Nicholas Ferrell
New York
Covers:
Brooklyn, Linux, Open Source Software, Social Media, Sports, Visual Novels, Law
Official account for The New Leaf Journal, the perennially virid online writing magazine covering many topics. Posts by site Admin/Editor @nafnlj.
Articles by Nicholas Ferrell
Finding Backlinks to Your Articles and Blog Posts
I recently stumbled upon blog posts by Herbert Lui (How to find people who link to your blog) and Maddy Miller (I wish reply articles worked better; see also my reply post) discussing some of the challenges in engaging in website-to-website discussions. Both blog posts noted that it can be difficult to find where other websites discuss your published writing and media. They also note that it can be difficult to make people you link to aware of those links.
Fighting Headlights With EBD Blue 360 Lenses
I have published an article and fictional dialogue complaining about the ever-increasing brightness of car headlights in Brooklyn, New York, from the perspective of a pedestrian who regularly takes evening walks. Over on The Emu Café Social, I noted that I am not the only one to have noticed the issue. Four years to the day, I published an article about one tool I had acquired to protect me from the headlines: BLUPOND’s Knight Vision Night Driving Glasses.
Memories of Shiny Drowzee in Pokémon Gold
On October 15, 2020, I published an article commemorating what was then the 20th anniversary of the North American release of the second generation mainline Pokémon games, Pokémon Gold and Silver (see Winds of New Beginnings: Pokémon Gold & Silver). In so doing, I told the story of how I acquired Pokémon Gold on launch day and offered my take on the elegant town slogan for the player’s starting point, New Bark Town in the English releases (Wakaba Town in the Japanese version).
Victor V. Gurbo Interview On Outrun the Invisible Man
I have written the vast majority of articles here at The New Leaf Journal. But I have not written all of the articles. My good friend and colleague Victor V. Gurbo has written and had published many articles in his own right. Most of Victor’s articles have focused on his music career. On October 14, 2025, Victor collaborated with Mark Caserta, who is not only a fellow talented Brooklyn-based musician, but also a member of Victor’s successful band Victor V.
Early Rotting Carved Halloween Pumpkins in Brooklyn
I have covered extensively in these humble pages the plight of Halloween and autumnal pumpkins left out to rot in Brooklyn. On October 3, 2025, I wrote about a Christmas countdown clock seen in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in late September. What if we combined my past-their-peak rotting pumpkin series with the very early countdown clock? If you know where this is going and do not want to see it, you are out of luck.
Reviewing iMoon For Ubuntu Touch
I am writing this article on October 6, 2025, the night of October’s Harvest Moon. I decided to commemorate the event with a review of the iMoon app for Ubuntu Touch. The app was originally created by user fulvio and is now maintained by Weston Howard. Ubuntu Touch is a free and open source Linux operating system targeted at phones and it is maintained by UBports (see the official Ubuntu Touch website).
Using a Small Paper Clip as SIM Tray Tool
I recently wrote about temporarily switching my primary phone, going from a Google Pixel 6a running GrapheneOS to a Google Pixel 3a XL running Ubuntu Touch, pending my replacing the 6a battery. Completing the switch required me to move my SIM card from the 6a to the 3a XL. It occurred to me that some people who have their phones serviced at stores by their phone manufacturer or service provider may not have much experience swapping SIM cards.
Christmas Countdown Clock in September
I was walking up Degraw Street on the afternoon of September 29, 2025, when I happened across an unexpected seasonal decoration: An inflatable snowman with a Christmas countdown clock. To be sure, this is not the first time I have documented an inflatable snowman with a Christmas countdown clock in Brooklyn.
Trying Droidian on a Google Pixel 3a XL
On December 26, 2024, I published a short post on our sister-site, The Emu Café Social, titled Pixel 3a XL Goes from DivestOS to Ubuntu Tou… Droidian? As the title of the short post suggests, I had planned to install the UBports’ Ubuntu Touch operating system on my Google Pixel 3a XL phone, but instead installed another mobile Linux distribution called Droidian. How did that happen? What did I think of Droidian? Why did I ultimately install Ubuntu Touch on that very phone? Read on to find out.
