding factor simply being that the lines "One day I am gonna grow wings // A chemical reaction // Hysterical and useless". There's a deeply mangled sense of hope within those lines, as if the sentiment is fighting itself. The crushing realism fighting with the spark of optimism, providing a counterpoint within a hopeful metaphor. One day, you may grow wings, but it's nothing more than a side effect of radiation, and they will be a useless deformation, not and escape.

I'm sure that I don't need to go over how great this album is. If you're a music fan on the internet, you already know that, or have at least heard something to that effect from another hyper-passionate fan, but if this has been a blindspot for you so far, I will be the 548th person to tell you: you need to listen to this album

18. Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree

Genre: Emo Pop-Punk Highlights: Dance, Dance, Sugar, We're Going Down, XO

This is quintessential emo pop punk. It's got the perfect blend of edge and catchiness that made that wave of music so compelling and divisive. As much as Fall Out Boy did essentially make the blueprint for that sound though, there is a uniqueness to them. The heavy emphasis on bass, constant musical shifts, and most of all Patrick Stump's soul-tinged vocals, all contribute to something that feels like more than a bland example of the genre.

On top of that, there is a perfect witty spite to the lyrics that are very rarely replicated by other bands, as much as they may have tried. When others would try, it often came across as bland woman-bashing which gave the movement as a whole a bad name as an especially misogynistic subculture. Now, I wouldn't dare take the stance that there was no misogyny to speak of, but if you take a look at the Mount Rushmore of the movement (My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Panic! At the Disco, and - most relevant to the topic at hand - Fall Out Boy), whenever there was woman-bashing, I for one always got the impression that it was about a single woman as opposed to women as a whole (with a couple notable exceptions from Panic! At the Disco with Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off, and Paramore, with Misery Business).

My general point about this album is that it is very good at toeing all the lines it needs to. It goes far enough to make you feel something, but not far enough that you forget that it's not that deep, all the while being targeted well enough that it doesn't feel like it's perpetuating misogyny despite often being about criticism of women.

17. Alvvays - Antisocialites

Genre: Indie Pop Highlights: Saved By a Waif, Plimsoll Punks, Hey

I listed two flaws in Alvvays' first outing earlier in this list: the monotony and the general vibe of being rough around the edges, which didn't work for their sound. Well I'm happy to report that neither of those things are an issue here. I still wouldn't exactly describe this album as diverse (although it's definitely plenty for a runtime of just over half an hour), but the euphoria factory sound is so refined in this one. It feels like my brain is having a summer water fight where it substituted water with dopamine and also it's raining dopamine. And it gets better. Boy do I love music.

As I mentioned in the write-up of their self-titled album, I made a post about Alvvays' discography if you want some more in depth thoughts about this album and their other two. I'll only plug it one more time, I promise.

16. My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

Genre: Emo Pop-Punk Highlights: Ghost of You, Thank You for the Venom, I Never Told You What I Do for a Living

I could honestly just fill this write-up by getting the red string and push pins out and trying to string together the story of the album, deciphering what exactly is and isn't related to it, how the ones that are related progress the story, etc. but I don't feel especially qualified for that. I go through binges and fasts of My Chemical Romance, and do more fasting of this album than binging, so I don't have as much of a grasp on that as I'd like. That being said, the TL;DR is that the protagonist's wife dies, and he makes a deal with the devil to see her again after claiming the souls of 1000 evil people.

The music, for the most part, matches that grandiose, dark, theatrical concept perfectly, and manages to be a cathartic listen throughout, really giving as much intensity as possible to get you to that transcendent spot whilst not turning into sound sludge and (for most people) ruining the whole thing.

15. JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - SCARING THE HOES

Genre: Experimental Hip-Hop Highlights: Burfict!, God Loves You, Kingdom Hearts Key

Combining Peggy's maximalist production with Danny Brown's batshit... Well his batshit everything, it's verging on perfection. It might not have been my favourite album of the year, but it has almost certainly been my most replayed. The album has a really infectious energy, is short enough that you can get a quick front-to-back listen in with time to spare for the sequel EP, and has some really funny bars as a cherry on top too, most of which are on one of the highlights I chose: God Loves You. That song is bar after bar of dirty bible double entendres and puns, and to this day some of the lines crack me up.

You can just hear the fun these guys are having making this album in every single verse, and it really helps sell the whole over-the-top vibe. It's an album made with the thought of "what happens if two technically excellent rap artists come together to shitpost?" and the answer is a hip-hop masterpiece.

14. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

Genre: Jazz Rap Highlights: King Kunta, Wesley's Theory, i

At this point I'd like to remind anyone reading this that it's my personal opinion and I'm not claiming any objectivity in it. And I'd also like to remind people I put this at least 86 spots higher than Apple Music did.

