I continued my New Years tradition of recapping the year that was at The New Leaf Journal (with the help of our site's fictional dialogue duo). In this post, I reviewed the 51 most-visited articles of the year (statistics courtesy of our local, open source, privacy-friendly hit counter, Koko Analytics... which also makes an appearance in the top 51), from an article about the fediverse at 51 to our Hacker News page 1-fueled #1. In addition to links to all 51 of our most-visited articles and monthly stats, you will find links to some of our 900+ un-ranked posts in the comments.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/justin-and-justina-review-2022-at-the-nlj/

#thenewleafjournal #newleafjournal #blogging #yearinreview #lists

After publishing our 700th article, I took a look back at our articles by 100s.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/leaf/joining-the-700-article-club/

#blogging #visualnovel #thenewleafjournal

Better very late than never - my review of the top five anime series of 2021. Because #thenewleafjournal has not been around too long - I also noted my favorite series from 2015-2020.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-best-anime-series-of-2021/

#anime #newleafjournal

In 1999, I read Pokémon: Pathways to Adventure - a novelization of Pokémon Red + strategy guide. Never too late for a review.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/pokemon-pathways-to-adventure-1999-review/

#pokémon #gameboy #bookreview #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

Overheard on the street: "Dude, I got a theory."

https://thenewleafjournal.com/dude-i-got-a-theory/

#newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

I wanted a simple estimated reading time solution for WordPress. Only one plugin checked all of my boxes.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/leaf/insert-estimated-reading-time-for-wordpress/

Problem: It's a Japanese plugin, so it counts chars per minute instead of words per minute. Lazy solution: Figure out a reasonable chars per minute value to yield appropriate English times (fun fact: about 1520-1600 chars per minute seems to work).

#wordpress #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

A short piece on two 1851 letters from Abraham Lincoln to his step-brother on the value of work.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/abraham-lincolns-1851-letters-on-work-to-john-d-johnston/

#lincoln #history #ushistory #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

President Calvin Coolidge was known for having unusual White House pets. His best-known pet in this category was Rebecca the Raccoon. Rebecca was sent to a zoo before Coolidge left office, but Coolidge's successor, Herbert Hoover, did not leave the cage unfilled for long. Enter Billy Possum.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-story-of-billy-possum-president-hoovers-pet-opossum/

#history #ushistory #pets #opossum #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal #president

Otho, the second of Rome's four Emperors in 69 AD, took his own life on April 16, 69, rather than continue in a civil war to retain the throne. The extant ancient historian accounts grappled with the contrast Otho's seemingly noble end (under Roman standards) and their low opinions of him in life. I had a bit to say about the histories last year (a bit over 18k words).

https://thenewleafjournal.com/ancient-accounts-on-the-enigmatic-life-and-death-of-emperor-otho/

#rome #romanhistory #romanemire
#history #otho #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

If you replace a 2D person's hair, do you replace the 2D person? A story from watching an episode of Magica Madoka with a friend 10 years ago begged a profound question about anime on the Ship of Theseus. Last year, I searched for answers.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-hair-makes-the-2d-girl-anime-on-the-ship-of-theseus/

#anime #hair #2d #philosophy #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

On the rare occasion that one of my posts gets shared on Hacker News, I often find that it is a long-forgotten post... instead of one that I'd expect to be shared. One such occasion today reminded me of my reflection (and response to co-writer) on the importance (or lack thereof) of choices and branches in plot-centric games (my in-article title was a bit awkward, alas).

https://thenewleafjournal.com/on-choices-in-story-heavy-video-games/

#videogames #branch #narrative #choices #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

100 years to the day, the Great Chelsea Fire (MA) of 1908 burned down about half of a city. A book on Project Gutenberg from two months after the fire contained 34 images of Chelsea before and after the blaze - which I discussed in brief in an article.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-great-chelsea-fire-of-1908-114-years-later/

#history #ushistory #photography #photo #fire #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal #projectgutenberg

Last summer - I came across an 1895 article about a miniature railway system in a backyard in Windsor. Its creator, Reverend H.L. Warneford, showed loving attention to detail. One of the best parts of the original article was that it came with numerous photographs of the model trains and bridges - all of which are included in my article.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/reverend-warnefords-1890s-miniature-model-railroad-system-in-windsor/

#history #windsor #train #modeltrains #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

Last year, inspired by Parimal Satyal's "Rediscovering the Small Web," I wrote an essay about artisinal websites and humane web design. While The New Leaf Journal, built with WordPress, gives off a less 90s/Geocities vibe than many of the sites featured in that article - the ideas in Mr. Satyal's piece go beyond a specific format.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/atw-the-small-web-artisanal-content-and-humane-design/

#SmallWeb #humane #webdesign #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

I have an ongoing series studying how to interpret hair colors in anime series - are they intended to be taken literally or figuratively? One of the less dramatic entries in the series focused on Kimi ni Todoke, where we learned that the (mostly natural) hair colors in the series were to be interpreted literally.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/understanding-hair-color-in-the-kimi-ni-todoke-anime-series/

#anime #kiminitodoke #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

Last month, I published an article prompted by some interesting remarks about bad content on social media. While it's clear he does not have an account on this fine server - his views were sound and provided a starting point for interesting reflections - including my positive views of the main Pixelfed instance.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/murakami-on-bad-social-media-content/

#socialmedia #facebook #twitter #content #murakami #instagram #pixelfed #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

I often find content by perusing the archives of Project Gutenberg. Last May, I came across breaking news of an interesting invention in an 1897 children's magazine: The newspaper rack for paperboys.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/a-sensible-invention-bicycle-newspaper-rack-for-paperboys/

#bike #bicycle #newspaper #history #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

In 1999, Nintendo Power printed an elaborate April Fools joke in its April issue - advising innocent young players that they could cause their Dragonites to transmogrify into Yoshi through a complicated series of steps. I read the issue at the time - although II was wise enough to not use the "guide." Last year, I looked back on the story for April Fools.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/nintendo-powers-1999-yoshi-in-pokemon-april-fools-prank/

#pokémon #retrogames #videogames #gameboy #aprilfools #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal #yoshi

Just over one year ago, I reviewed the Usagi Drop anime series and explained why, despite liking it, I did not include it in an earlier post of recommended anime series from 2011-2020. While the anime itself is charming, there are some... issues... with events in the underlying source material after what the anime covered.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-curious-case-of-usagi-drop/

#anime #usagidrop #bunnydrop
#manga #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal

From November 2021, a short post on ReactOS winning a contest prompted by the 30th anniversary of the Linux kernel and a bat winning the title of bird of the year in Australia at around the same time. Although ReactOS and bats are very different - they both counted as unexpected contest winners.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/reactos-and-bats-and-birds-surprising-contest-winners/

#linux #reactos #bats #birds #newleafjournal #TheNewLeafJournal