Yesterday marked the end of a month and year. As always the end of the month means its time for our (mostly) regular New Leaf Journal month-end review. I would have waited a few more days to publish this but for the fact I am publishing my full 2024 review later today and that article depends in small part on having our December statistics in order.
Without further ado, let us work through the month that was.
New December Leaves at The New Leaf Journal
I published 14 new articles in December, with one being our November 2024 Review.
My highlight article of the month was one I wrote on a whim. After coming across a list by another online writer of 52 things he learned in 2024, I put together my own list – but with 54 Things I Learned in 2024 instead of 52 (have to keep the lists divisible by three).
December saw three new Brooklyn photography posts. In my second article of the month, I wrote Victory Chimes Schooner in Brooklyn Bridge Park, wherein I documented the park’s newest maritime resident and researched its interesting history – which includes being depicted on the back of the Maine state quarter. One day later, I wrote Musing About Tesla Cybertruck at Brooklyn Bridge Park, which begins with a photograph suggested by the title and ends with my reminiscing about the Sega 32X. On the eve of Christmas Eve, I published Brooklyn Heights Promenade Christmas Tree. The title says it all, but I encourage you to take a look because it is a fine Christmas tree.
I published two visual novel reviews in December. First, I reviewed the original 2010 version of The Dandelion Girl after having previously reviewed the 2016 re-mastered version. While the two versions share the same artwork, the scripts differ from one another and, in turn, from the 1961 science fiction short story by Robert F. Young of the same name on which both are based. In my penultimate article of the month, I reviewed Christmas Rose, a short 2013 original language visual novel which can be described as a love story between the seasons where one of the seasons has tsundere tendencies.
Staying in the broad genre, I published my Extra Anime Awards for 2023 on December 18, 2024. Readers may wonder why I published a supplement to my 2023 anime year-end review, which I had published on January 6, 2023, in December. Is it really better late than never? I plan to refer back to some of my extra 2023 awards in my soon-upcoming 2024 anime review articles, so that served as my motivation to finally churn out something I had drafted in part several months ago.
December saw two articles inspired by current events. First, I published TMI in Landlord-Tenant Relationships, which was prompted by some bizarre stories about Mr. Luigi Mangione, who has been charged (with good reason) for murdering Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group which, for me at least, do not add up beyond a strange attempt to make the violent gentleman sympathetic. I then cast my eyes abroad, raising unexpected questions based on a recent investigative support of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s “inner circle” in President Lukashenko’s Hairstylist.
I published two tech articles of sort. First, I conducted an open source software investigation in mpv Media Player’s December Santa Hat. Next, I shared the news our readers have surely been waiting for: The New Leaf Journal has a “safe” rating from Norton Safeweb.
I wrap up my review with my fun anecdote of the month. In my first New Leaf Journal article, I told the story of how I accidentally purchased a tampered-with Chobani Flips yogurt at the grocery store on December 12, 2018. At the same grocery store on December 12, 2024, I came across a very past-its-prime carton of cashew milk that I had planned to buy before checking the sell-by date. Things come full circle in a way in Sell by November Chashew Milk in December.
The Emu Café Social
I was also somewhat busy on our short-form publishing sister-site, The Emu Café Social. I wrote about troubleshooting an issue with my Lenovo T400 laptop, since resolved. I did not buy a Google Pixel Tablet but I did install Droidian on my Google Pixel 3a XL. I resumed my Pokémon play-through project, including rekindling some memories on Christmas. I was surprised to learn that people order delivery from Krispy Kreme and that it is apparently possible to flee a Middle Eastern country in a Russian military plane without having once thought about the possibility before being airborne. You can see my full collection of December posts, including some I left out of my short recap, here.
The Newsletter Leaf Journal
I published four editions of our Saturday newsletter, all of which include links from around the web (with my sometimes-punny commentary) and weekly visitor notes not found in The New Leaf Journal proper. You will find links to the four newsletters below:
- Newsletter Leaf Journal CCX 〜 Chiming in December 7, 2024 Issue 210 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to the three newest New Leaf Journal articles, which cover everything from a 2010 visual novel, 1994 racing games, and 1900 boats, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes.
- Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXI 〜 Not over-sharing December 14, 2024 Issue 211 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to 3 new NLJ articles and several posts on The Emu Café Social, covering everything from current events to donut delivery. You will also fund a punny around the web selection and other news and notes from the week that was.
- Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXII 〜 Before the sell-by date December 21, 2024 Our pre-Christmas 2024 newsletter feautures links to the five newest New Leaf Journal leaves, 21 links from around the web, Christmas links from our archive, and the list of our most-visited articles from one of our busiest weeks of 2024.
- Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXXIII 〜 A Christmas promenade December 28, 2024 The final Newsletter Leaf Journal of 2024 features links to two new Christmas-themed New Leaf Journal articles, several new posts at The Emu Café Social, 21 links from around the web (with a fair number of punny comments), and a recap of our 52 most-visited article of the week lists from 2024.
If you are looking for interesting links to read from across the internet – my newsletter archive is (if I may humbly suggest) a good place to start.