Onto the actual album though, it is, of course, incredible. It's the album that properly opened up the genre of hip-hop to me. Before I heard this I picked out the very occasional album, but had issues with it resonating with me. I still had issues afterwards, but they were the sort of thing that goes away with pure exposure.

So this album was huge for my musical exploration, but what makes it so good? Well, there are plenty of reasons and plenty of people talking about those reasons. It's an insightful description of how institutional racism effects the way black Americans respond to success and Kendrick gets very introspective to achieve that end, it's got an infectious jazzy style, the poem building throughout the album is a very useful thread in making it more cohesive and is exceptionally executed with every song feeling very relevant to the new lines that precede it... It's an exceptional album, and well worth a listen regardless of who you are.

13. Model/Actriz - Dogsbody

Genre: Dance-punk, Industrial Rock Highlights: Donkey Show, Mosquito, Crossing Guard

This feels a little dirty. Putting Dogsbody ahead of TPAB, not Dogsbody itself. Dogsbody feels downright filthy. I've spoken a lot about this album, and I always describe it as some variation on the explanation that it sounds like gay men doing BDSM. It's rough, a little scary in a thrilling sort of way, it's sexy, and it's fun. It even has the aftercare at the end. And also it's gay... Obviously...

It comes right out the gate at a million miles an hour too, with the first four songs being an amazing summary of the album's sound. If the first half of this album were an EP, it may well be my favourite EP of all time, but fortunately it doesn't end so soon, because while the rest of the album doesn't quite reach that same height for the remainder of it's runtime for me, there are still highlights to come, and a loose narrative that gets a beautiful resolution on Sun In. That narrative is one of an unrequited love within a very physical relationship. A one-sided emotional investment, which, of course, becomes toxic. The narrator relies on the sexual side of the relationship like a crutch, not quite giving them everything they need, but giving them enough that they don't mind the emptiness. The concept is executed via very heady and strange symbolism, but that is what I've managed to glean from it. I'll leave the rest of the analysis to you.

12. Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Genre: sad girl indie Highlights: Chinese Satellite, Kyoto

If I'm being entirely honest, my favourite song from the album isn't in the highlights section. If you've heard the album, you already know what it is. I feel like recommending it outside of the context of the album, though, is placing it in a context in which it has one arm tied behind it's back. It should be little surprise that I'm talking about the closer here, it gives me chills every time it comes on now because it was such a glorious and powerful payoff to such a slow and serene album. The album didn't need a banger, but the contrast is what takes it from good to one of my favourite albums ever (my number 1 favourite at one point)

When listening to the album, it's clear why it inspired so many copycats. It's a sound that resonates with a dejected youth that often turns to sarcasm and humour when things feel especially hopeless. This is what extreme sadness sounds like to younger generations now: a sort of "yeah, that makes sense" mentality that comes with being constantly bombarded with negativity. It's not like you can be surprised things aren't going your way when very little in the world has ever seemed to. There's not much point in making a scene when everyone who can help you is convinced you're the fool in the play. And that also happens to resonate especially well with young women, who are constantly told to deny reality or accept their awful conditions. Of course, all marginalized groups get that to some extent, but it's usually in the form of denying that there is no systemic problem, or that in any individual instance it isn't informed by bigotry. In my experience, the denial that a negative thing even happened to someone is exceptionally rampant within misogyny specifically.

With all of that out of the way, though, I think that is much of the reason nothing hits quite like Punisher for me though. The resonant aesthetics are great, sure, but so often people copy the aesthetics they like without also integrating the meaning. On the surface, Phoebe Bridgers sings in a pretty rambly, conversational way, but if you pay attention, the actual thoughts beneath the aesthetics are impressively profound. The quick, funny, personable lines stick out on an aesthetic level, but fundamentally only serve as a seasoning. Whenever most other artists try the sad girl indie vibe, it comes off as hollow because they give all the seasoning and none of the actual food. Punisher, on the other hand, is a hearty, flavourful meal with everything you could ask for from this style of music and should not be overlooked.

11. Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee

Genre: Chamber Pop, Indie Pop Highlights: Paprika, Be Sweet, Savage Good Boy

I've already made a whole post about Jubilee (mostly Paprika though, to be honest), so I'll keep this relatively brief, but this album holds such a special place in my heart. It's clearly not in my top 10, but if you told me I could only listen to 5 albums ever again, this would be one of them. It's very strange to describe what makes this special though. I know it is something to do with it's relationship to joy, but it's not like it's a happy album. There are happy songs, for sure (Paprika, my beloved), but it's about 50/50 when it comes to happiness and sadness. I mean, all the happiness Paprika musters is entirely undone by the emotional wrecking ball that is In Hell, for starters.

