<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My final newsletter of the year includes links to a week's worth of new articles and short posts, 21 links from around the web, and news and notes about what I am working on as we look ahead to 2024.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 167th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. We had New Years Eve for the last newsletter of 2022, but we will have to settle for New Years Eve Eve in 2023. But while we missed the holiday this year, I think we nevertheless have some holiday-tier content to bring 2023 to a close.
Leaves from the week that was
We (actual "we" this time) published five new articles since mailing Newsletter 166.
Victor V. Gurbo's "Christmas & You"
I included links to Victor's two YouTube videos of his recording of his original song, Christmas & You, with last week's new…]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[With season 2 of The Dangers in My Heart just around the corner, I review season 1 of the middle school romance with an antisocial boy and a popular model.
Possibly related posts...
Heights in “The Dangers in My Heart” Anime
Height differences in anime romances
The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations
The Best of Anime in 2022: Year in Review
On Review Scoring Systems
The Best Anime Series of 2021
The New Leaf Journal Celebrates Its First Birthday
New Leaf Journal Third Birthday Reader
The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten - Anime Review]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I checked by 404 logs over at The New Leaf Journal. I found an interesting user agent among the myriad web crawlers: PoorlyConfiguredWebCrawler I appreciate that the crawler advertises that it is not well configured. You get the feeling that whoever released the poor thing on the internet is asking us to not be too […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Back in January 2022, I wrote a dialogue (using fictional characters) explaining why I was moving the NLJ off Bluehost shared hosting to a small VPS server. Nostalgic, and in terms of site performance... definitely turned out to be the correct decision.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My privacy-friendly local page-counting solution for WordPress, Koko Analytics, picked up a referral from snapchat.com over at The New Leaf Journal. Snapchat? Really. I thought this was for sending photos. No no, don’t correct me. I am happy living in ignorance. I will just go on living under my assumption that Snapchat is not the […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My short notes on figuring out how to properly enter administrative precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals into Zotero.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I enjoy some of the fun public domain images on Openclipart. For Christmas 2022, I shared a “cat Christmas tree” over at The New Leaf Journal. This year, I will use my new social posting site (it seems more conducive for the purpose) to share a fun Openclipart Christmas owl posted by Openclipart artist Michal […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Once clad in a witch's hat for Halloween, an endearing green car in Gowanus is now bearing Christmas presents.
Possibly related posts...
The Wicked Car of the Gowanus - Car with Hat
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Car with Antlers
io [Christmas Eve] - Visual Novel Review
Plain Song Christmas Special - VN Review
A Christmas Menagerie On a Lawn in Gowanus
Make it Christmas With a Santa Hat
"Uncle Susan is a Wolf" - A Graffiti Photo and…
The New Leaf Journal Celebrates Its First Birthday
The Inflatable Christmas Dragon of Gowanus]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The ultimate test of my theory that a Santa hat can make just about anything Christmas. Not Tux (surely that penguin is Tux), but the gentleman just behind Tux.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The ultimate test of my theory that a Santa hat can make just about anything Christmas. Not Tux (surely that penguin is Tux), but the gentleman just behind Tux.<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My good friend Victor V. Gurbo noted over on The New Leaf Journal that his college friend gave him the prompt for a melancholy Christmas song that would have no prospect of commercial success. I addend his post to note that the unnamed friend was a very versatile character. The person Victor refers to is […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Cardinals are somewhat Christmas-y for a variety of reasons, but I still ordinarily associate them with warmer months (from my New York perspective). However, if you put a Santa hat on a cardinal -- it is clearly and beyond doubt Christmas-y.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Cardinals are somewhat Christmas-y for a variety of reasons, but I still ordinarily associate them with warmer months (from my New York perspective). However, if you put a Santa hat on a cardinal -- it is clearly and beyond doubt Christmas-y.<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 166th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. Today's Christmas Eve Eve newsletter comes with six new articles, more links from our new around the web backlog, and other news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I was busy on Thursday and Friday after a brief publishing drought...
A Boat Named "S-cape"
Despite being entirely spoiled by the headline, this article strangely had one of the better debut weeks of any 2023 article.
