October 18, 2025

Newsletter Leaf Journal CCL 〜 Outrun the Shiny Drowzee

Issue 250 of The New Leaf Journal features links to the newest NLJ articles covering Victor V. Gurbo's new album and the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Gold and Silver in America, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was.

Welcome to the 250th edition (nice number!) of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social. This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.

I (being your humble author) had a busy week outside of The New Leaf Journal last week. But I did not let that stop me from publishing a couple of new long articles. In fact, I had mostly drafted an unpublished long article and was then busy enough to have forgotten about my draft until late yesterday (being Friday, October 17, 2025).

Leaves from the week that was

I only published two New Leaf Journal articles since mailing Newsletter 249, but let no one say they were chip-shots.

Regular and long-time New Leaf Journal readers may recall Victor V. Gurbo, my good friend who has contributed a number of articles on music and other topics to our perennially virid writing magazine. Speaking of music, Victor is a professional musician and songwriter. He and his regular collaborator, fellow Brooklyn-based musician Mark Caserta, re-releaed their Outrun the Invisible Man album on October 14, 2025, complete with two new songs that will be familiar to readers who were following The New Leaf Journal last October. Victor and I marked the release of a new album with a lengthy discussion, which I turned into a long article about Victor the musician, his music career, and the Outrun the Invisible Man Protect. Prepare for a long-read in Interview With Victor V. Gurbo On Outrun the Invisible Man, complete with links for listening to the 12 tracks in your preferred format. (While the star of the show is Victor's music, Victor said that my captions on a selection of album promotional videos in the article made the article, so be sure to read those too.)

The generation two Pokémon games, Pokémon Gold and Silver, were released in the United States on October 15, 2000. Back in 2020, I marked the 20th anniversary of the North American release of Pokémon Gold and Silver with Winds of New Beginnings: Pokémon Gold & Silver. Five years later, I decided to mark the 25th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver with a more grounded story, specifically my Memories of Shiny Drowzee in Pokémon Gold. As the title suggests, I recall randomly encountering a "shiny" Drowzee in my first play-through of Gold, a very rare occurrence. In addition to that happy story, I share a traumatic story from my brief time with the much more recent Pokémon Violet.

I published three new posts on The Emu Café Social. First, I complained about Victor's use of Apple's Pages in Things I Learned: Pages Does Not Open .odt Files. (Left out was that Pages also mangled the formatting in my docx file.) I wrote a short post on learning about what appears to be a fun Linux distribution in Things I Learned: FunOS Sounds Fun. Finally, I shared what is now one of my favorite backlinks from around the web, NLJ Backlink Watch: Norwegian Publisher Press Releases.

Leaves from around the web

My two articles on Victor and Drowzee (Victor makes a cameo in the Drowzee article too) should be enough reading for normal people this weekend. But I trust that people who follow my projects can never read enough. Thus, for your reading enjoyment, I present 21 links from around the world wide web.

Unusual encounters

Meet Jackie, a 1-in-30-Million Calico Lobster Caught Off the Coast of Massachusetts
Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. October 17, 2025.

"Hello Jackie. Say, you're even rarer that that Shiny Drowzee I caught in Pokémon Gold."

Kyoto restaurant train reveals a different side of Japan not often seen by foreign tourists
Oona McGee for SoraNews24. October 3, 2025.

The headline is only true if you don't publish it.

Strange Bird Spotted in a Texas Backyard Is the First Known Hybrid Between a Blue Jay and a Green Jay
Margherita Bassi for Smithsonian Magazine. September 24, 2025.

Blue is winning out.

Unusual suspects

Charlie Sheen cut off by Mexican cartel for excessive cocaine use
Teddy Grant for NewsNation. September 22, 2025.

Not to brag... "They had never seen someone acquiring that kind of weight, you know, and so the only other people that they were delivering that kind of weight to were dealers, and they thought I was dealing on the side."

‘Rat Hunting’ Harvard Law School Professor Weaved His Way Through America’s Elite Institutions
Andrew Kerr for The Washington Free Beacon. October 7, 2025.

It's always who you least expect.

Hindsight is 20/20, but what of foresight?

Dutch government seizes local chipmaker from its Chinese owner — Nexperia parent company Wingtech preps response to 'exceptional' steps taken to safeguard 'crucial technological knowledge' (HT Ambient Irony)
Jon Martindale for Tom's Hardware. October 13, 2025.

Seems like a good move to avoid having your local Dutch chipmaker become subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions, but I dare say some foresight a couple of decades ago could have preempted this problem.

China retaliates in response to Dutch seizure of Nexperia, blocking chipmaker's exports following takeover — 861,000 square foot assembly site in Gaungdong affected as trade war spirals
Jon Martindale for Tom's Hardware. October 14, 2025.

Speaking of foresight, I hope this obvious response from China did not catch anyone off-guard.

My tax money at work

Minneapolis Public Schools Prohibit White and Asian Students From Taking Classes on ‘BLACK Culture’ and ‘BLACK Queens’
Jessica Schwalb for The Washington Free Beacon. October 16, 2025.

The federal government shot money out of a fire hose in 2020-21 and Minneapolis used it to establish a racial monarchy in its public school system. Sounds about right.

Subway killer David Mazariegos sick 'murder king' pic revealed
Chadwick Moore for the New York Post. October 16, 2025.