I think what the relationship to joy is is a sort of impression you get listening to the album that there is happiness in even the most awful situations. Sometimes it may be deeply buried, but it feels as though this album urges you to keep digging in a very implicit way. It's not explicitly about you persevering, it's about Michelle Zauner persevering and the rewards she got for it. It doesn't push expectations on you, it doesn't assume to know what you're going through, what you're capable of, or what is best for you, it sort of sneakily lets you know "hey, it's an option to keep pushing through and staying positive. This is how it benefited me." And I think that is, in most cases, more powerful than a simple "keep going".

I lied about keeping it brief, but believe me, I tried to.

10. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

Genre: Jangle Pop Highlights: There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, The Queen Is Dead, Bigmouth Strikes Again

Everything about this album screams indie pop masterpiece, from the driving drums on the opener and title track, to the back to back dour songs I Know It's Over and Never Had No One Ever, to some of the jangliest songs The Smiths have ever put out like The Boy With the Thorn In His Side, everything feels so classic and so influential. Even some of the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition are downright iconic. Asleep, Rubber Ring, Unloveable... All great. It feels almost as though they were destined to make a must-listen indie pop album and the gods bestowed them with some sort of artistic steroids to make that destiny manifest.

Chances are you've heard of The Smiths, and seeing as this album is just them at their best, it's hard to talk about it without getting too in-depth or too cursory, so I'll describe what makes The Smiths special for anyone who may have a blind spot there. Most of what they do is simply about excelling in the fundamentals of musicianship, with Morrissey being a spectacular lyricist, Johnny Marr being the best indie guitarist of all time, and bassist Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce on drums holding everything down well in the rhythm section to allow the other two legendary musicians to shine their brightest. That all makes for a great band, of course, but if it were just a bunch of really skilled musicians doing nothing special I don't think the band would have such status and staying power. The true value I see in The Smiths comes from the outsider vibe they portray, particularly within Morrissey's lyrics and vocal stylings. It is such a distinctive style that rarely gets mimicked very well, which has allowed them to remain unique, still retaining that outsider air about them while being popular enough to carry a torch for those outsiders on a wide scale without losing that exact power. That's what The Smiths are all about, and this album is the greatest example of that in their discography.

9. Everything Everything - Get To Heaven

Genre: Progressive Pop Highlights: To The Blade, Distant Past

I have a very strange relationship to this album. It's a relationship I do share with other albums, but not nearly to this extent. That relationship is defined by a retrospective lack of enthusiasm (although no lack of appreciation), but punctuated with an in-the-moment revelation every single time I listen to the album of just how much I loved it all along. No more intensely experienced was that exact dynamic than when I noticed that, by my album ratings, this album ended up on the shortlist for this very top 40. I wasn't antagonistic at all towards the prospect, just a little taken aback and half-expecting it to fall out of the top 40 pretty quickly. But as is always the case, I was swiftly corrected.

The album touches on all sorts of political and cultural strife in very abstract ways, but taken as a whole it is very much about the radicalization of a character into a terrorist organization. The narrative doesn't stick too close to that concept following the climax, but still remains tangentially and emotionally connected to political extremism and fear.

That narrative doesn't just stop at the lyrics being about political extremism and radicalization, the synthetic soundscape recalls the digital world where most of that radicalization takes place, and the occasionally confusing and cryptic execution of said lyrics mirrors the feelings of a young person getting whipped up into the chaotic, often nonsensical and contradictory frenzies of the right wing. It is very thorough in it's depiction of the process by which these people often come to do terrible things which makes for an incredible listen and I hope I've learned my lesson about forgetting that.

8. underscores - Wallsocket

Genre: Indietronica, Electropop, Indie Rock Highlights: Cops and robbers

I think now is a good time to quickly go over the two ways I've noticed I can adore an album: one of those ways is by an album seeming as though it couldn't have possibly been created by a person, even a group of people. As if it must have been passed down to the musician who claims ownership over it by some divine power. The other way is a clearly imperfect album where the imperfections somehow just make it even more lovable, because it could have only been made by a human. You'll see that dynamic throughout the list, but especially in the top 5.

This album is not close to perfect. It's a little erratic. underscores tries too much to maintain too much cohesion. Some of the lyrics are a little awkward. But somehow, none of that matters, it just adds to the album in a weird way, gives it a certain charm. That being said though, there is plenty to both love and appreciate too, such as the very online production which provides the vast majority of what little cohesion there is throughout the record, and the very diverse and strange subject matters that get touched on here. There's such a unique personality to the album that you can't help but recognize the humanity in it, and I think that's what makes my connection to this album so strong.

7. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

Genre: Emo Pop-Punk Highlights: Welcome to the Black Parade, I Don't Love You, Disenchanted

The Black Parade is undeniably the quintessential album of the movement and possibly even has a claim to the quintessential album of the era. I don't think there was a rock fan of the time that didn't know about My Chemical Romance, and I don't think there's a single person who was alive in it's hay day whose emotional dam could withstand the power of that G note. And that's the thing with My Chemical Romance (on this album especially): they are just so emotionally resonant. Whether that emotion is toxic anger and hatred, or whether it's joy, sadness, or the overwhelming nostalgia, you can't help but feel something in response to a Black Parade song.

As you are probably well aware at this point, the album isn't for everybody. It is very much a rock album and is very much sincere, and tends to actively go against the genre's typical clichés in some way. Gerard Way doesn't seem badass, and you probably won't feel badass listening to this album. It isn't really into glorifying moral and emotional shortcomings or even really accepting them. It is actively introspective, from the perspective of an awful man (one which seems to represent the typical macho and troubled-in-a-cool-way character that uninspired rock lyricists portray) facing death and losing hope at a shot of redemption, but who eventually, in my reading, attempts to face death with the grace and sincere love that was lacking in his life.

Many people write off this movement as hollow self-loathing (I even saw someone confidently compare Machine Gun Kelly's lyrics to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy which was baffling to say the least), but you really do get what you give when it comes to the movement's big three (My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore. Let's be real, Panic! have like two albums and no one can even agree which two)

6. David Bowie - ★

Genre: Experimental Rock Highlights: ★, Lazarus

You can't talk about this album without talking about the unfortunate death of one of music's greatest legends. I don't know how the death of the man David Jones was handled. I'm sure it was with great love, care, and no spared expense. But I do know that the superstar David Bowie went out on his own terms. Even when the album isn't explicitly about mortality, you feel the ghost of the man. It reads as though he's looking back on his life and his regrets, coming to terms with the fact that there will forever be unfinished business in his life.

It is enviable in a sense though. All of us have to die (for now), and that's always going to be painful to those around us, and ourselves in our approach. But not many of us get to make our own headstones. And that is exactly how I'd describe ★. A beautiful headstone over the grave of one of music's most influential figures. So if you can stand the morbidity of it, come and appreciate the craftsmanship, the ode to one's own life, and pay your respects. It really is an experience that I believe transcends personal tastes, even if the music itself doesn't appeal to you enough to revisit, the album as a unified project, I believe, is a universally affecting experience.

5. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

Genre: West Coast Hip-Hop Highlights: good kid, m.A.A.d city, Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst

There's one particular reason I love this album so much. Song for song it's very good, but maybe not top 5 for me. Thematically it's great, but far from something that'd resonate with me this much. The thing about this album that makes me love it this much is that it is an absolute masterclass in sequencing. Even with what I'd consider a noticeably flawed tracklist with a few songs that don't quite hit for me, there is no point where I was listening to this album and didn't feel very engaged.

The sequencing here appears to bend time, making you feel at the halfway point as if you've barely gotten started but somehow still been given almost an album's worth of thoughts already. And that might lead you to believe that it's overwhelming, but that is somehow not the case either. You'll need a few listens to properly take everything in, but it feels as though you're allowed to engage and disengage at will with the lyrics and concepts.

Essentially, my thoughts come down to the idea that as a collection of songs it's slightly lacking by the standards of a top 5 album and by the standards set by Kendrick himself, but it is redeemed and then some by the fact that it captures the essence of an album perfectly. If you don't typically listen to albums and don't understand what separates them from any old collection of songs, this album is the one I'll point to as an example of the exceptionality of the format. The flow of the album, the stories, the immersion... None of that can be matched.

4. black midi - Hellfire

Genre: Avant Prog Highlights: Sugar/Tzu, Welcome To Hell, The Race Is About To Begin

If you're looking for an intense, overwhelming-yet-satisfying listen, look no further than black midi, and Hellfire in particular. I've talked a lot about this album in the past, and I always go back to the first time I heard it and the same description: it felt like I was shot up to heaven to see the face of god and shot back down to earth. It went beyond your typical transcendent experience and into the territory where you start to feel you'll never be the same again.

Unfortunately, that faded with repeat listens as I've come to know these songs inside and out, but it remains an invigorating and awe-striking experience. The initial reaction can be put down to the breakneck speed of the music, with every instrument seemingly existing just to keep you struggling to keep up and wrap your head around their parts. The repeated experience, however, comes down to things like the lyrics and themes of the album. It gives listeners so much to dig into, and when you consider the lower-than-average runtime, it becomes truly impressive how densely packed this album is.

As the title would suggest, the album depicts all manner of evil, from fearmongering on the opener, to war on Welcome To Hell, to complex exploitation on Eat Men Eat, there is so much to explore within a cohesive package.

