Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀

@lahosken

Coding, encoding, and decoding in San Francisco USA. Mostly on but I check Bsky a few times a day. He/him User №246748

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Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 10d

Spotted art on tree stumps around #SanFrancisco walking between SFPursuit sites this weekend. The little blue house on the tree stump near the 19th Ave entrance to Golden Gate Park has a "For Sale" sign plus American Gothic squirrels. A Hello Kitty pussyhat on a stump near Arguello and Euclid.

zooming in on the American Gothic squirrel couple. they look kinda blurry; this was probably asking too much of my phone's zoom function, sry

A pussyhat decorated with Hello Kitty face pulled over a tree stump. also attached to the stump: a ribbon tied in a bow

tree stump atop which sits a model house. by the house is an American Gothic squirrel couple. Beside them, a little real estate sign that says 'for sale by owner'

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 14d

You ever wonder how browser caches work? Sometimes I wonder how browser caches work. Anyhow, here's a screenshot from when I restarted my machine yesterday and viewed Raddle this morning.

screenshot of raddle, showing potential clues with answer-so-far highlighted in green. at first it looks normal. but then you realize where you expect to see the same word highlighted in green all over, instead in some places the word is "pipe" (one of today's endpoints) and in others the word is "loose" (one of yesterday's words, i bet)

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 14d

New-to-me sidewalk art in #SanFrancisco 's Upper Haight, Page Street near Lyon. A piece by Eclair Bandersnatch. In my pic, it looks like her hair eroded, but that's just my camera failing to depict glitter. Her hair had a lot of glitter. An assemblage of toys.

paint on sidewalk. there's lady's head with a patterned background. the hair's paint looks worn down, but IRL it's in good shape with a lot of glitter, sorry

hole in the sidewalk sized such that you might expect a tree. instead, there is a variety of toys making a sort of fantastic village scene. what kind of toys? uh, houses, gnomes, big guy in a turban, mushrooms, and many many more

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 17d

Space-filling curve. 8th+Irving St. San Francisco

sidewalk chalk art: a sidewalk square filled with some squiggles

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 18d

lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/07/... New-to-me Kal Zakzouk sidewalk chalk art

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 20d

search it up, then give me the rundown

image meme: the Thanos "Perfectly balanced… …As all things should be" meme. two frames, first with Thanos balancing a two-bladed knife on a finger; then speaking to someone,

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 21d

#SFPursuit

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· 24d

Some mighty nice sidewalk chalk art at Presidio Wall Park today, celebrating Phillip's birthday. I dunno know who did it; it's unsigned. Maybe, like, Phillip's grandma or something? #SanFrancisco

patch of sidewalk covered with little chalk drawings. Kind of an optimistic cartoony line art look, idk i'm not an art expert

sidewalk-chalk art: face of a smiling cat

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jul 2

I saw some things on my walk in the #SanFrancisco Upper Haight this morning. Page St, across from the Int'l School of SF: Sewer covers w/Mario deco Near 1260 Page: Sidewalk carp. Jeremy Novy trying a new color scheme? Eclair Bandersnatch going ichthyic? IDK Haight Street: ∞♥!

sidewalk chalk art: two hearts placed point-to-point to suggest a ∞ infinity lemniscate symbol. Within one heart is written Infinite; in the other, Love

patch of sidewalk with some sewer covers. they're usually made of metal and often stolen. a couple of metal ones have been replaced by ?plastic? decorated to look like a Mario Goomba and question mark

patch of pavement painted in orange and blue with carp, bubbles, and seaweed(?). also a blur of my finger in the corner, sry

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jun 23

#Book Report: 😂 Face with Tears of Joy 😂 It's a history of emoji. Quickly moves past early pictographic writing on up to little pictures on early Japanese pagers and smartphones. I was kinda familiar with a lot of this history. For a few years, Unicod… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/06/...

book cover art for _Face with Tears of Joy_. subtitled "A Natural History of Emoji". Author Keith Houston. art shows four faces with tears of joy. The first face is ASCII art-ish (maybe using a non-ascii comma?). The second face is pixellated. The third is a flat art style. The fourth looks like a 3-D highlighted style. We are reminded that Keith Houston is also "author of _Shady Characters_"

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jun 22

While waiting for the supermarket to fail-to-open-for-mysterious-emergency-reasons on Saturday, I stopped by 20th and Irving in #SanFrancisco to check for new Kal Zakzouk sidewalk chalk art and was not disappointed: some sort of demon-hunter magician contemplated a couple of imps.

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on the symbols

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on one of the imps. pretty fierce facial expression

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on the mage's head and torso. oh, the headband is an SF Giants scarf

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jun 14

🇺🇸 Happy Flag Day from Ocean Beach, San Francisco, USA 🇺🇸 www.yahoo.com/news/politic...

aerial drone photo of "human banner" on a beach. Depicted in a combo of cloth and humans, an image of a file folder labeled "Epstein". Underneath that, the words "Files to trials" and people holding a big USA flag

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jun 12

No, don't tell me. I want to enjoy the mystery.

screen shot of the replied-to post, which embeds a Deleted post. thus the mystery: what was in the deleted post that could have possibly led to this?

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jun 9

Things I saw in the Upper Haight in #SanFrancisco while walking home from the bagel shop this morning: The house at Page & Cole that's been covered in scaffolding ~forever is now instead covered in Edwardian-style (?) greebles. Also the orang… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/06/...

sidewalk chalk art: Pretty scuffed (alas) but still recognizable Sonic the Hedgehog. And if that's Sonic, then the orange blob next to him should be Tails the fox, right?

blue house with a lot of new architectural ornament on it. Also, there's a footrest out in the street

sidewalk chalk art: colorful design. Kinda difficult to pick out elements to describe; it's pretty scuffed. Part of it is definitely a heart?