Broken Wheel on Amazon eQuad Cargo Bike
I was caught out in the rain on a walk in Brooklyn Heights on the afternoon of September 6, 2025. While sheltering under an awning in front of the Bossert Hotel at the corner of Hicks and Montague Streets (just around the corner from where I documented a parked Cybertruck in March), I noticed an Amazon eQuad cargo bike “parked” on the opposite corner. I wrote about Amazon’s so-called cargo “bikes” back in April, and as luck would have it some people found that article interesting.
Jim Walden’s Connecticut Plates
On July 29, I published an investigative report on the campaign car of Jim Walden, the now-former independent candidate for Mayor of New York City. Some people who read that article may call “foul” on my describing what I wrote as an investigative report. To be sure, the article was centered on my photographs of Mr. Walden’s campaign car, which was parked in a very open-to-the-public location in Brooklyn Heights, where Mr. Walden reportedly lives.
Aegis Authenticator and Linux Authenticator
I came across a blog post by Imran Nazar titled Degoogling TOTP Authenticator Codes (via Hacker News page one). In the post, Mr. Nazar, who explains that he spends most of his computer time “in a terminal window on MacOS or connected to a Linux machine,” sought a solution that would allow him to decrease his dependence on the proprietary Google Authenticator TOTP phone app and access his TOTP codes through the command line using a utility called oathtool.
Thinkbot Visits The New Leaf Journal
I recently came across an article via Hacker News on Sean Conner’s The Boston Diaries blog titled “Bro, ban me at the IP level if you don’t like me! (August 21, 2025). From the title alone, I had a small hunch as a writing website administrator about what had prompted the article. Would my hunch be correct? I read the first paragraph to find out.
Missing the “Liquid Death” Marketing Campaign
Two days ago (August 14, 2025), I published an article tithed Coca Cola Liquid Death Tag. That article was centered on a photo I took of a retail refrigerator where glass Coke bottles were situated next to cans of Liquid Death, but the Liquid Death price tag was placed under the Coke.
My Boxed Water Is Better Story
On July 16, 2025, I read a July 16, 2025 op-ed in The Washington Times by Rick Berman (president of RBB Strategies) titled The boxed water hoax: When green marketing turns toxic. I suspect that a many people who came across the op-ed may have done a double-take, wondering who in the world thought that putting water in boxes was a worthwhile endeavor.
U.S. Air Force Targets Cybertrucks
On August 7, 2025, The War Zone published an article by Joseph Tirevithick with the ineffably clickable title Cybertrucks Wanted By Air Force As Missile Targets.
Kazuya’s Hair Color in Rent-A-Girlfriend
I am currently watching the ongoing fourth anime season of Rent-A-Girlfriend, TMS’s animated adaptation of a Reiji Miyajima’s ongoing manga (of eight years) of the same name (Kanojo Okarishmasu in Japanese).
Finding the Best RSS/ATOM Feed
In 2023, I published an article about subscribing to author or taxonomic RSS/ATOM feeds (e.g., categories or tags) for websites for which you may be interested in reading one writer or section but not another. My favorite example is for the New York Post. I read the Metro section but am not interested in most of the rest of the publication (although it is sometimes amusing). Because the New York Post is built on WordPress, it offers author- and taxonomy-specific feeds.
Ventoux Too: Pogačar’s New TDF Climbing Record
I wrote about Tadej Pogačar’s near record-breaking performance on the Hautacam climb of stage 12 of the 2025 Tour de France, on which he climbed dramatically faster than every Tour rider had in the 2022, 2014, 2008, and 2000 tours. In doing so, he also came within half-a-minute of Bjarne Riis’ famous (or infamous, given later revelations about how he climbed so fast) rampage up Hautacam in the 1996 Tour de France.