Make it Christmas With a Santa Hat
Justin of our Justin and Justina dialogue duo has a theory, supported by evidence in t…]]></summary>
<author>
<name>The Newsletter Leaf Journal</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[It is easy to remember that Christmas is on December 25. But what if you forget what day it is now? One home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, worked to make sure that everyone knows how long until Christmas. (Note that the clock works -- but the red LED does not show in my photo).
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[It is easy to remember that Christmas is on December 25. But what if you forget what day it is now? One home in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, worked to make sure that everyone knows how long until Christmas. (Note that the clock works -- but the red LED does not show in my photo).<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Reprinting and discussing The Christmas Rose, an early twentieth century Christmas short story by Lizzie Deas (I also made a simple PDF version).
<title type="html"><![CDATA[An inflatable Santa emerging from (or going into, depending on perspective) an inflatable chimney in three acts. Seen (if I recall correctly) in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[An inflatable Santa emerging from (or going into, depending on perspective) an inflatable chimney in three acts. Seen (if I recall correctly) in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I finally review the only al|together visual novel translation in which the player takes the perspective of a pet cat (Don-kichi, to be precise).
Possibly related posts...
The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations
Four May Issues of The Nursery Magazine (1873-81)
"Fradie-Cat" - A Children's Poem By Clinton Scollard
Is my cat deaf, or does she just not give a...?
"Winter Quarters" - An 1882 Poem About a Very Warm…
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I hope all the people who went all in on a Christmas Tree before finishing their Thanksgiving leftovers are hanging in there...
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 165th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the evergreen newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. I have plenty of content to share with you this week from many new articles and short posts to the story of how the winds of new beginnings blew over my Around the Web backlog. Because I have plenty to share, I cut the introduction short so we can get to the sharing.
Leaves from around the web
I spent more of the last week working on New Leaf Journal projects than publishing them. While many of my articles are in the work in progress phase, I still managed to deliver four new articles since mailing Newsletter…]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I send a weekly newsletter attached to The New Leaf Journal called The Newsletter Leaf Journal. Unsurprisingly, I focus on sharing links to my latest articles (including some from here) and news and notes about my projects. However, in the spirit of generosity and sharing external links, I pack each newsletter full of links from […]]]></summary>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Hostinger guide to WP Cron. Considering looking into changing my set-up after a minor issue with mis...]]></title>
<id>https://memos.emucafe.org/m/41</id>
<link href="https://memos.emucafe.org/m/41"/>
<updated>2023-12-14T18:26:17.000Z</updated>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Hostinger guide to WP Cron. Considering looking into changing my set-up after a minor issue with missed jobs for ActivityPub on Emu Cafe Social:
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I am working on cleaning up a few anime series that I missed throughout the year in preparation for my year in review. As part of the project, I quickly went through The Dreaming Boy is a Realist (light novel titles…) on HiDive (I had neglected HiDive for a bit because there’s no unofficial Kodi […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I wrote about a Mondrian theme for KDE Plasma back in early 2021. I used it until I switched from Plasma to XFCE for my workstation in the summer of 2021. However, things come full circle. While I still use XFCE on my workstation, I use Plasma on a mini PC I designated for PC usage and have added some pieces of the Mondrian themeto my set-up.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I concur with an argument in favor of external linking while taking a different perspective to argue in favor of humane internal linking.
Possibly related posts...
The Enigmatic Life and Death of Emperor Otho
1883 Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge
Should the Pistons have drafted Carmelo?