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 28

Meanwhile on Mastodon infosec.exchange/@wendynather...

screen shot of toot by computer security whiz Wendy Nather. Has text and a picture. The text: "YES I put baked potato chips on top of my baked potato, because nothing is real." Photo indeed shows a baked potato with potato chips on top (and maybe some sour cream?)

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 26

I saw some chalk art on Irving St in #SanFrancisco on Sunday: Demon hunter on a roller skates (accompanied by pet on skateboard) by Kal Zakzouk at 20th Ave. Various pieces by Hazel, Noah, and perhaps others at 8th Ave.

sidewalk chalk art: zooming in on skateboarding pet. I'm not 100% sure whether it's a cat or dog. It's definitely sticking its tongue out tho

sidewalk chalk art: Probably the work of some kids with chalk and time on their hands. All such work is subject to interpretation but I think I see a heart and the outline of a small human (perhaps Noah?)

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 23

Yet more #SanFrancisco sights: Sidewalk chalk said "Fun this way" with an arrow pointin… lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/new/2026/05/...

shiny new signpost with not-yet-operational pushbutton hooked up to flashing lights by a Ped Xing sign with solar collector on top. not shown: the little cannisters holding bright flags which people carried across Hillway hoping that drivers would notice them. SFMTA was very quick to take down this guerilla safety equipment, though it's taking them several days to install the official stuff

front porch decorated with a porcelain(?) goose statue appropriately attired in a graduation robe, mortarboard hat, and carrying a little diploma

sidewalk chalk message promises "fun this way ↑" pointing down rail tracks that disappear around a bend into a hillside

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 19

I swear I notice things on my #SanFrancisco walks that aren't sidewalk chalk drawings sometimes. Not today, tho. Baker St./Haight: There's a patch of sidewalk getting destroyed by tree roots. Somebody decorated it. Fell St/Cole: Good Luck Circle, Bad Luck "Circle"

patch of sidewalk with some chalk drawings on it. there is a circle with the words 'good luck circle' (all caps) inside. There is a larger, more chaotic shape with the 'bad luck circle' (all caps) inside. Also a small stain, like maybe somebody spilled coffee? Gee, I hope that's not blood; that would make the Bad Luck Circle pretty grim

base of street tree. there's a wide-ish sidewalk cut around it but nevertheless, its roots are pushing up a couple of patches of sidewalk. someone decorated one patch of sidewalk with some geometric-ish patterns in chalk

patch of sidewalk decorated with some geometric-ish patterns in chalk

altered photo: I traced the bad luck 'circle' to highlight its non-circular-ness

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 9

New-to-me sidewalk chalk #StreetArt by Kal Zakzouk at 20th Ave and Irving in #SanFrancisco this morning: a snack fan. She's eating an éclair. Since this is San Francisco, you have to wonder whether it's just an éclair or a reference to SF stencil artist Eclair Bandersnatch.

sidewalk chalk art: lady eating an éclair and sipping a canned beverage. There's some Chinese text which, alas, I don't understand well enough to enter

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 7

Wonder how often their trucks get stopped maps.app.goo.gl/HN7mtimbQrYc...

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 2

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

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· May 1

Here are some photos of flowers in my neighborhood. Also, since my main social network Mastodon joinmastodon.org encourages me to post four pictures at a time, here is a photo of a nearby emergency water system control knob.

bright red faucet knob in focus against background of out-of-focus green fern fronds

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Apr 26

Couple of things I saw in #SanFrancisco today… An engineering marvel: the re-paving of 19th Ave Kal Zakzouk sidewalk chalk art: a bicyclist

street, normally a few lanes in each direction, but today traffic cones reduce it to one lane each; there is fresh asphalt, still soft enough to stick to your shoe if you walk on it, as it turns out

sidewalk chalk art: a bicyclist sits on a bike

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Apr 26

#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."

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Feb 9

it's the UFO from that "I want to believe" poster from the old-time-y X-Files show, but it's in Impact font to remind you that this is a meme and furthermore the "believe" has been replaced by a coinage "Bolive"

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Feb 6

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

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Feb 4

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

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jan 14

#MysteryHuntPredictions typo.social/@gdc/1158899...

GUI for creating art with letterforms.

It's dominated by a large rectangular "canvas" on which is rendered many many letter a's (and a smattering of other letters). The letters are in a variety of fonts and sizes. There are some dendrite forms, that if you squint, you realize are actually made up from many many tiny letters.

The right-hand side is a toolbar. There are arrows to send a letter up,down,left,right. There are big Flip, Mirror, Rotate Left, Rotate Right buttons. More buttons: Typing mode, Snap to Grid, Hide B-Boxes, Cursor Follow, Font 1, Font 2, Font 3, Font 4. A spreadsheet-ish grid with columns Font, Cell X, Cell Y and rows with some French(?) names: Parisienne, Nompareille, Mignone, Petit-texte, ... Grosse-Nomparelle. Controls for page size and margins.

Under the canvas is a wide shallow toolbar with a grid layout of individual characters. (Keeping in mind that the right-hand side toolbar has a "typing mode", I guess depending on mode, one might need to use a GUI to choose letters vs typing them?)

Larry "lahosken" Hosken 🇺🇸 👀@lahosken· Jan 11

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