Here I am paying my taxes publishing this newsletter for free while my tax money goes to supporting the murder fantasy "art" of a violent felon who went on to murder an upstanding member of the community.

Lost & found

A long-lost ancient Roman artifact reappears in a New Orleans backyard
Jack Brook for AP (via The Washington Times). October 11, 2025.

Erikson and Columbus hid this so you wouldn't find out about it. Cover BLOWN.

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks (HT Andreas at 82MHz)
Christian Kriticos for BBC. October 10, 2025.

Floppies have the right form factor. The solution is more durable floppy disks.

Wood writing tablets found in Roman wells
The History Blog. October 6, 2025.

That doesn't seem like a good place to keep a wood writing tablet. No wonder the Roman Empire fell.

Mistakes were made

6 mistakes you're making when buying new case fans for your PC
Tanveer Singh for XDA. April 18, 2025.

I've had 2-3 fans fail on me in the computer I built back in 2020...

Armenian Mafia war rages in Los Angeles: Gang hitmen busted in botched murder-for-hire job targeting mob boss
David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc. October 7, 2025.

"After the shooting, Mares called De La Cruz and reported that the 'job [was] done,' and Stepanian would pay her $50,000 for her role as the getaway driver. In the days afterward, Mares told De La Cruz, that she believed she would not be getting paid because 'it was the wife not him.' Stepanian ultimately paid Mares a reduced rate because Amiryan was not killed."

Reality comes crashing down for naked man on trip to escape reality in Japan’s northernmost town
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. October 3, 2025.

The best part is the matter-of-fact confession.

I'm not the only one publishing interviews

Jeff Starr of Perishable Press, Sharing His Story
Interview with Jeff Starr at WP Founders. June 23, 2025.

I previously covered Jeff Starr's work on a search engine launchpad and his writing has informed some of my site administrative choices.

A Chat with Shaq and Penny Hardaway About the '90s Magic (Archived)
Alex Wong for GQ. April 14, 2016.

Shaquille O'Neal not leaving the Orlando Magic in 1996 is an interesting what if for many reasons (including regarding issues adjudicated in the 1998-99 lockout).

Interview with Smogon University
Johto Times. December 12, 2024.

Victor relied on Smogon for help in building some of his Pokémon teams for our early New Leaf Journal battles.

Looking forward, looking back

From October 7, 2023 to October 13, 2025
Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. October 13, 2025.

"On the evening of October 13, 2025, the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah began again. Now, all of the living hostages have been returned to their families and friends. For the first time in nearly two years, we could celebrate without any restraints or reservations. Tonight's holiday was a joyous one for me, and I'm sure for Jews around the world."

Anagnorisis: It’s Time to Wake Up
Kyle Shideler for Jewish Policy Center. October 1, 2025.

"Bloodcurdlingly pro-Hamas sentiment appeared to suddenly boil up from the bowels of America’s elite institutions. Coordinated demands for an immediate ceasefire were displayed on banners throughout the country, even while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were still beating back the last of the Hamas’ invasion force, as if the organizers of the protests knew about the attack before it happened."

Most-turned leaves of the newesletter week

In each edition of the newsletter, I share our five most-visited articles of the week. This week's list comes courtesy of Statify, an entirely local and cookieless page visit counting solution for WordPress. Below, you will find the five most-visited articles of 2025 Newsletter Week XLIII (October 11-17) with their 2025 and historic (dating back to 2021) weekly ranking information.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   2025: 17 appearances and 11 top placements.

2. Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   2025: 25 appearances and 8 top placements.

3. Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
   2025: 25 appearances and 10 top placements.
   Cumulative: 29 appearances and 11 top placements.

4. Performing Site-Specific Searches With DuckDuckGo
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 8, 2021.
   2025: First appearance.
   Cumulative: 5 appearances.

5. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
   2025: 6 appearances.
   Cumulative: 61 appearances and 4 top placements.

Analysis

We were having a relatively normal week until Friday, when Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships and to a lesser extent Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn, picked up a good chunk of views from being shared in separate Reddit posts, and Performing Site-Specific Searches With DuckDuckGo led all articles with a highly unusual number of referrals from (prepare to be shocked) DuckDuckGo. But despite all three of these articles finishing the week in style, the weekly winner was once again Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search, based on its consistent performance throughout the week. But the article which has now led the ranking for 10 weeks out of 12 showed some signs of returning to Earth from Wednesday to Friday, so we may see a more competitive race for the top spot next week.

We do have a couple of yearly ranking notes. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search tied Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships, which did almost all of its damage in the winter and spring, for the most top-placements of 2025 thus far at 11, both of which lead Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn and its 8 (no other article has more than 3). If Amazon Cargo Bikes can notch two more top placements, this would be the first year wherein three articles make it into double digits (2024 and 2023 each had two double-digit performers). Amazon Cargo Bikes nearly took the lead in overall weekly placements, but the return of Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships kept it tied with 25.

Taking leaf

It looks nice outside. I have spent too much of this week inside, looking at my computer. In the interest of not spending my whole weekend staring at my computer, I will wrap this newsletter up so I can go outside.

Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed this issue and have not done so already, you can follow this newsletter by signing up for our weekly email, adding our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or checking in on our archive page. You can also sign up for a separate newsletter which sends daily digests of our new posts here.

I have some in-progress articles, including one that is just about done, that I expect to publish in the next week, so I hope you look forward to them. I also have some bigger projects to undertake that I hope to publish in the last week of October.

Until October 25,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.