Leafy Introduction

Welcome to the 265th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal ("NLJ") and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social ("ECS"). This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.

I published three full NLJ articles and a decent number of ECS short posts since we last communicated. But my highlight of the week was less a post and more a project. I will share all of that below along with our regular collection of links from around the web and other news and notes from the week that was.

Visual Leaf Journal

Before we get to all of the leaves from the week that was, allow me to share my major project from the last week.

Right before the New Year, Victor V. Gurbo (NLJ profile, professional website) decided to make a visual novel and submit to the Gaming Like It's 1930 contest on Itch.io, which gave us a deadline of 3:00 AM (EST) on February 1, 2026. In order to be considered, our visual novel would have to make use of a 1930 work that entered the public domain on January 1, 2026. One of many challenges was the fact that I had never made a visual novel before.

Victor and I hammered out a concept for a short visual novel centered on a 1930 song called Little White Lies. I drafted a script and refined it with Victor while Victor recorded the music and worked on media. Beginning on January 18, I started developing the game in Ren'Py, a free and open source visual novel engine, all while refining the script and making sure that the media was presented correctly. I was able to publish the game to Itch.io just after 1:00 AM on February 1, 2026, meeting the deadline.

Little White Lies is 100% free to play and runs in your web browser, so you do not need to install anything.

• Itch.io Page for Little White Lies
• Launch Little White Lies directly

Note that you have to interact with the game once for sound to play. All of the music in the game was provided arranged and recorded by Victor (mixed and mastered by his musical collaborator, Mark Caserta).

Little White Lies is a short visual novel with six endings based on how the player answers a few questions (the endings are largely similar, but two are set apart from the other four). I will venture that one could see (and hear) everything the novel has to offer in 10-20 minutes, depending on reading speed and how you use the "skip" button to skip over un-read text on follow-up readings.

After trying our visual novel, you can switch over to NLJ to read my article about making the game, Making My First Visual Novel: Little White Lies. Note that my article focuses on explaining how Little White Lies came to be and notes on the development process, so I would personally recommend trying the game first and then reading my article.

Leaves from the week that was

While Little White Lies was the highlight of the week, I also published other posts since mailing Newsletter 265.

On NLJ, I published Itch.io Outdated TOTP 2FA App Recs. I made a new "New Leaf Journal" Itch.io account to publish LWL (distinct from my personal Itch.io account). Because that account now hosts extraordinarily valuable intellectual property, I decided to secure it with second-factor authentication. As I explain in my investigative post, I came away with reason to believe that no one at Itch.io has looked at the 2FA TOTP app recommendations in some time.

I also published our January 2026 at The New Leaf Journal review post, on time for once.

My first ECS post of the week, I Published a Visual Novel, announced the release of Little White Lies.

My best ECS post of the week (in my humble opinion) was Re; The Indie Web Is Not Defined by Its Enemies, wherein I concurred with a take that proponents of the independent web should define the project in positive terms, specifically what it is for, instead of against vague big tech and corporate antagonists. This will be the subject of a future article.

On February 2, I published two posts based on an article about Wario's Woods, a mid-90s puzzle game featuring Mario's cousin antagonist. In Things I Learned: NES Wario’s Woods ESRB Rating, I wrote about learning that Wario's Woods was the only North American NES game with an ESRB rating (it is possible that I knew that once upon a time, however). In Things I Forgot: Wario’s Woods in Animal Crossing, I wrote about being reminded that Wario's Woods (NES version) was available inside the original Animal Crossing for GameCube, although I never obtained it in my game.

I tackled one of the new and stupid trends in AI, OpenClaw. In Rodrigo Ghedin’s Strong Take On OpenClaw/Moltbook, I concurred with a different blogger that the best OpenClaw advice is to not use OpenClaw. In that post, I referenced my belief that a so-called OpenClaw social network, which made news shortly after security researchers noted obvious security vulnerabilities in OpenClaw, was almost certainly a distraction. Speaking of distractions, I offered my own prediction on what the next one will be in Taking Bets On OpenClaw’s New Shiny Object, prompted by another security issue.