Anime Recommendations of the Decade (2011-20)
ACE Academy - Visual Novel Review
The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations
The Best of Anime in 2022: Year in Review
The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten - Anime Review
The Poetry of Charlotte Becker - Early Twentieth…]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Feeds for Following Over X and Mastodon]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I came across an interesting passage by blogger Facundo Olano in his blog post about creating a personal feed reader to follow good and meaningful writing from around the web (see the source code for his interesting feed reader project). He assessed his prior usage of Twitter (now “X”) and Mastodon and realized that he […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Quick Review of My Tablet – My Computer]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I came across a free ebook by Roger Carter on Smashwords about using an Android tablet as a computer (see My Tablet – My Computer). The book is short, running just over 5,000 words. While I do not personally need to use an Android (LineageOS in my case) tablet as a computer (not to mention […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I think I am the only person to ever use the open source RetroBoy camera app for Android (available on F-Droid) to photograph at falcon at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Am I absolutely certain? No, but I am close to certain.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I read many video game magazines when I was a kid. Back in my day, E3, which typically took place in May or June, was the major video game expo and a major event in the magazines. I used to look forward to E3 coverage. Over the years, I stopped reading video game magazines and, […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Yukinu over at Yukinu blog posted a simple and tasty looking 5am udon recipe. I approve with the qualification that I would opt for unsalted chicken broth (if I am adding soy sauce) and that I am not sure if I am ready for udon at 5 AM (I usually prefer hot cereal for breakfast). […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I have received many spam emails at The New Leaf Journal... but none top a request for assistance from China's former Defense Minister.
Possibly related posts...
The New Leaf Journal Celebrates Its First Birthday
The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations
The Newsletter Leaf Journal at 100
A 2021 List of Alternative Search Engines and Search…
Justin & Justina: Most-Read NLJ Content of 2020
The New Leaf Journal Newsletter
Oldest Golfers to Contend for Majors Between the…
Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based…
Justin and Justina review 2022 at the NLJ]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[BSOD Coming to Linux]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[An article in Ars Technica reported that Systemd Linux distributions (which describes most distributions these days) will receive a much-desired updated from Windows: The Blue Screen of Death. From the article: Today, version 255 of the Linux systemd project honors that original intent by adding a systemd-bsod component that generates a full-screen display of some […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[For those looking for free options -- BunnyPress Lite by the same developer is available in the WordPress repository and is similar to the paid theme, only lacking additional display patterns and a few features for increasing page loading times that can be replicated in plugins in any event. Note, however, that I have not used BunnyPress Lite since early June 2020.]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My September 2020 review of The New Leaf Journal's WordPress theme, BunnyPress -- including my discussing how difficult it was to buy since the store page was entirely Japanese. While much has changed at NLJ since 9/2020, including our layout, BunnyPress remains our theme.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 164th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. Our second newsletter of December 2023 brings three new articles, news from our other project, links from around the web, and other interesting notes from the week that was.
Leaves from the week that was
I published three new articles at The New Leaf Journal since last sending a newsletter...
Bush Clinton Playground in Red Hook
The best-named playground in New York City.
Unpacking a Mississippi Bonsai Tree
All the Styrofoam peanuts you could ever want.
My Default Apps as of December 2023
Inspired by others, I created a list of my de…]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Blogger foreverketh.is put together a very good list of webrings and similar collections of personal websites and blogs. I recall having come across it before, but I had previously missed that I am cited as a contributor for my New Leaf Journal article on the idea of a “social” media consisting of independent personal websites. […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Blogger foreverkeith.is put together a very good list of webrings and similar collections of personal websites and blogs. I recall having come across it before, but I had previously missed that I am cited as a contributor for my New Leaf Journal article on the idea of a “social” media consisting of independent personal websites. […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I was inspired to create an article listing my default apps by a project to collect default app posts on Hemispheric Views. I wrote my default apps article and then made a pull request to have the article included in the Hemispheric Views project. The curator merged my pull request within two hours. I am […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The first issue is resolved. I do not have an immediate use-case for Micropub at the moment so I wil...]]></title>
<id>https://memos.emucafe.org/m/39</id>
<link href="https://memos.emucafe.org/m/39"/>
<updated>2023-12-08T18:02:43.000Z</updated>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The first issue is resolved. I do not have an immediate use-case for Micropub at the moment so I will look into that again later if need be. I suspect the issue has to do with page caching (because the issue is always caching).