Happy Cleaners Cargo Trike in Gowanus
Back in April I wrote an article about Amazon’s cargo e-bikes. I was inspired to write about the subject because I like the Amazon cargo e-bike aesthetic, although I maintain that they are not bikes on account of the fact that they have four wheels instead of two (calling them eQuad electric bikes does not fully ameliorate the issue). But nomenclature aside, the form-factor is neat.
In January 2024, I wrote an article examining a claim that we could extrapolate from the fact that a doped Lance Armstrong dominated a largely doped Tour de France from 1999-2005 that a clean Lance Armstrong would have similarly been the best rider against clean Tour de France fields (see Cycling Doping Fallacies).
Five Years of the Koko Analytics WordPress Plugin
Since July 11, 2020, I have been using a WordPress plugin called Koko Analytics to keep track of New Leaf Journal page views. I use these statistics for our weekly newsletter, month-end reviews, and year-in-review articles. Now that we have just passed our five-year Koko Analytics anniversary, I thought it would be fun to take another look at the plugin and some stats from five years of Koko Analytics. I published two reviews of Koko Analytics.
On Forcing AI Where It Does Not Belong
I recently read a June 5, 2025 post by Ted Gioia titled The Force-Feeding of AI on an Unwilling Public (I read it thanks to my feed collection). The headline is on all fours with the post content and I am largely sympathetic to Mr. Gioia’s concerns about big tech companies forcing large language models into their products (I am also sympathetic to complaints about his very short paragraphs, but we will set those complaints aside).
On Online Reader Expectations
I recently read an article on the New York Magazine website titled Have ‘Best of’ Lists Made Travel More Bland?. The article examines the deluge of travel recommendation articles in the “50 best” format. I neither read travel lists nor travel often (evinced by my small number of travel articles), so the subject matter is not relevant to me.
NBA Championship Droughts
On June 22, 2025, the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA Championship, defeating the Indiana Pacers in seven games in the NBA Finals. An ESPN headline published in the immediate aftermath noted that the Thunder won its first championship in the Oklahoma City era (it changed before I could save a screenshot so you will have to take my word for it). ESPN was correct. It was the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first championship, but not the franchise’s.
Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
On the morning of April 8, 2025, I was perusing articles in my feed reader on my phone. One article from SoraNews24 titled Free Pokémon-catching mini game with all 151 Kanto Pokémon added to Google searches! caught my attention. The article explained that Google and The Pokémon Company teamed up to make a Google Search mini game.
A Skypark Bridge to Sell You
“If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.” Or so goes the saying which derives from the exploits of George C. Parker, who spent much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries “selling” New York City landmarks to unwitting marks, and most prominent among the landmarks was the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, which had been completed in 1883.
Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn
In late 2024, I began regular seeing oddly shaped pedal-powered Amazon delivery vehicles on my walks. That description may be less than descriptive, so allow me to illustrate with a photo I took of one parked in the wild – the wild being Brooklyn Heights. While I first saw only a few of these in late 2024, now I see many – perhaps more of these things than Amazon’s new full sized electric delivery trucks.
Honey Lemon Soda - Anime Review
This article is my review the Honey Lemon Soda anime, which is an adaptation of part of an ongoing manga series by Mayu Murata. Honey Lemon Soda is a Japanese high school-based romance story which focuses both on a budding romance between the principal protagonist, first year high school student Uka Ishimori, and her close friend and eventual love interest, the blonde (or honey lemon soda-colored hair) Kai Miura.
“Like Literally Like” - Unclear Speaking
I went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Saturday, March 29, 2025, one day after purchasing a new membership (I referenced this in the Newsletter I mailed that evening). My walk to the Garden took me through Grand Army Plaza, which was turned into a zoo by a throng of poorly dressed, often poorly behaved people. Two women (reasonably dressed) were walking ahead of me. One was talking at a rapid-fire pace.
