Newsletter Leaf Journal XCV 〜 Not for shed reading
The 95th Newsletter Leaf Journal covers NLJ content on everything from NYC dining sheds to video games as well as 9 articles from around the web.
Welcome to the 95th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. As always, this newsletter comes to you from the waterproof keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. Today I have our usual assortment of New Leaf Journal content recaps from the week that was, news and notes from our project, and interesting links from around the web.
Before I continue, note that while I do plan to mail a newsletter next week (Saturday, August 13), it will most likely be a short newsletter which only recaps our on-site content. The reason for this is because I will be away, and I plan to schedule most of my posts for the week. You can expect to see a return to our usual robust newsletter format on August 20.
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
- Notable Leaf Journal
- News Leaf Journal
- Taking Leaf
1. Leaves From The Week That Was
I published seven new full articles since I mailed last week’s newsletter. One of these seven articles was our ordinary month-in-review post, published on July 31. If you missed some of our July articles and Leaflets, I worked hard to organize them by topic in the month-and-review post, so it should be easy for readers to find specific articles and Leaflets of interest. Below, I review our other six posts from the last week.
- Blaziken Starts a (Troubling?) Trend | NAF (July 30, 2022) | Summary: An excerpt from an old interview with Mr. Ken Sugimori, Pokémon’s long-time art director, caused me to confront the issue of an uncomfortably furry trend in certain Pokémon designs.
- Nikon’s Long-Term Support for the D7100 | NAF (July 31, 2022) | Summary: A short piece in praise of Nikon for releasing a meaningful update for a DLSR camera that it released nearly 10 years ago.
- On Children Watching Videos Outdoors | NAF (August 1, 2022) | Summary: I express some concerns about children watching videos on a phone while they are out with their parents.
- Tom Cantor’s Changed Has Poor Color Scheme | NAF (August 3, 2022) | Summary: I “review” a direct-mail spam book from a genuinely unique angle.
- In Support of the Lawsuit Against NYC Dining Sheds | NAF (August 4, 2022) | Summary: Wherein I reveal again that I am not at all a fan of the outdoor dining sheds that are polluting New York City streets and sidewalks.
- Brave and DuckDuckGo Timer Search Shortcuts | NAF (August 5, 2022) | Summary: A detailed guide for setting up an address bar shortcut to the DuckDuckGo and Brave Search timer widgets. Just about anyone using a modern-ish browser can give it a go. See my Leaflet on the news story that inspired me to write the guide.
I published eight Leaflet microposts since our previous newsletter. A few will be referenced in the next section (Around the Web), and I linked to one supra. Here, I will cover two Leaflets which do not show up elsewhere in the newsletters. On July 31, I covered a SoraNews24 article about “pudding infused French toast” (consider me unconvinced). On August 2, I wrote about another ISP search engine showing up in our logs (stop that).
2. Leaves From Around The Web
While I think The New Leaf Journal produced some solid content in the last week, I know that it may not be enough to occupy an entire weekend for all of our readers. Fortunately , I came across many interesting articles from around the web. Enjoy nine Newsletter Leaf Journal referrals below.
- Tim Horton’s offers free coffee and donut to settle data privacy invasion claims | Brandon Vigilarolo for The Register | July 30, 2022 | Thoughts & Leaflet Link: Quoting me: “Before installing that app from your favorite merchant or donut dealer, ask first whether you really need that app.”
- I was on TikTok for 30 days: it is manipulative, addictive, and harmful to privacy | Luiza Jarovsky | July 29, 2022 | Summary: A thorough review of TikTok (which should be banned with many interesting and informative outgoing links. A more serious piece than the headline suggests.
- Electronics are built with death dates. Let’s not keep them a secret. |Geoffrey A. Fowler for the Washington Post | August 2, 2022 | Thoughts & Leaflet: Tech longevity (or lack thereof) is a subject near and dear to my New Leaf Journal writing interests, as I detailed in a Leaflet on this interesting piece.
- Walk Like a Buddha |Thich Nhat Hanh for Tricycle | June 1, 2011 | Quote: “[The Buddha] was so loved because he knew how to enjoy a good walk.”
- The Layout Crisis: The Collapse of Anime’s Traditional Immersion, and the Attempts to Build it Anew | kVin at Sakuga Blog | August 5, 2022 | A long essay (befitting the long title) on the state of the production of anime scenes and visuals.
- TI-83 Plus One More |Leaded Soldier | August 10, 2021 | Thoughts & Leaflet: The post features an interesting tear-down and repair of a TI-83. I focused on the authors thoughts about TI-83 pricing in a short Leaflet.
- 30 Golf Carts Destroyed in Thailand Fire | Sutthiwit Chayutworakan for the Bangkok Post | August 3, 2022 | Thoughts & Leaflet: That the article only notes the destruction of a building and golf carts is probably a good sign from a glass-half-full perspective. I briefly summarized the key section in a Leaflet.
- New York City’s Criminal Justice Guardrails Are Failing | Hannah E. Meyers for City Journal | August 3, 2022 | Thoughts: Lest anyone thought my hit piece on the outdoor dining sheds highlighted the biggest problem in New York City, this article shows that this is not the case. Good points and some harrowing statistics to boot.
- Magnificent wooden canopy to be symbol of 2025 Osaka Expo |Itsuki Soeda for The Asahi Shumbun | August 3, 2022 | Thoughts: The plans are aesthetic. I hope that the cost overruns are not too bad.
3. The Old Leaf Journal
Let’s dig into our archives to find five posts that are inspired by the foregoing links…
- On Children, TikTok, and Social Media Stardom | N.A. Ferrell | February 19, 2022 | Summary: An even darker TikTok tale than the one I linked to for this week’s Around the Web.
- Noramie Jasmin’s Inspiring Political Comeback Story | N.A. Ferrell | April 17, 2021 | Summary: Much like the Tom Cantor book review I covered in our weekly leaves section, I approached this story from the perspective that other commentators missed.
- Reviewing “Calculator the Game” - A FOSS PWA Math Game For Android | N.A. Ferrell |December 19, 2021 |Summary: I thought about posting one of my TI-89 graphing calculator “artwork” articles here, but then I remembered my review of Calculator the Game from last December. Still a bit sad it did not catch on. I played through every level just for the readers. Now read my review and try the free game (it runs in web browsers too, no Android necessary).
- Fish Art in DUMBO’s Main Street Part in 2008 | N.A. Ferrell | February 8, 2021 | Summary: Since I posted about an old Nikon DLSR camera this week, I thought that it would be fitting for me to post one of my articles about a photo I took with an even older Nikon DLSR camera. This article covers a photo I took of some fish art in DUMBO’s Main Street Park back on August 13, 2008. Lest you think that is a while ago, I took the cherry blossom photo that adorns our About Page with the same camera on April 26, 2007.
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 - which I reviewed on site. The week of July 30 to August 5 was the 31st Newsletter Week of 2022.
| # | Article | By | Pub | 22Top5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei | NAF | 3.14.21 | 31 (21) |
| 2 | Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021) | NAF | 11.27.21 | 31 (7) |
| 3 | Amazon Black Hat Seller Scenario | NAF | 7.26.22 | 1 |
| 4 | The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis | NAF | 1.18.22 | 4 |
| 5 | The Last Stand of Constantine XI | NAF | 5.30.20 | 11 |
For the third consecutive week, a Hacker News post contributed an entry to our top-5. However, my recent short story imagining an Amazon black hat seller scenario could not sustain its fast start to the week, and came in third behind our usual top two. My tsuki ga kirei and F-Droid posts performed a bit better than they had in recent weeks, but we continue to see a trend with more articles behind them garnering views, but none standing out individually. My January study of the Pokémon “special split” made its fourth consecutive top five while my 2020 post on Constantine XI nudged out my Ubuntu Touch installation top-5 staple and my ProxiTok review to make its 11th appearance of the year.
5. Notable Leaf Journal
I usually use the Notable Leaf Journal section to recommend something to our readers. This week, however, I wrote a long guide to setting up search engine timer shortcuts. This may actually be useful for some readers (it should work on most phone browsers too), so let’s stick with one recommendation at a time.
6. News Leaf Journal
As I noted at the top, I will be away for much of the next two weeks. For that reason, I plan to schedule most posts for that period in advance (and coincidentally, there are unlikely to be too many changes to The New Leaf Journal proper). While I do expect to mail a newsletter on August 13, it will likely consist only of a short New Leaf Journal recap and weekly view-count ranking (part of my motivation for not skipping a week is that doing so would make the August 20 newsletter a pain to put together).
7. Taking Leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal (and, I trust, following The New Leaf Journal). If you enjoyed the content and have not done so already, you can subscribe to the newsletter via email or RSS. I also syndicate newsletter posts to Bearblog (see blog and atom). You can also easily stay up to date with The New Leaf Journal proper via RSS, Atom, or JSON (choose your preferred feed format).
I look forward to (probably) sending a short newsletter next week and returning to our normal newsletter format on August 20.
Until then,
Cura ut valeas.