And somehow it was my third favourite album from that year

3. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There

Genre: Art Rock, Chamber Pop Highlights: Good Will Hunting, The Place Where He Inserted The Blade

The second album of the 2022 ten trifecta has a weirdly similar vibe to the first (that being the previous album, Hellfire), but if I were to describe the differences, the albums would be total opposites. Other than the fact it's hard to conceive of the process by which they were made, Hellfire goes at blazing speeds while AFUT pulls back, Hellfire channels chaos where AFUT goes for a more considered style, Hellfire makes it's points quickly and moves on but AFUT takes it's time to build it's narratives. And yet, I've scarcely seen a fan of one that isn't a fan of the other. It's a strange connection these two albums share, which makes it fitting that they are right beside eachother on this list.

Onto Ants From Up There specifically though, the album is defined by a simmering patience and desperation. Thematically depicting a relationship strained by distance, physical and emotional, but in which one side is dependent on the other. Of course, this relationship is bound to fall apart, and the album spirals into a hopeless angst fueled by regret and shame.

As you can tell, it's not a happy listen, but if you can make it through the gargantuan 12 minute closer Basketball Shoes without the album leaving an impact on you, I'm not exactly sure how. After all we go through with the protagonist, when Isaac Wood belts the words "All I've been forms the drone we sing the rest // Your generous loan to me // Your crippling interest" hit like a truck going 100 miles per hour.

In general, the lyrics throughout this album depict overdependence in a very thoughtful and heartbreaking way. It feels as though it is acknowledged that the relationship can't go on for the sake of the immature party, but regardless, the pain felt by that person is very real, and you feel all of that here. The understanding and the frustration.

2. Alvvays - Blue Rev

Genre: Indie Pop, Dream Pop, Jangle Pop Highlights: After The Earthquake, Pressed, Tile By Tile

Picking highlights for this album was a bitch.

Completing two trifectas on this list at once, we have the final Alvvays album, and the final of my three albums from 2022 I consider 10s. I mentioned earlier the two ways an album can end up meaning this much to me (although you'd be forgiven for not reading that, this is a long list with a lot of writing): first, you have the perfect, flawless albums that feel handed down by the gods. Then there's albums like Blue Rev.

The album isn't flawless. The mastering isn't too great, for example, and Many Mirrors is pretty far from the standard I find the album is usually operating at (an 8 amongst 9s and 10s, nothing major, but a noticeable outlier). But somehow, all the flaws I find make me love it even more. It's as if the album has more personality the more flaws I recognize, and I think that's all about the euphoria that Alvvays are so capable of creating. When the music makes you feel this good, there is no flaw that can bring it down. There is always that simple, invincible rebuttal of "and yet...".

For the final plug, I'll once again bring attention to my Alvvays retrospective for anyone who wants more in-depth thoughts on this incredible love letter to indie pop and all it's subgenres.

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows

Genre: Art Rock, Alternative Rock Highlights: Weird Fishes / Arpeggi, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Videotape

I would be downright baffled if anyone needed me to tell them that this album is phenomenal. It's seen by many a music community as one of the greatest albums of all time. I couldn't possibly go over all the reasons it's beloved by so many, but here are a few of my reasons for loving it enough to consider it my favourite album.

The first thing I feel I should touch on here is the warmth of this album. It feels like being wrapped inside a warm cocoon, with the sounds of every change in your morphing body reverberating off the walls, with the sounds themselves being a mangled reflection of what was once beautiful and natural.

That metaphor (or simile, I guess?) came to me while writing it, but it's honestly very fitting, and not just in the abstract representation of all the sounds and feelings that this album represents to me. It's also fitting in that the album seems to have a running theme of impermanence. The opener, 15 Step, is about the panic of realizing that you yourself are temporary; that your very self will one day cease to exist. Bodysnatchers represents someone whose self-hood is unfixed and ephemeral. Nude doesn't fit the theme unless you consider an opposition to change as a subversion of it, but then Weird Fishes / Arpeggi acts as a counterpoint in ways to that apathetic stubbornness ("Why should I stay here? Why should I stay?"). I could go on, but I don't want to linger on this point, picking out every example. That being said though, that theme ties everything together in a very subtle way. Subtle enough that I only picked up on it this past listen, and I've been listening to this album front-to-back, intently, several times a year for about 5 years now, but I think I always picked up on the similar thematic vibe subconsciously.

One final note to end on...

I recognize that this post is a very long one, but I wanted my proper comeback to be something big. In the future though, I'll be looking to split things up a bit more, starting with a The Cure retrospective that I've already begun working on. I'll also start an alternate blog for more laid-back thoughts about music, starting with my thoughts on these types of lists in general, which is a topic I've been thinking about since Apple Music astounded people with it's bad takes on it's own top 100 while I was in the process of making this post. Once I post that, I'll edit this post with a link. (Here's the link) Thanks for your time and I hope this helps you find an album that you like, or prompts you to revisit an old favourite!