<title type="html"><![CDATA[While installing EndeavourOS on a mini PC yesterday, I ran into an error at 13% complete which force...]]></title>
<id>https://memos.emucafe.org/m/38</id>
<link href="https://memos.emucafe.org/m/38"/>
<updated>2023-12-08T17:44:26.000Z</updated>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[While installing EndeavourOS on a mini PC yesterday, I ran into an error at 13% complete which forced install to fail. The issue was likely tied to a failure to download updates (computer did not have onboard wi-fi, so I was using a cheap Panda Wireless dongle which only supports 2.4 connections). When I tried to go through the installer again, automatic disk partitioning was not available. Solution: Rebooted and went back into live environment and installed offline (no issue since I wanted KDE Plasma). Installed with no issue.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I saw that many webmasters were posting their "default apps," so I decided to join the fun with a list separating default apps for desktop (I run EndeavourOS primarily) and mobile (primarily LineageOS).
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I useYYDevelopment’sfree (including of cost) and open source WordPress plugin,Show Pages ID, both here and onThe New Leaf Journal. I received a dismissible banner on my plugin page asking for a WordPress review. What about an on-site review? Show Pages ID is a very simple plugin that adds a field to the WordPress admin screen […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The law office I work for uses Dropbox. I use Dropbox in a browser profile I set aside for work instead of the local app. I just noticed today that when I upload a file, a little gray box appears in the bottom right corner of the screen showing the upload progress. When the upload […]]]></summary>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[I came across a certain Bush Clinton Playground in Red Hook, Brooklyn (NYC) a few years ago and was amused by the name. When I walked by last week, I decided to take a photo and turn it into an article. Despite the fact that the name invokes our 41st, 42nd, and 43rd Presidents, those with a cursory knowledge of New York City history will know that the "Clinton" here is DeWitt Clinton, who served as Mayor of NYC, Governor of NY (following his father George on Governor) and was the Federalist nominee for President in 1812 (he lost fairly narrowly to James Madison). What about Bush? I was not sure who Bush Street was named after, and I learned that New York City is also not quite sure.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I came across a certain Bush Clinton Playground in Red Hook, Brooklyn (NYC) a few years ago and was amused by the name. When I walked by last week, I decided to take a photo and turn it into an article. Despite the fact that the name invokes our 41st, 42nd, and 43rd Presidents, those with a cursory knowledge of New York City history will know that the "Clinton" here is DeWitt Clinton, who served as Mayor of NYC, Governor of NY (following his father George on Governor) and was the Federalist nominee for President in 1812 (he lost fairly narrowly to James Madison). What about Bush? I was not sure who Bush Street was named after, and I learned that New York City is also not quite sure.<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I read about an adware company purchasing the open source Simple Mobile Tools apps for Android. I was not using any of the apps at the moment (I used a few in the past), so I decided to offer some suggestions for alternatives that I use on my own device (I run LineageOS 20 on my phone). My recommendations are admittedly limited by my set up and phone usage, but I think I have a few good ones.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Simple Mobile Tools is a suite of free and open source android apps designed to replace Google’s default apps. However, “free and open source” will likely be a thing of the past after Simple Mobile Tools was acquired by ZippoApps. I used a few Simple Mobile apps back when I wrote a review of F-Droid apps in 2021, but I was fortunately not using any at the time of the ZippoApps news. One of the main contributors to Simple Mobile Tools who was not involved in the decision to sell the suite to an adware company forked the project. The fork looks like a good option for people who want to keep using the Simple Mobile Tools suite. Since I was not using any of the apps, I thought I would note what I use instead. Before continuing, do note that my phone runs LineageOS and I do not use any closed s…]]></summary>
<author>
<name>The New Leaf Annex</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Simple Mobile Tools Alternatives]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Simple Mobile Tools is a suite of free and open source android apps designed to replace Google’s default apps. However, “free and open source” will likely be a thing of the past after Simple Mobile Tools was acquired by ZippoApps. I used a few Simple Mobile apps back when I wrote a review of F-Droid […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Why manhole covers are round]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I never thought about why manhole covers were round before reading this detailed history of manhole covers in New York City. That they are round “so they won’t fall into the manhole … if you insert [them] at an angle or vertically” makes sense. Maybe I never thought about it because I have never been […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I primarily use feeds to stay on top of interesting authors and websites. I seldom need to deal with newsletters because almost everything I follow (including a few Substack and Buttondown newsletters and the newsletter for Tablet Magazine) also have RSS feeds. But there are a few exceptions, notably some of the Real Clear network […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><
