September 24, 2022

Newsletter Leaf Journal CII 〜 Newsletter GEASS

The 102nd edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features Pokemon cursors, history about typos, and at least two Code Geass puns.

Welcome to the 102nd issue 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. Below, you will find links to our newest content, content from around the web, and a variety of other news and notes.

Table of Contents

1. Leaves From The Week That Was
2. Leaves From Around The Web
3. The Old Leaf Journal
4. Most-Turned Leaves Of The Newsletter Week
5. Notable Leaf Journal
6. News Leaf Journal
7. Taking Leaf

1. Leaves From The Week That Was

I again had real work to do relating to my day job, so I did not publish any long essays at The New Leaf Journal last week. However, I did publish four new articles and a number of leaflets, which I detail below.

• Zero Gravity Foreshadowing in Super Mario Sunshine
  N.A. Ferrell. September 19, 2022.

  Shigeru Miyamoto, the original creator of the Mario and Zelda series, gave an interview in 2002 about the development of Super Mario Sunshine, which was released later that same year. One quote from his interview reads like foreshadowing in hindsight knowing that the next main-line Mario platformer would be Super Mario Galaxy in 2006.

• Geese on the Beach of Brooklyn Bridge Park
  N.A. Ferrell. September 21, 2022.

  The sequel to my short post about a dove on the same man-made beach.

• The Case For Moving Madison Square Garden
  N.A. Ferrell. September 23, 2022.

  Avenge Penn Station! (Not the current fourth-world version of Penn Station, however.)

• Pokémon Cursor Theme For Linux and Windows
  N.A. Ferrell. September 23, 2022.

  I'm using the cursor theme as I write.

I published seven shorter Leaflet posts over the last week. I will note a few of my Leaflets in later sections of this newsletter. Below, I feature the Leaflets that are not mentioned elsewhere in the instant newsletter.

• My Copy of Kirby’s Dream Land Is Legit
  N.A. Ferrell. September 20, 2022.

  My first post on using the GB Operator, which I ordered at the end of August.

• Misleading Associated Press Headline
  N.A. Ferrell. September 21, 2022.

  When promised stories about foreign elections turn out to be thinly-veiled op-eds.

• From AUR to Mainline Arch Thunderbird
  N.A. Ferrell. September 21, 2022.

  After switching Thunderbird packages on my Linux distribution (EndeavourOS), I had a minor display issue with my theme. Not only did I fix the issue, but I also had an excuse to highlight my aesthetic Thunderbird theme.

• Nice Boat in the Arch User Repository
  N.A. Ferrell. September 23, 2022.

  Speaking of nice boats, I made some technical edits to my comprehensive post on the Nice Boat meme.

2. Leaves From Around The Web

Let's see what is happening around the world wide web.

• Press release: Use of Google Analytics for web analytics
  Detailsynet. September 21, 2022.

  The Danish Data Protection Agency concluded that Google Analytics cannot be used lawfully under Dutch law without the implementation of certain supplementary measures. See Leaflet for my thoughts.

• Kazakhstan reverts capital's name, institutes constitutional reforms
  Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. September 17, 2022.

  I published my thoughts on the constitutional reforms aspect of this story in a Leaflet.

• How Many Errors Are in This Essay?
  Ed Simon for The Millions. August 24, 2022.

  "The King James Version of the Bible has exactly 783,137 words, but unfortunately for the London print shop of Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, official purveyors to King Charles I, their 1631 edition left out three crucial letters, one crucial word—”not.” As such, their version of Exodus 20:14 read, 'Thou shalt commit adultery.' Their royal patron was not amused. This edition was later deemed the 'Wicked Bible.'"
  (While I am not immune to typos, I have thus far managed to avoid encouraging New Leaf Journal readers to commit adultery.)

• 'Crime Is a Construct': My Morning With the Park Slope Panthers
  Suzy Weiss for Common Sense. September 20, 2022.

  "'Crime is an abstract term that means nothing in a lot of ways,' said Sky."
  A meeting to create a citizen crime fighting group in Park Slope, Brooklyn, ends exactly like anyone who knows anything about Park Slope would expect it to end.

• Alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic projected to cause more liver disease and deaths
  Noah Brown for Massachusetts General Hospital. September 17, 2022.

  File this study under "things you could figure out by walking around in New York City."

• Review of "A Man of Iron," by Troy Senik
  Stephen Eide for City Journal. September 19, 2022.

  A review of a biography of the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, Grover Cleveland. I filled the gap at The New Leaf Journal in 2020 with an article on the 23rd President, Benjamin Harrison.

• Gen Z Never Learned to Read Cursive
  Drew Gilpin Faust for The Atlantic. September 16, 2022.

  Not great, not the best. But beyond this being not the best, I submit as someone from the generation before generation Z that I am not too confident that most millennials can read cursive either.

• Google, Microsoft can get your passwords via browser's spellcheck
  Ax Sharma for Bleeping Computer. September 18, 2022.

  To be fair, this issue only arises in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge when Chrome's "Enhanced Spellcheck" or Edge's "Microsoft Editor" is enabled, those features are disabled by default, and the browsers provide appropriate warnings for users who turn the features on. Nevertheless, if you must use Chrome or Edge, consider this before enabling advanced spellchecking.

• Blocking Web Fonts for Speed and Privacy
  Colin M. Barrett. April 11, 2016.

  No need to block web fonts at The New Leaf Journal. We use a system font stack for everything except locally hosted icons.