Moving on to geopolitics, I noted Unusually Sober Commentary From Dmitry Medvedev, which comes with a personal recollection from my college days.

In Sad Update to ACE Academy and Kaori After Story Reviews, I confirmed that the five PixelFade Studio visual novels have been taken down from Steam, which was the subject of my January 20 NLJ article PixelFade Studio VN Review Project.

Finally, I shared good news about my personal email provider, Posteo Doubles Storage

Leaves from around the web

I am not sure if you need leaves from around the web since I gave you an entire visual novel to play in addition to numerous articles and short posts. But regardless of what you need, I need to keep my around the web link backlog under control. 24 links from around the web incoming...

Tell them what we're doing

You should probably tell your audience what your blog posts are about as early as possible
Viktor Löfgren for Marginalia Blog. January 28, 2026.

I'll get around to it.¹

Art in the Age of Slop
Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft. January 9, 2025.

This newsletter is slop-free art in the age of slop (save for links to articles about slop).

The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films
Rose Horowitch for The Atlantic. January 30, 2026.

This probably doesn't bode well for their ability to make it through this newsletter.²

The internet and other things in 1995

1995 Was the Most Important Year for the Web
Jay Hoffman at The History of the Web. April 8, 2025.

Who cares though? It was just a passing fad. This is like saying 1997 was the most important year for the Pog market.³

Nothing But Net: The NBA Goes Online, 1995
Bob Kuska at From Way Downtown (re-printing article from December 1995 issue of Playbook Magazine). February 4, 1995.

This isn't long before I first watched an NBA game in February 1997, but I doubt I knew what the internet or the NBA was in December 1995. What was I doing in 1995?

My first console
Joel Chrono. March 10, 2025.

My first console was a model 2 Sega Genesis in 1994. A good story to be sure. Perhaps happier than if it had been a knockoff Nintendo Entertainment System.⁴

Do you think I need to improve my headline writing?

Anime about sexually frenzied married women terrorizing their landlord in skimpy mind control costumes will have one voice actress playing ten different roles
Carlos "Zoto" Zotomayor for Automation West. February 2, 2026.

Note to self: Describing an anime in the headline can be an effective alternative to using the name of the anime.

Inside the trans, vegan death cult
Georgina Mumford for Spiked. August 16, 2025.

My investigative reporting headlines aren't this catchy.

Canadian OnlyFans Model and Olympic Pole Vaulter Alysha Newman Suspended Over Anti-Doping Rules
Warner Todd Huston for Breitbart. February 5, 2026.

They did well with this headline in light of her disappointing failure to come up with a creative explanation for her whereabouts violation.

Pachyderm Pharmacies
Katarina Zimmer for bioGraphic. January 8, 2026.

This one earned a share for using pachyderm in the headline.

The dangers of centralized services

Russian Forces In Ukraine Scramble To Overcome Musk's Starlink Restrictions
Howard Altman and Tyler Rogoway for The War Zone. February 6, 2026.

Back in February 2023, I wrote about Kindle manga owners learning about the downside of centralized services when Amazon downgraded the quality of their already-purchased manga. Here, Russia learns about the downside of centralized services when service is pulled, making it harder to fly kamikaze drones into Ukrainian apartment blocks. It's all the same problem, really.

Critics scoff after Microsoft warns AI feature can infect machines and pilfer data
Dan Goodin for Ars Technica. November 19, 2025.

I'm sad I'm missing out on these new "features" over here on Linux.

NFL and advertising

Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl Ad Is the Problem
Liel Leibovitz for Tablet Magazine. February 5, 2026.

It is a terrible ad for all of the reasons noted by Mr. Leibovitz, but I doubt anyone who knows Mr. Kraft would have the heart to tell him.⁵

ESPN Has Their Journalistic Credibility Questioned Amid NFL Network Purchase
Warner Todd Huston for Breitbart. August 7, 2025.

What ESPN covers has long been prisoner to what ESPN has TV rights for. In any event, I would be more concerned about how gambling ad money influences ESPN's coverage choices than the NFL Network transaction.

Let's have some pun

Guest post: Forget pickles and ice cream. I published a fake paper on pregnancy cravings for prime numbers
Pascual D. Diago for Retraction Watch. January 30, 2026>

The worst score I can give this paper for its science content is 2 out of 10. But it gets 11 out of 10 for entertainment value.⁶

Russian cargo plane arrives in Cuba, echoing frantic Caracas buildup
Linus Höller for Defense News. February 2, 2026.

Yes, this didn't work in Venezuela, but Cuba isn't Russian to any conclusions.

One of the Most Important Scientists You've Never Heard Of The MIT Press Reader
Tim Frieden for MIT Press Reader. September 29, 2025.

The internet succeeded because they didn't tell you about him on the TB (I'm sorry).⁷

Profound questions...

Among China’s Oldest, Vegans Less Likely to Reach 100: New Study
Chen Yiru for Sixth Tone. January 23, 2026.

But if you don't live life telling everyone I'm vegan btw, can you really say that you truly lived?⁸

Something Strange Is Happening to Tomatoes Growing on the Galápagos Islands
Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. July 9, 2025.

I was curious whether these changes would fix the tomatoes' unpleasant texture but it sounds like it just adds additional problems. Maybe they can still be turned into tomato sauce or ketchup?

Speaking for myself...

Internet use, smartphone ownership, digital divides in the US: What we know
Colleen McClain and William Bishop for Pew Research Center. January 8, 2026.

I have broadband internet and 1 GB per-month data plan on my phone.

Are Ugandan farmers trading coffee beans to Europe for data?
Ronald Musoke for The Independent. February 2, 2026.

I don't use much data so I'd trade data for coffee.⁹

New York City Hasn’t Built Artist Housing in a Decade. Should It?
Samantha Maldonado for The City. January 29, 2026.

Only if I have a veto.

Games, those games and other games

Let the Games Begin
Tolga İldun. October 10, 2024.

But the "games" here are "gladiator fights."

A brand new Olympic sport, ski mountaineering, will debut at the Milan Cortina Games
Pat Graham for the Associated Press. January 5, 2026.

More contemporary, timely games.

Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week

Lalala

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   2026: 6 appearances and 5 top placements.
   Cumulative: 33 appearances and 26 top placements.

2. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 21, 2026.
   2026: 3 appearances and 1 top placement.

3. Return to Shironagasu Island Review
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 31, 2022.
   First-ever appearance.

4. Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   2026: 3 appearances.
   Cumulative: 38 appearances and 8 top placements.

5. The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
   Cumulative: 160 appearances and 75 top placements.

Analysis

2026 Newsletter Week 6 made for our second consecutive "interesting" ranking, and one of our stronger ones (eight articles posted enough views to make the top five in an ordinary week). There was no drama in the race for the top spot this week. After having its run of 17 consecutive top placements snapped last week, Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search returned to the top spot by a wide margin, maintaining its level from the previous week while last week's winner, Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine, dropped off, although it still had a large margin for second place.

This week's most notable entrant is my 2022 review of a visual novel called Return to Shironagasu Island. As I noted in my article on my own visual novel, I have published 45 visual novel reviews (as of the mailing date of this newsletter). My Return to Shironagasu Island review is only the second visual novel review to have made a weekly top-five, joining my review of Kaori After Story, which made a combined 13 appearances in 2024 and 2025. My Shironagasu review had been on the periphery of the race for a placement in our January 2024 ranking and in at least one month in the final quarter of 2025 (I forget which one), so I will consider its first weekly ranking placement just a mild surprise.

Rounding out the top-five is our all-time weekly ranking king, The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei, which makes its 160th weekly ranking appearance. It is also now the first article to make at least one ranking appearance in six consecutive years (the only article that could join it is Installing Ubuntu Touch on a 2013 Nexus 7). Tsuki ga kirei ceased being a regular in the weekly ranking last year, but it was still our 8th most-visited article in 2025 and our 9th most-visited article in January.

Taking Leaf

This has been a long newsletter with my discussion about Little White Lies, so I will wrap things up here.

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.

I have some new projects in the works, and some continuing projects that I need to finish. With hope (and without rushing to finish developing a game), I will have some good new articles to share with you for next week's newsletter.

Until Valentine's Day,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.