iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Email I got to send just now (details redacted): Hello, excellent Department of Elections people! I live at [address] [apartment number]. A few days back, I received my ballot (yay) and also the ballot for [someone else] [different ad… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/10/...

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The Nobel committee should award Trump a soccer prize.

image of cat reading a newspaper from the "I should buy a boat" meme.

I don't exactly know why it felt right to use it here

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Things I saw walking in #SanFrancisco Thursday: 20th and Judah: "weird" graffito. You might think I jiggled my phone while taking this pic, but: The graffito was painted to look blurry. 20th and Irv… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/10/...

sidewalk chalk art: a guitarist sits on an oil drum. there's something mystical about him: he has more arms than you'd expect

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on the top part of the guitarist

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Reposted by Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀

Nancy Baym @nancybaym.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It’s not that I’ve retired, it’s that I’ve gone rogue.

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Aw, I miss having a functioning federal government "Data from participating sites in the CDC NWSS commercial testing contract will be temporarily unavailable on the dashboard, while CDC transitions to a new contract." skylab.cdph.ca.gov/calwws/

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

My parents told me about a library for dogs on 6th Avenue between Cabrillo and Fulton (I think?): a box of tennis balls. Take a ball, leave a ball. That seemed like a better idea than the library for dogs I was familiar with on Waller near D… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/08/...

a couple of 'libraries' out in front of a blue building. The bigger one has books and is labeled for children. It is painted blue and styled with a fake bay window and other deco to resemble the building behind it. There is also a red box, a library for dogs albeit not obviously because you probably can't read the label from this far away

patch of sidewalk with a couple of covered drains. instead of the usual plain drain covers, these are brightly colored with raised pixel art reminiscent of the old Space Invaders game. They are signed @draINvader

red box labeled 'stick library and treats'. Half of it is covered and latched. I didn't check, but I guess that's where they keep the treats, with a latch to keep out raccoons. The other half is open. It contains a couple of stubby stick fragments; also a couple of tennis balls

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

I continue to check my little dashboard of #SanFrancisco COVID numbers … lately, stuff has been happening and not settling down. lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/08/...

chart tracking three values over the past 60 days. the red stat, tracking new reported COVID cases in SF, started near zero and has gradually ramped up to low-but-noticeable. The purple stat % of positive PCR covid tests started low, but then trended upwards to the pretty-safe line; for the past few weeks it has bounced above and below the pretty-safe line. The green COVID-in-wastewater stat started out a little above the pretty-safe line (eek!), strangely trended down to safe levels during the same stretch of time the %positive PCR tests stat trended up. Lately, it's bounced high again; but it's a very bouncy stat so maybe don't panic quite yet

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

#Book Report: Matching Minds with Sondheim It's a book about Stephen Sondheim, focusing on his puzzles and games rather than on the stuff he's most famous for, theater. Of course, it's the puzzle-y and game-y parts that I'm interested in, becaus… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/05/...

lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us

Book Report: Matching Minds with Sondheim

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Things I saw walking in #SanFrancisco this morning: New-ish Kal Zakzouk sidewalk chalk art on Irving St at 20th Ave: Lady blowing bubbles amongst baby-faced goldfish. A stalled bus. I'm no expert mechanic, but I think it ran out of tokens Hillway A… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/05/...

stalled bus pulled over by the side of the road. the bus' exterior is wrapped in ads for an 'AI App Builder'. See, the joke is that a lot of these AI companies meter their services as 'tokens' and it's a hassle when you run out. And buses used to use tokens. Hilarious, right? OK, maybe you had to be there

crane on a steep hill. Also a little bit of a forklift that's carrying around railroad-tie-sized blocks of wood, some of which are propping up bits of the crane to level it out

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on one baby-faced goldfish (and a bit of the lady's elbow)

sidewalk chalk art: lady sits cross-legged blowing bubbles while surrounded by hovering giant baby-faced goldfish

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

#Book Report: The Pacific Circuit It's local history, in context. It's about the development Oakland, especially west Oakland near the port. But also about global forces at work. When I say "local histor… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/04/...

cover art for book "The Pacific Circuit" by Alexis Madrigal. suggests intermodal freight containers hovering over some houses. says it's "A globalized account of the battle for the soul of an American city."

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

It is March and the lovely #EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "hint". You're trying to log into a computer that's not yours. The password hint is "Mary's violet eyes keeps John up." lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/03/...

lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us

Suppose you're trying to log into a computer that isn't yours. The password hint is "Mary's violet eyes keeps John up." What passwords might you try?

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I continue to check my little dashboard of #SanFrancisco COVID numbers each morning to decide whether to go get professionally made coffee at my local Peet's or make so-so coffee at home. As you may recall, I track three m… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/02/...

graph charting three measurements over the past 60 days. two measurements have stayed low the whole time: number of positive PCR tests and % of positive PCR tests. The green line, COVID in wastewater has generally been higher (though below the 'pretty safe' line. A couple of weeks ago, it shot up to about 50% over the safe level. since then, though it's wobbled, it's stayed at about the same level

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

The Storybook House at Masonic Ave/Upper Terrace has their Valentine's Day decorations up. One word: 💕♥️ Hearts! 💖💗 The place across the street also has decorations up. More than one word, I guess. #SanFrancisco

strip of front yard in front of vehicle parked in house driveway. the yard strip has some decorations. closest to the viewer is a horse-skeleton Hallowe'en decoration, the kind that inexplicably has ears. It's been painted black and augmented with ghostly white hair where some horses have long hair: the mane plus feathering on the lower legs. Also the eyebrows. (I forget if there was also a tail, dang.) Next a painted-plaster-statue showing a kinda-cartoon-y looking duckling hatching from a pastel-painted Easter egg. Last we have a wrought-iron planter shaped like Cinderella's carriage painted bright pink and carrying various flowers and ferns and such. Didn't make it into the photo: there's a concrete-looking sea serpent which would be the standout detail in almost any other yard, but kinda faded into the background in this context

mansion with a big front yard decorated with many, many hearts. Also in view is a splash of plum blossoms

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

The char picker built into my desktop machine's OS was clunky enough such that I thought "I bet I can make a web page that works better than this." I succeeded, uh, at least for someone with my work patterns or whatever. Behold: 🐭 CARpHick lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/frivolity/ca...

lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us

🐭 CARpHick : handy char-picker page

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀 @lahosken.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

My morning walk was longer than intended. Silver lining: I walked past 20th Ave and Irving, where there was Kal Zakzouk chalk art. #SanFrancisco #StreetArt

sidewalk chalk art. a human-ish figure rides a tricycle. the trike has 'monkey bar' handles. the humanish figure might have a halo or a space helmet. they are sipping from a beverage through a straw. a bulbous figure on a tether bobs behind, reminiscent of a balloon

zooming in on the bobbing balloon-like figure, it seems to be a body-less imp with a blue hat sipping from a baby bottle? or something like that?

zooming in on the figure's head. is that a space helmet? a halo? hmm, maybe a sunhat?

the trike has a basket. within the basket is a smaller basket of fries and a small purple toy

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