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N.A. Ferrell
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I am the administrator, editor, and main writer of The New Leaf Journal (https://thenewleafjournal.com) and The Emu Café Social (https://social.emucafe.org | @naferrell). I am a legal writer and researcher by trade. Because my homeserver is linuxrocks.online: I run EndeavourOS (XFCE) on my desktop workstation and Fedora (KDE) on most of my laptops. I have two phones, one running GrapheneOS and the other Ubuntu Touch. My websites run on Ubuntu Server with Cloudron.

Thoughts on how to make good use of WordPress's native category and tag taxonomies.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/thoughts-on-wordpress-categories-and-tags/

#WordPress

The story of then-President Abraham Lincoln's decision to pardon Frank Judd, the son of Lincoln's Minister to Prussia, sparing him from what would have been execution for desertion.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/lincoln-spares-frank-r-judd-in-1864-65/

#AbrahamLincoln #History #USHistory #CivilWar #Desertion

A 2021 post about my 2020 photo of a pigeon on a limb looking for a snack... and a reminder that pigeons are heavier than sparrows.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-pigeon-on-a-limb/

#Pigeon #Bird #NYC #Brooklyn #Photography

Back in January 2022, I wrote a dialogue (using fictional characters) explaining why I was moving the NLJ off Bluehost shared hosting to a small VPS server. Nostalgic, and in terms of site performance... definitely turned out to be the correct decision.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/slow-leaf-journal-outgrowing-cheap-hosting/

#WordPress #WebHosting #VPS #Bluehost #Dialogue

My short notes on figuring out how to properly enter administrative precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals into Zotero.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/adding-eoir-bia-decisions-to-zotero/

#Zotero #Law #USImmigrationLaw #BoardOfImmigrationAppeals #USDOJ

Investigating Santa Claus with the help of a 1913 children's short story by Maud McKnight Lindsay.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/an-inquiry-into-the-nature-of-santa-claus/

#Christmas #ChristmasStory #SantaClaus #ChildrensLiterature

Reprinting and discussing The Christmas Rose, an early twentieth century Christmas short story by Lizzie Deas (I also made a simple PDF version).

https://thenewleafjournal.com/lizzie-deas-the-christmas-rose/

#Christmas #ChristmasStory #ChristmasRose #Nativity

I wrote about a Mondrian theme for KDE Plasma back in early 2021. I used it until I switched from Plasma to XFCE for my workstation in the summer of 2021. However, things come full circle. While I still use XFCE on my workstation, I use Plasma on a mini PC I designated for PC usage and have added some pieces of the Mondrian themeto my set-up.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/reviewing-the-mondrian-theme-for-kde-plasma/

#KDE #KDEPlasma #Mondrian #Desktop #Aesthetics

I think I am the only person to ever use the open source RetroBoy camera app for Android (available on F-Droid) to photograph at falcon at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Am I absolutely certain? No, but I am close to certain.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/falcon-photos-with-retroboy-camera-app/

#RetroBoy #Android #Fdroid #Falcon #NYC #BrooklynBridgePark

My September 2020 review of The New Leaf Journal's WordPress theme, BunnyPress -- including my discussing how difficult it was to buy since the store page was entirely Japanese. While much has changed at NLJ since 9/2020, including our layout, BunnyPress remains our theme.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-bunnypress-chronicles-story-and-review/

#WordPress #BunnyPress #WordPressThemes

They say it's better late than never. I interpret that to mean it's never too late to catch up on the newest trends in women's fashion (in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) from January 1841.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/womens-fashion-trends-for-january-1841/

#History #Fashion #OldMagaziens #Dresses #Philadelphia

Overhearing a man drop "pie chart" in casual conversation about video games inspired a dialogue on pizza charts and mixing work and leisure.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/justin-and-justina-a-slice-of-pie-chart-life/

#dialogue #piechart

My post on a 1913 magazine collection of reader-submitted breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from the 50 states. I singled out several for looking good (to me). However, I do have some concerns about the AMOUNT of food...

https://thenewleafjournal.com/american-breakfast-lunch-and-dinner-home-menus-from-1913/

#Cooking #Recipes #OldRecipes #ProjectGutenberg

Fresh off the presses, my long, detailed history of a former official New York City holiday that landed on November 25: Evacuation Day. It commemorated the evacuation, or final departure, of the British military from Manhattan on November 25, 1783, which was followed by the entry of the U.S. military led by a certain General George Washington.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/history-of-new-yorks-evacuation-day/

#nyc #history #EvacuationDay #GeorgeWashington #holiday

Re-printing the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation, from the pen of George Washington in 1789 (also noted are some 1789 arguments against a federal proclamation of Thanksgiving).

https://thenewleafjournal.com/washingtons-1789-thanksgiving-proclamation/

#thanksgiving #GeorgeWashington #history #ushistory

I dare say Newsletter 161 is one of my finer newsletter efforts. Links to our 5 newest articles, 21 links from around the web, and a Thanksgiving-themed walk through our archives. Come for the new New Leaf Journal content, stay for external links to articles about birds looking at birds.

https://buttondown.email/newsletterleafjournal/archive/161/

#newsletter #buttondown #links #aroundtheweb #thanksgiving

Last year, I published a history of Thanksgiving in the Philippines from the U.S. colonial era through the first President Marcos's significantly changed take on the holiday.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/history-of-thanksgiving-proclamations-in-the-philippines/

#thanksgiving #philippines #history #ushistory #holiday

I have written a number of articles about hair color in Japanese anime, manga, novels, and games (usually visual novels) -- because why not become the internet's leading resource in something? I finally got around to creating a collection page for this very important 2D anthropology project.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/collection/hair-color-in-japanese-anime-manga-and-games/

#anime #manga #visualnovels #haircolor #dresscodes

Re-printing "Pumpkin Pie," a seasonal early 20th century children's poem by Mary Mapes Dodge.

https://thenewleafjournal.com/pumpkin-pie-a-childrens-poem-by-mary-mapes-dodge/

#poem #poetry #pumpkin #pumpkinpie #autumn #thanksgiving

nostr:npub1tgkmcmrd6aqrdzj3u65r0wvwqac7z4xnmcu9xmat4y3s0scqqrws464t9m I never tried an Android-based reader -- but I'll throw PocketBook out as worth a look. Has a minimal Linux-based OS and you can use entirely without any account or internet connection. Supports many formats, so good for DRM-free collection. New ones have optional Adobe DRM support (Adobe account required). It is also very easy to set up KoReader, which I prefer to native reader. I doubt it would check the music/email boxes well, however.