iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I happen to have one from San Francisco this afternoon FWIW. You have us beat, which is very unusual.

Shell sign in San Francisco announcing $9 diesel and $6.40 gas.

Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Got my NOS just in case. This nonsense gives big vibes of the "cheer up the boss" speech in _Key Largo_. "First thing, Boss, we bring back Prohibition!"

Old bottle of Crown Royal, probably from 1974.

Back of the old Crown Royal bottle with a lot of hype about how awesome it is. Let us all sing "Valparaiso in a Rowboat" to recollect the last time the US tried to ban Canadian whiskey in the 1920s.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I'm sorry. Here's an alpine butterfly from Yosemite. And the bear we met.

Small blue butterfly (Lycaena heteronea?) in a meadow in Yosemite.

Young adult black bear, in the California light brown colourway, climbing over a fallen tree.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Some architectural features from San Francisco, in the neighborhood of UCSF Parnassus.

Brick-faced building with bow windows with curved glass, just as the builders intended. You can still get replacement glass for these, in case anyone needs to know that.

Courtyard between two apartment buildings, with an arch and gate in rough polychromatic stone. The buildings are house-flipper grey and the gate looks like a relic of an earlier structure. It probably isn't though.

Detail over garage, supporting a balconette. This bracket is in plaster or stone, elaborately carved with a lion's head, scrolls, and leaves to make sure there's no empty space. Probably acanthus leaves, but don't quote me there.

Tile/faience screen over a garage , possibly covering an air intake or window. Circles, arcs, and flowers in a repeated pattern evocative of Turkish or Celtic art.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Not technically a cat, but our backpacking-trip neighbor over Independence Day weekend:

A light-brown Black Bear, probably newly independent from its mother, seen in Yosemite near Dewey Point. Shown about 100 feet off the trail, so its wilderness camping permit is valid there if it wants a nap.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

The wildflowers are out in McGurk meadow. These were taken yesterday and this morning.

Pink wildflowers in profusion in an alpine meadow.

A big something getting ready to bloom in an alpine meadow.

Blue small butterfly on pink flowers and variegated foliage, alpine meadow. Sorry, I'm not a multicellular organism guy.

More alpine flowers with nifty foliage and an insect perched in one of them.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

Today I learned a thing - from 1947 through 1971 it was putatively illegal in California for women to be bartenders. 1/n

Poster for the Equal Pour event on May 27 celebrating the 1971 restoration to women of the right to become bartenders.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Here we go - you'd think this would carry a lot of weight in Livermore:

1930s(?) ScotTissue advertisement - "Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?" - the implication being that company restrooms with cheap paper products or grubby towels will cause your white-collar workers to go Full Revolution so they can dry their hands on the fluffy towels from the Executive Washroom. Or something like that.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Yesterday I made what turned out to be about 7 liters of Bolognese, using the complicated recipe. It did kinda use everything. Not shown: the actual food.

Small kitchen counter and sink. All surfaces covered with used/washed cooking equipment and food processor parts. Victory! I have conquered Bolognese sauce.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Rangpur lime marmalade and the citrus itself. Rangpur lime is apparently a citron x mandarin cross (despite the name - citrus is like that). The juice is more sour than a Seville or Bergamot orange, and the peel is more bitter. Loads of aromatics though.

Two jars of homemade marmalade catching a sunbeam.

Jars of marmalade with an orange citrus fruit (Rangpur Lime) in front. There is also a mug with a cat picture on it because it was there on the table and technically it's a marmalade cat so there.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Time for a break. Have some photos from a trip to Yosemite last summer:

Sunset and moonrise between large pines.

Marmot defending his bridge from under a rock at the edge of the path.

Deer and fauns browsing in Tuolumne Meadows

Giant Sequoia with 5'7" woman for scale. Tree is huge and has burn scars up to about 15 feet above the ground.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Stumbled onto these bears yesterday.

Bear and cubs by Beniamino Bufano. The developer of Hillsdale Mall knew Bufano and commissioned a bunch of his work for the mall in about 1958, when people thought malls should be a social space like a town center or perhaps a village green.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Huh. End-rot in this window I'm repairing has caused the glazing rabbet to shrink by 2mm in both dimensions. Thank goodness for epoxy putty. I keep thinking it would be easier to just replace the bottom rail than this, while knowing that if I did that I'd be thinking the opposite.