[nevermore-grimes]

Hi bestie! I think you've mentioned using Notion to document your paracosm and I was wondering you went about it?? like your organization n stuff. Sometimes I think about using Notion for smaller paracosms or AU stuff but I never really know how to like. format it or organize it lol

Bestie? Did you just call me bestie? (Love ya, bestie! Aaaaaah!) 🥺💕

And then you follow that up with asking me about my paracosm dashboard? Can I kiss you (/p)???

I would be more than honored to give you a lil tour~

Here she is in all her glory! ...Well, the homepage, at least.

I can't take allllll the credit since I've started this by using someone else's template (I forgot who it was and I couldn't find them again, I'm sorryyy!), but I've added a lot of my own stuff since then.

Anyways, it mainly revolves around The Ember Blade Chronicles, since that's my main paracosm, but I don't feel like it wouldn't be that hard to rework it for someone who has more than one paracosm.

On the homepage, I just have some links, my Spotify Playlists (which I've managed to link to my para profiles and my AUs), and my organizational sidebar (Yayyy!).

I won't go crazy with explanations and bore you to death, so here's a quick explanation of each part:

Para Gallery - A gallery of my paras' profiles

World Elements & Explanations - Here's where I explain concepts exclusive to my paracosm (Macbeth, Nevermore's bloodlust, etc.)

Snippets - Where I write out scenes from my paracosm

Story Events - My paracosm's timeline

Paracosm-Related AUs - A list of my paracosm's AUs

Party Talk & Incorrect Quotes - Random silly quotes from my paracosm

Trashed Concepts - Things that used to be part of my paracosm, but I took them out

The Ember Blade Archives - Where I'm transcribing my paracosm notebooks

I honestly wanna rework my Snippets and Story Events sections, but, yeah! I don't know how helpful this actually is, so if you need me to explain anything better, I'll try! Or I can even drop the template (but I think I want the chance to rework some of my sections first-).

So, I hope this helped somewhat!

[bg3screenshotdump]

Don't know if you have done it on your blog but can you introduce us to your Tavs? Like a Character Profil Template. :)

This has been in my inbox for ages, and if i wait until I have everything perfectly set up like i wanted before answering i believe i'll never answer :'D

so perfection and fear of being cringe and seen be damned i'm doing it it now !

so far the only things i have for my tavs on this blog is their respectives tags you can find in the sidebar of my blog :')

so i'll just list them here and i'll make them more detailed pages later, when i have time and feel confident enough to share more of the backstories i imagined :')

( warning, piss poor writing in coming i suck at writing in my native language and it's even worse in english )

Delsys - My 1rst Full release Tav, half wood elf orphan, beastmaster ranger who ended up serving as a guardian of the druidic order that found and raised her. she's a big introvert and has piss poor social skills, litteraly her only friends are her owl companion, Verbena and Trilli ( even if she feels disconected from her two very extroverted and playful friends ) she's been following the orders and lead of the druids for most of her life so she's really not confident in her new role as the leader of the bg3 party, ( she's not confident about a lot of things actually, tbh the only thing she's not insecure about is her archery skills ) and unfortunately for everyone she tends to hide those insecurities behind a tough and apathetic mask

Trilli Bumbleroot - archfey warlock/bard forest gnome - lover of music, dancing, nature and village festivals, she's just a little gal who loves traveling, i'm still not entierly sure of who i want her archfey patron to be, but she took a contract when she left her village in order to have enough power to protect herself on the road. During her travels she eventually came across Delsys ( who wasn't born yet ) and Verbena's druidic order and she's been bestie with Verbena ever since and unfortunately for the other druids when the both of them put their mind together tomfoolery ensues

Verbena Ferngrass - Wood elf druid - high bimbo of the same druidic order that raised Delsys ( and she kind of sees her as a little sister ) she's a big extrovert, a big flirt, she values her personal freedom and fun above all else, she thinks with her vag and is always pulling Delsys into all kind of situations™ She considers Trilli to be her best friend ( and they kiss sometimes )

Vetra - Githyanki war cleric of Vlaakith - soft and curious soul who's been battered and hardened by her training as both a warrior and a priestess, now that she's in faerun she starting to feel a bit more free to be explore and connect back to the parts of her personality she had to hide behind her now no-nonsense tough persona

Kastyn Firebeard - warrior/maybe paladin ( haven't decided yet) - mercenary coming from a blacksmith family, don't have much of a backstory for her yet :') just that she was disatisfied about her life in the mercenary group she was a part of, mostly because she had no control over the missions they took, and those missions sometimes went agaisnt her moral code

