Newsletter Leaf Journal CXXXVIII 〜 The caged newsletter 〜
Newsletter Leaf Journal 138 contains our usual assortment of links to our new articles, links from around the web, and other news and notes. This week's notables include a link to our review of a visual novel called I, Too, Saw Dreams Through Air and the triumph of the last Roman emperor in our weekly article ranking.
Welcome to the 138th 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.
While we still technically have a couple of weeks of spring here in New York City, something about June feels like the start of summer. But regardless of the season, real or perceived, we have new leaves from the week that was, links from around the web, and your usual assortment of New Leaf Journal news and notes.
Table of contents
- Leaves from the week that was
- Leaves from around the web
- The Old Leaf Journal
- Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
- News leaf journal
- Notable leaf journal
- Taking leaf
Leaves from the week that was
I published four new articles since mailing the previous newsletter.
- Flowers for Brave Soldiers -- Memorial Poem
Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 29, 2023.A simple Memorial Day poem from a 1917 collection.
- I, Too, Saw Dreams Through Air - VN Review
Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 30, 2023.My 20th al|together visual novel review covered a two-part visual novel. The first, which featured a man with an empty bird cage for a head, was surprisingly enjoyable.
- May 2023 at The New Leaf Journal
Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 31, 2023.Recapping our fourth May.
- From Murena Teracube 2e to Pixel 3a XL with LineageOS
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 2, 2023.My journey from one phone to another.
It was a slow week for short posts, but I published three to add to our collection.
- Building ONScripter-Insani on EndeavourOS (The build was easy and successful)
- Sugar Apple Fairytale S2 preview thoughts (An anime from the winter season returns for a same-year season two)
- On Android-to-iOS anecdotes (I make the case for AOSP forks over iOS)
Leaves from around the web
Let's see what is going on around the world wide web...
- Photographing Fireflies, a Love Story
Emily Dieckman for Atlas Obscura. May 24, 2023.A worthy photography subject.
- The Restaurant QR-Code Menu Is Being Shown the Door
Amelia Nierenberg for The New York Times. May 22, 2023.I do not eat out. But for those of you who do eat out, have you ever thought to yourself that what the restaurant experience needs is more phone useage?
- A Brief History of the Erie Canal
Nick Yetto for Smithsonian Magazine. February 14, 2023.Many good photographs and illustrations included.
- Glass, Gold, and Gold-Glass
David Whitehouse for Expedition Magazine. 1996.Learn about Roman golden glass in this PDF of a magazine from 1996. Then read about a 2023 golden glass discovery in Smithsonian Magazine.
- Why Are Purple Martins Declining in the United States?
Jill Langlois for Smithsonian Magazine. February 21, 2023.Ecologists in Brazil and Arizona did their utmost to get to the bottom of it, notwithstanding recent travel restrictions.
- “Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?”: Stanford Dean Joins Mobs in Denouncing Federal Judge at Law School Event
Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. March 11, 2023.A strong piece (with which I agree) from Josh Blackman about the conditions that harm free speech and inquiry on law school campuses.
- A Nostalgic Trip Awaits at the World's Largest Lunchbox Museum
Teresa Nowakowski for Smithsonian Magazine. March 14, 2023.The story of a hobby turning into a museum (you can visit at Columbus, Georgia).
- These $11 Million Townhouses in Brooklyn Were Inspired by an Art-Deco Post Office
Emma Reynolds for the Robb Report. March 16, 2023.I approve of the aesthetics.
- Railroad Chapel Cars Brought God to the People
Catherine Halley for JSTOR Daily. March 18, 2023.A very distinctly American story.
- How a forgotten nun’s visions shed ‘new light’ on the life of St. Joseph
Courtney Mares for Catholic News Agency. March 19, 2023.18th century visions of Saint Joseph.
- Tokyo ramen restaurant bans customers from watching YouTube videos on their phones while eating
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. March 22, 2023.Good.
- If parrots can talk, why can’t monkeys?
Laura Camón for El Pais. January 10, 2023.While I am not sure about the question, the article is interesting.
The Old Leaf Journal
Let's dig into our archive...