Bottom rail of a double-hung window sash, showing significant damage to the notionally right-angle rabbet where glass and putty rest. The shiny stuff is dried borates and stabilizing epoxy.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Some photos from a short camping trip we took to Yosemite last month. I had never been before this year, despite living within a modest drive for decades.

Yellow stalked fungus that looks kind of like a flower cluster, growing out of the trunk of a tree. Also moss and lichen on the bark.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Some pictures from a recent walk around the extended neighborhood. There is also beauty and whimsy and kindness out there.

Tiny cover for a survey benchmark, ser into the sidewalk.

House numbers, multicolored, in the Cooper Black font used on 1970s tshirts.

Looks like a lemon tree, but it's rubber duckies!

Family of full-color penguin statues looking out of a large hemispherical porthole window in a house.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

I love how Sutro Tower photobombs pictures wherever you are in SF.

Sutro tower from Portola at O'Shaughnessy

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Just some more photos from walks/hikes around San Francisco. Y'all can decide for yourselves what the distinction between "walk" and "hike" is if that's your pleasure today.

Wooden screen above garden door. I'm guessing this was hand-carved, or perhaps hand-finished. I hope to see modern versions of this kind of thing more often now that CNC routers are widely available. Or maybe I just have hopelessly Nouveau tastes.

Apple (well, _Prunus_ of some kind) blossoms in Holly Park.

Peru Street steps from the bottom. There are benches at the top and this whole part of the city has gorgeous views in every direction.

Marina-style house on (I think ) Paris street? In any case, all the trim is varnished, embellished Black Forest style wood. The labor of love to keep this trim in good shape is remarkable - they must get through 10 gallons of spar varnish each time, and with the local UV, that's an annual job at least.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 13/04/2025

I took a walk up to Holly Park. 10/10 would take that walk again.

A really nice door that's probably being refinished.

Statue of a lioness, probably not by Bufano, but in a similar style. I couldn't get close to look for an attribution.

Path through St. Mary's Park, between Crescent and Alemany.

View of the valley where Alemany and the highway run, in Bernal Heights.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Taking walks around the city, at least while the weather is OK. We keep finding tiny parks we had no idea existed.

Lara at the top of a very steep park with San Francisco in the background.

The bottom of the stairs that make up most of the park - it's at least 5 or 6 stories up to the horizontal bit.

House with a large illuminated sign saying "HOPE".

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Some photos from recent walks around town. We live in a beautiful city.

Mural of a monarch butterfly and a black cat, on the garage door of a house in San Francisco.

Flowers outside of Cayuga Park, San Francisco. In the park, there's a plaque honoring the long-time Parks &Rec gardener/landscaper, who also created most of the park's sculpture.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Clearing out old papers from my parents' garage, we found this gem saved from Life magazine. @funranium.bsky.social - you've probably seen this, but just in case, ping.

President Eisenhower holding a "radioactive wand" for groundbreaking ceremony of first civilian nuclear power plant.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Late to the game, but three things in my kitchen: - little magnetic pen holder on the fridge - painter's tape in the drawer nearest the fridge - sharpie in the holder - write the date on dried beans - or leftovers, or whatever.

Sharpie in magnetic holder next to bear-shaped kitchen timer.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

The vintage cleanout is that thing at the back of the cabinet on the galvanized pipe near the wall. Our plumber says that galvanized was used with cast iron fittings and verticals in the 30s, so this may be original. More details in the alt-text.

Tub drain from underneath with some gnarly old galvanized pipes and cast iron fittings. That T at the end of the long pipe is the original cleanout. Yes, it is right next to the exterior wall of the house. Yes, the framing of this house is old-growth redwood and I feel vaguely guilty about it quite often.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Name a tv show you're positive no one remembers but you.

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Victor Stevko @victorstevko.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

I have definitely ordered too much brisket for chili. Not as bad as the time I wanted a bag of onions and got a 50-lb bag by mistake, but I have some work to do breaking this one down.