• Bizarre bicycle vandalism reported to mayor of Komono Town, mayor admits to it
  Master Blaster for SoraNews24. September 16, 2022.

  "Starting last July, parking bicycles overnight was prohibited at the free parking lot near the station. So from July to September, Mayor Shibata had been going to the parking lot early in the morning, picking up abandoned bicycles, and then putting them upside down on the side of the street nearby."
  One man's "bizarre bicycle vandalism" is another man's hero. Mayor Shibata has my vote.

3. The Old Leaf Journal

Let's rake through our archives (how did I not come up with "rake through" before?)

• The Aesthetic Digital Environment
  N.A. Ferrell. October 19, 2020.

  Wherein I made the case for making your electronic devices aesthetic.

• Nineteenth Century Autumn Dress Trends
  N.A. Ferrell. October 3, 2020.

  Autumn is here in the Northern hemisphere. But fear not, readers. I wrote a long article about autumn dress trends (in 1850).

• The Quarantine Sessions: "Seven Spanish Angels"
  Victor V. Gurbo. April 10, 2021.

  As advertised. Original recording included.

• "Autumn" - A Seasonal 1898 Poem
  N.A. Ferrell. October 1, 2021.

  Seasonal content.

4. Most-Turned Leaves Of The Newsletter Week

I list our most-visited articles of the previous week in each newsletter. In keeping with our newsletter schedule, these “Newsletter Weeks” begin with Saturday and end on Friday. The statistics come courtesy of our local and privacy-friendly analytics solution, Koko Analytics (see review). This week, a Koko Analytics update added homepage statistics (see Leaflet). However, I am not going to count https://thenewleafjournal.com in our ranking, so it is deprived of what would have been a debut appearance in second place.

The week of September 17 to September 23 was the 38th Newsletter Week of 2022.

#	Article	By	Pub	22Top5
1	The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei	NAF	3.14.21	38 (24)
2	Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)	NAF	11.27.21	37 (7)
3	Review of /e/ - An Android Alternative For Mobile Phones	NAF	11.21.21	7 (3)
4	Installing Ubuntu Touch on an Asus Nexus 7 (2013)	NAF	7.5.21	30
5	The Last Stand of Constantine XI	NAF	5.30.20	12

Our weekly top-five featured five of the top six articles of 2022 in terms of total number of appearances, making it one of the less eventful editions of the ranking this year. The notable news of the week is that my Ubuntu Touch review notched its 30th top-five appearance of 2022, making it the third and final article of the year to reach the milestone. 2021 also featured three articles making at least 30 top-five appearances, but only my tsuki ga kirei review, which has been present in all 38 weekly rankings in 2022, repeated the feat.

5. Notable Leaf Journal

Most of my newsletter titles are inspired by some content in the newsletter itself. However, today is the third consecutive newsletter wherein my title was inspired by Roman numerals. But many (if not most readers) may wonder what does "Newsletter Geass" mean?

Well, today's newsletter number is 102, which is CII in Roman Numerals. One of the main characters in Code Geass, a popular anime series which aired from 2006-2008, was a mysterious green-haired girl named C.C. She bestowed upon the protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your perspective) of the series, a power called GEASS. This explains the title.

I never wrote about Code Geass at The New Leaf Journal. My two major anime articles featured reviews of anime which aired between 2011-2020 (inclusive) and in 2021.

I will not try to summarize Code Geass in a comprehensive manner here, but it is hard to do in short form. Let us try a list which focuses primarily on the first of its two 25-episode seasons:

• Anime series takes place in Japan, which is ruled by the Holy Britannian Empire
• Britannian Empire is a future version of the British Empire in an alternate history where it crushed the American Revolution (if I recall correctly - but the history did not really matter in the grand scheme of things) and ruled most of the world
• Lelouch, the protagonist, is a royal who was living a civilian life after certain incidents led to his being outside the family
• Lelouch gains GEASS power from C.C., which allows him to force any person to obey him
• Lelouch adopts the persona "Zero" wherein he hides his identity and foments revolution by leading a group of Japanese rebels (the Japanese are discriminated against in the Britannian Empire)
• There are robot fights
• Train-wreck ensues

Code Geass is a difficult series to evaluate critically. For the most part, it is a fun ride. It does have some dud arcs and a few too many filler episodes, but it nevertheless makes for compelling viewing. However, as fun as Code Geass can be when it is at its bombastic best, it is also an unmitigated train-wreck which crumbles if you take it too seriously.

On the balance, I adjudicate Code Geass as a good series. It is entertaining, and the plot works as long as you do not think too hard about some of the details. Code Geass has far too many flaws to be a great series, but it is too much fun to stay angry at.

Should I write about Code Geass someday? Maybe I will re-watch it and see if any of my opinions have changed in the last 12-13 years. At a minimum, I should add a C.C. article to my series on anime hair color.

6. News Leaf Journal

My quest to dust off some big article projects continues to be held up by snags (day job work, re-organizing my room, etc), but I have started mildly tuning some old articles with high impression counts in Google Search but few clicks.

7. Taking Leaf

Mr. Envelope commands you to subscribe to The Newsletter Leaf Journal. (Look into his eyes. He delivers the second Geass joke of the instant newsletter).

Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed the content and are not already a subscriber, you can sign-up via email or add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader. I also syndicate our newsletters to The New Leaf Annex.

Our next newsletter will arrive in your inbox or feed-reader on October 1. Until then,

Cura ut valeas.