- Visual Novel Review - Adagio
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 9, 2022.A short visual novel by the same team behind I, Too, Saw Dreams Through Air. My overall opinion of Adagio was, however, less positive than my view of the first half of Dreams Through Air.
- What is an "Android Alternative"?
Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 24, 2022.I wrote an article this week about switching from one to another, but others would say "it's all Android."
- Get Off My Lawn, Prime Minister Morrison
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 5, 2020.What was an article in 2020 would today be a Leaflet.
- John Thomas James’ Account of a Cemetery at Tchernigoff in 1813-1814
Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 25, 2021.A beautifully written account.
- Covering “You Win Again” and the Life of Hank Williams
Victor V. Gurbo. April 21, 2021.Link to cover included.
- The Aesthetic Digital Environment
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 19, 2020.The cheap tablet featured in this article earned a cameo mention in my most recent article.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I list our most-read articles from the previous newsletter week (Friday to Saturday) in each edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal. These statistics come courtesy of Koko Analytics, our local, privacy friendly page-counting solution (see my review). Below, I present the 5 most-visited articles of the 22nd newsletter week of 2023.
- The Last Stand of Constantine XI (NAF: May 30, 2020)
2023 Appearances: 3
Top Placements: 1 - Peekier Search Engine Review (NAF: 2.26.22)
2023 Appearances: 15
Top Placements: 3 - Tiki paralogue trick in Fire Emblem Engage (NAF: 2.3.23)
2023 Appearances: 17
Top Placements: 11 - How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name (NAF: 3.11.21)
2023 Appearances: 3 - The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei (NAF: 3.14.21)
2023 Appearances: 22
Top Placements: 5
My May 30, 2020 article on the last stand of Constantine XI was our second most-read article of 2020, 8th most-read of 2021, and 7th most-read of 2022. Since we began keeping track of weekly ranks in 2021, it had made 35 weekly top-five appearances. With its 36th appearance, it joins the rank of articles that have topped our weekly ranking. A big day on the anniversary of Constantine XI's last stand (May 29) followed by several solid showings was enough to hold off Peekier for the top spot.
Constantine XI has been weaker in 2023 than it was last year, and its first number one week was not its best week (albeit it was one of its better weeks). But most of our articles, save for Peekier and forget-me-not flowers, have been weaker in 2023 due to our Bing de-indexing, and weekly rankings are relative.
My tsuki ga kirei article had its worst week in more than two years. However, it often ebbs and flows with The New Leaf Journal as a whole, and it made its 110th consecutive top five after a scare in the middle of the week, albeit its record streak is beginning to look a bit shaky.
I conclude this section with a fun note: All four years of New Leaf Journal history, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, are represented in our weekly top five.
News leaf journal
There were no big site changes in the last week. However, I am working on cleaning up my older al|together reviews and standardizing their formats. In a few cases, I may change the article URL, but we will have redirects set up to ensure that there are no broken links before I update them all.
Notable leaf journal
I have a Google Webmaster Account. Google tracks how many people click New Leaf Journal articles from Google Search. Thus, while we do not use Google Analytics or any Google scripts on site, I still have an idea of what is going on with our site in Google beyond the referrals picked up by Koko Analytics. I noted that there were a few articles for which Google reported more clicks than Koko Analytics counted page views for May. One notable case was my Ghostwriter markdown editor review, which would have come close to notching a top-12 in May based on its Google stats, but came it at 17th by Koko Analytics' count. What explains the difference? Koko does not record hits for users who enable do not track (I do not on my browsers) or users who disable JavaScript (I do this by default), so it is possible that a good number of our users satisfy one or both conditions. That Ghostwriter, a local-first Linux markdown editor, saw the most notable discrepancy would be in line with my theory.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for joining us for the latest edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed the newsletter and are not already a subscriber, we invite you to sign up for our weekly email, add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or follow the syndicated version of the newsletter at The New Leaf Journal. See our options here.
We had a somewhat slow, albeit solid week at The New Leaf Journal, and I look forward to picking up the pace as we move into June. (I will have you know, however, that those al|together visual novel reviews are a bit work-intensive.)
Until June 10,
Cura ut valeas.