Worst NBA Playoff Teams By SRS (1984-2024)
The 2025 NBA Playoffs are fast approaching. This has inspired me to conduct a new NBA historical statistics survey. While most attention going into the playoffs typically goes to the favorites, my survey will take a different approach. We will examine the worst teams to make the NBA Playoffs in the 16-team playoff era, which began with the 1984 postseason. To begin, we must define the term worst playoff teams.
Pokémon and Pokémon Go in Saudi Arabia
On March 13, 2025, I read an article on Morning Brew titled Saudi Arabia buys ‘Pokémon Go’ for $3.5 billion (Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew, March 13, 2025).
2024 TV Anime Category Awards
I just published an article ranking my six favorite TV anime series of 2024 along with shorter assessments of 15 additional shows. In this article, I will dole out category-specific anime awards for 2024. While only one show could take home my anime of the year title, many shows will get to take home minor prizes courtesy of the editor of The New Leaf Journal.
The Best TV Anime of 2024
With 2024 in the rear-view mirror, it is time for my fourth annual New Leaf Journal anime year-in review. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, I listed my top five (2021) and six (2022 and 2023) anime series of the year along with honorable mentions/notables and category-specific awards. This year, I decided to split my year-end review into two parts. In this article, I will rank my top six anime shows of 2024 in reverse order (from six to one) and then discuss some additional series outside my top-six.
January 2025 Look at Pixelfed Social
On November 13, 2020, I published An Early Review of Pixelfed – Instagram Alternative. At that time I had been using an account on Pixelfed Social, the Pixelfed instance managed by the lead Pixelfed developer, for about one month. That post has generally been successful in terms of drawing viewers (and I know it inspired at least one reader to try Pixelfed), and it ranks as our 1st, 6th, and 11th most-read article in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.
Trump 2024 vs Bush 2004: State-by-State
Much has been said about how President Donald Trump won a second non-consecutive presidential term (joining Stephen Grover Cleveland in the non-consecutive terms club) with an electoral coalition distinct from those relied upon by former President George W. Bush in his victories in 2000 and 2004 and by John McCain and Mitt Romney in thir 2008 and 2012 defeats against former President Barack Obama.
[Note] Things I Learned: TP-Link Security Issues
On December 18, 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that “U.S. authorities are investigating whether a Chinese company whose popular home-internet routers have been linked to cyberattacks poses a national-security risk and are considering banning the devices.” I learned a few interesting facts beyond the top-line story: “The router-manufacturer TP-Link, established in China, has roughly 65% of the U.S. market for routers for homes and small businesses.” TP-Link’s home and small business...
Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
“Defense wins championships” is an old basketball (and, more generally, sports) mantra. It was around when I first watched NBA basketball in 1997 and it persisted through when I last closely followed it in 2016.
FrogFind Search Engine Review
Today I will offer a quick introduction to, and review of, FrogFind. FrogFind’s tagline describes it as “The Search Engine For Vintage Computers.” Lest this ambiguous headline lead to confusion, which it did when FrogFind was featured on Hacker News, FrogFind is a search engine designed for use on vintage computers, not for finding vintage computers. What does this mean? Does it have use outside of very old computers? Read on to find out.
Emperor Otho’s Peculiar Life and Death
69 AD is known in Roman History as “The Year of Four Emperors.” The second of those four Emperors was Otho. Otho ruled in Rome from January 15, 69, through April 16, 69. He obtained the imperial purple by bribing the Praetorian Guard to depose and murder the short-lived Emperor Galba. His unstable rule was immediately challenged by sveral legions in Germany that declared for then-Governor Vitellius.
Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother
John Calvin Coolidge served as the 30th President of the United States from August 2, 1923, after assuming the presidency upon the death of then-President Warren Harding, to March 4, 1929. Shortly after leaving office, still in 1929, Coolidge published his autobiography. Coolidge’s autobiography was relatively short – numbering 266 pages. In it, the former President worked through his life, from childhood through his years in the White House, in a characteristically elegant way, wasting no words.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Nicholas
Contact Nicholas, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack