<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"><![CDATA[A friend sent me a bonsai. The bonsai was packaged and shipped from a nursery in Mississippi. Despite being a small bonsai, it came in a big box. What accounted for the box size? Well... (Note these were not all the Styrofoam peanuts.)
Article with the full story and photographs of the healthy bonsai:
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[A friend sent me a bonsai. The bonsai was packaged and shipped from a nursery in Mississippi. Despite being a small bonsai, it came in a big box. What accounted for the box size? Well... (Note these were not all the Styrofoam peanuts.)<br />
<br />
Article with the full story and photographs of the healthy bonsai:<br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[They say it's better late than never. I interpret that to mean it's never too late to catch up on the newest trends in women's fashion (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) from January 1841.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I started a GitHub repository for Bing ban stories when The New Leaf Journal ran into a Bing ban. While my project is no longer banned by Bing, I am still maintaining the repository. Today, I added a (now-resolved) Bing ban story from Mr. Andrew Ward regarding his portfolio and blog site.]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 163rd 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, N.A. Ferrell. Below, I have our six newest articles (one of our more varied collections), 21 links from around the web, links from our own archive, and brief news and notes from the week that was.
Speaking of the week that was...
Leaves from the week that was
I published six new articles since mailing the Newsletter 162.
1783 NY Evacuation Day Song
A short follow-up to my history of Evacuation Day.
NBA MVPs and MVP Teammates
Fun stats and notes on NBA MVPs who played with other NBA MVPs.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Sports Illusrated, fresh off an AI article controversy, selected Colorado Buffaloes college football coach Dion Sanders as its Sportsperson of the Year. Mr. Sanders took over as head coach at Colorado after the football team went 1-11 in 2022. Sports Illustrated noted that the team improved greatly in Coach Sanders’ first season: As for the […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[What Happened to Ronald McDonald?]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Justin of our Justin and Justina duo looks behind a particularly inane protest to wonder what happened to that Ronald McDonald guy.
Possibly related posts...
Justin and Justina review 2022 at the NLJ
Justin & Justina: The Most-Read New Leaf Journal…
The Enigmatic Life and Death of Emperor Otho
Justin & Justina: Most-Read NLJ Content of 2020
Justin & Justina 〜 4th of July Grill Sacrifices to…
Anime Recommendations of the Decade (2011-20)
The Quince Shortage - Justin and Justina
ACE Academy - Visual Novel Review
Collected Justin and Justina Dialogues]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Overhearing a man drop "pie chart" in casual conversation about video games inspired a dialogue on pizza charts and mixing work and leisure.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I received an email from the Bing Webmaster Team: We hope this message finds you well! We've noticed it's been a while since you last visited Bing Webmaster Tools, and we've genuinely missed having you around! Webmaster Tools has undergone some exciting updates and improvements recently, and we think you'll be pleased with the enhancements […]]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Nicholas A. Ferrell</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[On JRPG Hidden Items and NPCs]]></title>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I am interested in alternatives to big tech software and services. It was for that reason that I switched to Linux in 2020. While I am not big on social media, I use Mastodon, Pixelfed, Minds, and NOSTR to help promote my writing on my self-hosted WordPress projects. I have had an interest in open source alternatives to Goodreads. There are a few interesting ActivityPub powered projects, but they are not quite what I am looking for. At the moment, I am trying Open Library. You can see my fresh profile and current reading.
I like it thus far. Once you know where everything is, it is easy to navigate and organize books. I also like LibraryThing (not open source), but that is more geared toward collection management than reading tracking. My top request for Open Library is RSS/ATOM support. I maintain a static site with all of my feeds (including this site) and would like to be able to drop an Open Library feed in there without having to be creative. Libreture (for storing and managing DRM-free ebooks) and Inventaire (for cataloguing and trading physical ebooks) both produce feeds for user profiles. Alas, that seems to still be a missing feature for Open Library and LibraryThing. I could see others being disappointed with Open Library's relative lack of social functionality, but I think that may be more of a feature than a bug.]]></summary>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[> When interpreting older songs, I try to find the darker side of these often up-tempo major key cla...]]></title>
<id>https://memos.emucafe.org/m/37</id>
<link href="https://memos.emucafe.org/m/37"/>
<updated>2023-11-29T00:39:02.000Z</updated>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[When interpreting older songs, I try to find the darker side of these often up-tempo major key classics; often a love song is just a brush stroke away from being transformed into something menacing.
Very interesting take that you demonstrate through the performance. Question: Can you think of any examples of folk songs that jump out to you where the songwriter intended for the song to change depending on how the vocalist interprets it?
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I am using the Classic Editor here at The Emu Café Social, in large part because some of the IndieWeb plugins I am using require it instead of Gutenberg. I agree with this take by Mr. Baty in a vacuum that the classic editor is better for writing than Gutenberg. However, I use Gutenberg over […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The Gothamist published an article on the push to ban street vendors from the magisterial Brooklyn Bridge. I am 100% in support of banning street vendors from the Bridge, but I will focus on another point in the report. See the following quote: But vendors said there are not many legal spots where they can […]]]></summary>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I published my previous Bearblog post (it has been a while) back in the middle of the spring anime season (see post). The year is coming to an end. Despite my having written in that post that there was no clear anime of the year front-runner as of the middle of the spring season, my current front-runner for anime of the year (expect my New Leaf Journal year in review at the end of December or early January) is from that very spring season (see my 2022 review).
But I digress.
Since last posting here, I acquired the emucafe.org domain to use for my new social publishing site. Because I paid the small fee for extra Bearblog features, I figured that I may as well use it here too. Thus, my new main domain here is newleafannex.emucafe.org. For anyone considering using their own domain with Bearblog, I will say that the set-up process works exactly as advertised in the docs.]]></summary>
<author>
<name>The New Leaf Annex</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[I discovered that empty first like in alt text field for image in WordPress causes image to always b...]]></title>
<id>https://memos.emucafe.org/m/36</id>
<link href="https://memos.emucafe.org/m/36"/>
<updated>2023-11-28T15:25:56.000Z</updated>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I discovered that empty first like in alt text field for image in WordPress causes image to always be aligned left, regardless of other settings.
#WordPress]]></summary>
<author>
<name>Emu Café Memos</name>
</author>
</entry>
<entry>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Not to brag, but Amazon is telling me that it has been more than 5 years since I last broke my Hario v60 coffee glass. Not a big deal. As I said, I don't like to brag.
Story Link: https://thenewleafjournal.com/5-years-without-breaking-my-coffee-glass/
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Not to brag, but Amazon is telling me that it has been more than 5 years since I last broke my Hario v60 coffee glass. Not a big deal. As I said, I don't like to brag.<br />
<br />
Story Link: <a href="https://thenewleafjournal.com/5-years-without-breaking-my-coffee-glass/" rel="external nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://thenewleafjournal.com/5-years-without-breaking-my-coffee-glass/</a><br />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My post on a 1913 magazine collection of reader-submitted breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from the 50 states. I singled out several for looking good (to me). However, I do have some concerns about the AMOUNT of food...
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Welcome to the 162nd 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 newsletter falls on New York City's Evacuation Day. What is Evacuation Day? You can learn about it in a link in our Leaves from the week that was section below. While I usually limit this humble newsletter to articles published from the previous Saturday to the Friday preceding the newsletter, I made an exception for New York City's patriotic holiday. Other than this exception, you will find your favorite (I hope) regularly scheduled newsletter sections below.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Fresh off the presses, my long, detailed history of a former official New York City holiday that landed on November 25: Evacuation Day. It commemorated the evacuation, or final departure, of the British military from Manhattan on November 25, 1783, which was followed by the entry of the U.S. military led by a certain General George Washington.
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[A detailed history of New York City's Evacuation Day, a former holiday that landed on November 25 and was second only to Independence Day in NYC's patriotic pantheon.
Possibly related posts...
The al|together and Insani Visual Novel Translations
The New Leaf Journal Celebrates Its First Birthday
A 2021 List of Alternative Search Engines and Search…
Justin & Justina: Most-Read NLJ Content of 2020
Oldest Golfers to Contend for Majors Between the…
Anna Jarvis and the Origin of Mother's Day in the…
1883 Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge
The Enigmatic Life and Death of Emperor Otho
Winds of New Beginnings: Pokémon Gold & Silver]]></summary>