Most-Turned Leaves of December 2024
I use a WordPress plugin called Koko Analytics to count page views (Koko Analytics works entirely locally – you can read my 2021 review, although it has changed a bit while still maintaining the same basic functionality). Each month, I list our most-visited articles according to Koko Analytics. Below, you will find our 24 most-visited articles of December 2024 and for the three month October-December period.
| DEC RANK | ARTICLE (AUTHOR. PUBLISHED.) | 3-MONTH (Change) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022. | 1 (=) |
| 2 | Fixing Refresh Rate Issue on 4K TV Monitor N.A. Ferrell. July 26, 2024. | 5 (+13) |
| 3 | Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2 N.A. Ferrell. November 5, 2023. | 2 (+1) |
| 4 | Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships N.A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024. | 6 (+4) |
| 5 | The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei N.A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021. | 4 (=) |
| 6 | Broken Optical Audio Cable Door “Fix” N.A. Ferrell. September 16, 2023. | 3 (-1) |
| 7 | Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023. | 7 (+2) |
| 8 | A Sign of Affection – Anime Review Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 28, 2024. | 9 (-2) |
| 9 | The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 – Statistics and Analysis Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022. | 8 (-2) |
| 10 | Reviewing FrogFind: A Search Engine For Vintage Computers Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 24, 2022. | 15 (+8) |
| 11 | Kaori After Story – Visual Novel Review Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 31, 2022. | 22 (NEW) |
| 12 | Installing Ubuntu Touch on a Google Nexus 7 (2013) Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 5, 2021. | 10 (-5) |
| 13 | Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021) Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021. | 12 (-2) |
| 14 | Height differences in anime romances Nicholas A. Ferrell, March 22, 2023. | 11 (-1) |
| 15 | Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 15, 2023. | X |
| 16 | Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 28, 2021. | 13 (-1) |
| 17 | Yuki’s Hair Color in A Sign of Affection Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 2, 2024. | 15 (+4) |
| 18 | Ghostwriter Markdown Editor Review Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 7, 2021. | 17 (+5) |
| 19 | Tiki paralogue trick in Fire Emblem Engage Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 3, 2023. | X |
| 20 | Searching for the Figure Behind the Blob Dylan Tags in NYC and Florida Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 24, 2021. | X |
| 21 | 54 Things I Learned in 2024 Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 17, 2024. | X |
| 22 | Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 13, 2021. | X |
| 23 | Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 15, 2023. | 18 (-2) |
| 24 | History of the Mario Party Gloves Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 6, 2022. | X |
| X | My Logitech Washable Wired Keyboard K310 Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 20, 2024. | 16 (-4) |
| X | Installing Non-Listed Programs in PlayOnLinux Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 8, 2023. | 19 (-2) |
| X | Iroha Isshiki’s Hair is Brown, as Expected? Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 12, 2021. | 20 (+1) |
| X | The Last Nintendo Wii Games Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 1, 2023. | 21 (-7) |
| X | The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten – Anime Review Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 30, 2023. | 23 (NEW) |
| X | The Nice Boat: A Look Back at the School Days Anime Nicholas A. Ferrell. May 6, 2021. | 24 (-9) |
After a somewhat up-down-and-up year, December marked our best-ever month in terms of visitors, both in absolute visits and per-day visits that did not involve one of our articles making page one of Hacker News. November 2022 previously held both records for non-Hacker News months, (February 2024 came close to overtaking it in per-day visits). Counting the Hacker News-fueled months, December 2024 slots in as our fifth busiest month behind August 2022, January 2024, May 2022, and March 2021, in that order.
My Norton Safe Search review continued its ranking dominance, topping our monthly chart for the fifth consecutive month – which is now the second longest monthly win streak behind The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei leading the ranking for eight consecutive months (September 2021-April 2022). Norton spent much of the month in second or third, but it pulled away in the final third of December.
It was a second consecutive big month for two articles from July, Fixing Refresh Rate Issue on 4K TV Monitor and Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships, both of which posted top five performances and the latter having been in contention for the top spot until the final days of 2024. Every article in our top 11 save for the Norton Safe Search review, third-place finisher Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2, and 9th place The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 – Statistics and Analysis posted their best months of the year in terms of raw page views. Here, I highlight 11th place Kaori After Story – Visual Novel Review, which surged up the rankings in the last few days of December and posted what is to date the best month for any of our many visual novel review articles.
Several articles at the end of our top-24 made their first (and necessarily, only) monthly rankings in 2024. Searching for the Figure Behind the Blob Dylan Tags in NYC and Florida ensured that a BLOB DYLAN article (see BLOB DYLAN collection) would be represented in the monthly ranking for the fourth consecutive year. I published 54 Things I Learned in 2024 on December 17, and on December 31 I learned that it did well enough in two weeks to make the December ranking. Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria (a personal favorite of mine) made its first monthly ranking since November 2022. Finally, History of the Mario Party Gloves, a research article I put together on November 6, 2022, scored its first-ever monthly placement.
Taking leaf
I would ordinarily write about what you can look forward to in the next month – but I will forego that today because I am putting the finishing touches on a full review of the year that now was in 2024. But I will note without offering specifics that I am working on some interesting (I hope, at least) projects for January 2025, so I hope you look forward to them.