Healstra Ssiwin - lolth drow Sorceress - Bit on the fence about her story and personality :'x i'm not sure why exactly she chose to go to the surface,i initially made the Astromancer robes mod for her, so i had in mind that she wanted to see and study the stars but idk, i'll think i'll need to document myself on drow a bit more to get better ideas :'D

Cyn Clarilieu - my EA tav, basic noble human turned paladin ( is now tall and buff thanks to the full release Bodytype 3 ❤️) good aligned, annoyingly too self-righteous at times

Shani Cotton - Halfling rogue - Street urchin turned criminal in Baldur's gate lower city, magpie brainded if-it-shiny-i-want-it ,quite loose morals so she doesn't care if she has to kill or maim to obtain what she wants

Oriann Aleviir - my co-op tav, half drow - cringefail 8 dex blew-her-own-face-off-with-fire-spell wild magic sorcerer, terrified for her life 24/7 and will make every bad choices out of fear and gullibleness ( highly manipulable, will probably end up a squid as a result )

[mono--chromatik]

og plan for a friends listing on neocities flopped bc of something i couldnt figure out buut a template i found for the about section has a sidebar dedicated to that so ... hrm,...

[fairytaleinagem]

Get To Know Your Moots Writeblr Interview!

Say @saturnine-saturneight do this and thought it was fun, so here's @davycoquette's template of the interview! This thing is long, woof...

─── ON THE TUMBLR WRITING COMMUNITY

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?

Couple a months, I think? One or two, maybe three? I had this account for much longer though, and I've only recently come to it because I wanted to post my stuff on here!

What led you to create it?

I was looking through a tag to see what I should include in an intro post (in general) and saw that there was a list for Writeblr intros! So I made the intro for my blog and then for The Aetherium a bit after that!

What's your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

I get to see a lot of cool art and writing from other people! I especially love it when people make moodboards or similar, because even though I love writing and reading, sometimes the words get a lil' blurry.

What's one thing you'd like your mutuals to know about you?

Hope you like Isekai, because boy do I have PLENTY of stories in mind for it! Even if you don't, at the very least expect one story to have some sort of reincarnation in it haha!

Is there anything you'd like to see more of on your dash?

Oh definitely more art. Playlists, moodboards, character portraits, all of it!! Words can only illustrate so much for me!!!

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?

Forget shyness, and get on out there! You're not really guaranteed eyes on your work if you don't interact with others. It may be scary, but you won't regret socializing much!

─── WIP IT GOOD

What Works-In-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Of course we have The Aetherium, which is the main WIP in my head. But there's also a Doubl(iv)ing and a few other WIPs that are listed on my blog intro post!

How long have you been working on them?

Oouf, The Aetherium technically has been going on for about 4 years now! The characters at least, and they didn't even have a home yet! It's only recently that I've settled down to actually write for them.

Do you remember what inspired them/got you started?

YESSS!!!! It was just another day on Youtube, and I was listening to some song that was about to end, so I was scrolling on the sidebar to find something else to listen to. Then, one thumbnail caught my eye. Bright colors, purple, women??? It was also Kpop, a genre I listen to often, so that drew me further in! I clicked on it, and behold, a concrete idea for my characters was born! Ever since then, everything that The Aetherium was based on was from a Kpop girl group named aespa. I recommend listening to them if you want something sort of futuristic and experimental to hear, especially Black Mamba, their debut song!

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Depending on how inspired I am for them, it tends to be a couple of hours. 3 or 4, perhaps? Per day, but sometimes there are droughts.

When someone asks the dreaded, "What do you write about," question, what do you usually say?

People don't usually ask me all that much, but for writing in general it would probably just be "fantasy", since that's what the majority of my works tend to be.

─── LET’S ROTATE BLORBOS

Name any characters you created.

If you wanna hop onto the train to get off The Aetherium Station for a second, a character who I will refer to as God's Only Puppet is spinning pretty rapidly in my head right now. Their """friend""", A Demon's Eternal Servant is spinning right next to 'em, just at a less frequent pace. Other than that, it's the usual Akina (except on Earth now) and a new challenger, Jaxsun!

Who's the most unhinged?

That'd have to be God's Only Puppet, currently! When you're an asshat jerk who cannot be killed (except by the God you're literally being puppeted by), you kind of go off the rails and do a lot of wack things. Like making a death game based on the game Werewolf.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

That'd have to be Akina, because fun fact! Pretty much every character in The Aetherium (with the exception of Zenith and a few others) are based of real people I used to know! And since Akina is based off of me, well... I think you can guess why she's so easy to write for me lmao

Do you ever cringe at them?

Not typically, but maybe that's because I haven't really put them in any embarrassing situations yet? Or make them fumble badly, who knows.

How much control do you feel over your characters?

A decent amount? Recently I've been stuck in the garbage because I'm unsure of what/how to write the scene, so currently we're all just standing there like "so who broke it" around a double of me dead over my chromebook. I'm trying to get back into it so here's to hoping!!

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?

Hell yeah I do, especially about the ones I think about the least/not at all! Because then it helps me get a grasp on their characters better, so I can give them some good ol' depth.

─── ON WRITEBLR ENGAGEMENT

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?

I generally don't follow that many people, but if you have good tips/writing advice, or follow me as well, or interact with me a decent amount then I'll follow back!

What makes you decide against following?

There's nothing in particular that I have in mind, since I don't follow many people in the first place, unless they do any of the listed reasons in the above question. It'd probably be based off vibes, I guess?

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

No, not really. I'll usually like things or use the reply button rarely, but not reblog.

Do your mutuals' characters occupy space in your noodle?

They have yet to enter and register the overcrowded apartment that is my brain, so no, sorry! I wish they would but they have yet to cross the city street my friends :(

[tryslora]

Do you have any suggestions for making book covers without having to pay someone?

If you know since you're pretty much the only writer person I follow

(sorry I'm nervous to ask out of anon 😅)

No worries, don't be nervous, anon! Totally cool question.

I will say that I tried making my own covers originally, and uhhhh I have standards I couldn't reach, so I failed at that and went the paid route (and OMG the artists I have found are AMAZING, I just have to say that the fandom community ROCKS).

First things first, start by looking at covers of books in the same genre that appeal to you. Look at what you like about them, and what's consistent about them. Are they clipart type graphics? Are they simplistic? Is it photorealistic? Are there images at all other than scrolls and flowers?

What are the placements and sizes for the title and author name? Usually the author name is smaller than the title unless it's a super famous author who gets to be more important than the title.

Also, if you put a subtitle or series on the cover, and you plan to sell the book, this information MUST be listed in the records for selling (like your ISBN). KDP has been known to bounce books for not matching up.

Anyway. Some things I know people have used.

Canva (you can get a 30-day trial of the paid version, if you need to). They have templates, graphics, all kinds of things available. Check licensing!

Actually, pause here for a sidebar, because that's a huge theme for all answers--always check what licensing is available for any graphics/art/font you're including. Depending on how you're using your cover, you may need a different license. If it's for personal use, you only need basic personal use licensing. But if it's for sale (paperback or ebook) it requires to be allowable to be used commercially.

Anyway, back to Canva. I know some indie authors who swear by it and put together really simple text and graphic covers.

I've collected a small group of links I use when I do need something quick, or I need a graphic for use online. Some of them I haven't played with fully myself, so for all of them, look carefully at what they offer, what their licensing is, and how and whether they include AI (and check for things tagged AI vs not).

DIY Book Covers - I found this one linked from an indie writing site. I have not played with it.

BookBrush - this one is for creating social media images once you have a cover.

Pixabay and Unsplash are two sites I use all the time for graphics. They have started to have more AI art on them in recent times (and beware of links that lead to images that do cost--they are mostly free, but have advertised paid links, too). Last time I looked, the AI art was tagged. All the promotional images I do when I'm getting ready to launch a new PHU book come from these sites.

Pexels looks to be similar, but I don't think I've used it much. I have a bookmark for future me tho!

There's also Wikimedia but in my mind, that one's more for personal use than commercial. I've linked to their page on licensing.

So. You've found imagery, and now you need to put it together.

In terms of free graphics editors, I can only list the ones I'm most familiar with. I've already mentioned Canva. I have used Adobe Express (it's actually handy for stripped down video editing). I know folks who swear by GIMP.

I... know there are places to get cool fonts, but um, I don't have them bookmarked. Sorry!

All of this covers the basic cover image at the front, and not constructing the actual wraparound book cover you need if you're doing a print edition. Most places (I've dealt with DraftToDigital and Amazon KDP) have a template that you can download then edit in GIMP or Adobe Express and those contain instructions.

And I know you don't want to pay someone, but I am going to mention one site that has come up often in indie/small press panels I've been on this year: GetCovers. I have not used them, and cannot vouch for them. I don't know whether they do or do not use AI. But I do know the folks who have spoken about them were happy with their covers, and with the service. And depending on what you need, they are super inexpensive compared to other options.

This does mean that they are using art they've bought and that your cover might have the same art as someone else (this happens a lot where stock photos are concerned--I read two books this year from different authors where the covers obviously came from the same photoshoot).

But anyway, they are an inexpensive option if you get frustrated with doing it yourself.

Best of luck, nonnie, and I hope your book adventures take you far!