Alex Bovee

Installing Typekit on Tumblr

If haven’t used TypeKit yet, you should definitely try it out. TypeKit allows you to add creative and professional looking type faces to your website - beyond the basic fonts supported by most browsers/OSs. The service packages the fonts and sends them directly to the end user’s browser, enabling your website to provide a consistent visual experience across browsers and operating systems. It’s provided on a freemium basis with a step up in cost based on website traffic and number of sites supported. The lowest level service allows for up to two fonts on one unique domain with a maximum 25,000 unique page views of traffic per month. For the average blogger, this is probably all you need. To get started with an account, just visit TypeKit and use your domain to signup.

There are a couple of ways to use TypeKit on Tumblr. If you’re lucky, your theme will support TypeKit out of the box. I use a WooTheme for my Tumblr blog. It has a lot of UI supported configurability out of the box including the ability to type in my TypeKit ID under the “Appearance” tab:

To get the TypeKit ID for your website, launch the “Kit Editor” on TypeKit.com for your website and then click “Embed Code”. Your TypeKit ID is listed in the bottom right hand corner of the popup:

If your Tumblr theme does not support adding a TypeKit ID through configuration, you’ll have to add the HTML code directly. To do so, copy the included HTML in the above “Embed Code” section. Then, go to customize your blog on Tumblr, select the “Theme” dropdown, switch to “Use Custom HTML”, and paste the copied HTML into the <head> section of the document:

If you load your website and it looks good - you’re golden. If not, you’ve got some troubleshooting to do. CSS is incredibly tricky to troubleshoot, especially when multiple stylesheets are being loaded from different domains. When troubleshooting Tumblr/TypeKit integration, your problem is probably going to fall into one of these two buckets:

Domain Match Errors
Styled Elements Errors

1. Domain Match Errors

These occur when the configured domain in your TypeKit editor is not correct. For me, the problem occurred because I was using TypeKit on a sub-domain on my alexbovee.com domain. If you have a subdomain such as “blog.yoururl.com” setup, you’ll need to be sure that TypeKit references this domain correctly. You can check this by going to the Kit Editor and then clicking the “Kit Settings” link:

Here, you’ll see the domain you setup before. If your blog is on your root level domain, just make sure the domain is “yoururl.com”. If you are using a sub-domain for your blog mapped to your tumblr domain, you’ll need to be sure your domain is either “blog.yoururl.com” (where blog => your sub-domain) or “*.yoururl.com”. The wild-card domain selector will enable using this TypeKit on your root and sub-domains.

Note: Be sure to select “Publish” to save these changes and have them pushed out to TypeKit content servers.

2. Styled Elements

If your issue isn’t a domain configuration issue, it’s probably a CSS application issue. Checking that elements are styled correctly is a little more difficult. My go-to for this is to use the Firefox add-in Firebug to inspect the elements. If you don’t have Firebug, it’s an absolute go-to for troubleshooting all things browser, HTTP, and CSS related by allowing you to visually and textually inspect elements on a page, sniff HTTP packets, and more. To check an element to make sure it’s styled correctly with your font, you can right click it on the page, then select “Inspect Element”:

This will open Firebug with that HTML element selected. Next, click the “Computed” box in the Style viewer on the right-hand side:

This will give you the computed CSS style for the selected element. If you don’t see your font (as named in your TypeKit) in the “font-family” section, something is going wrong with your element styling. From here, check the following:

Make sure the font-family name you use in your styling corresponds to the style name in the typekit. You can find this style name by going into the TypeKit Editor and clicking the “Advanced” link next to the style in the “Selectors” section.

You can use custom “Selectors” in the TypeKit editor to apply TypeKit fonts using CSS that’s sent to your browser by TypeKit. You add these selectors to HTML tags or classes in the TypeKit editor under the “Selectors” section. For example, enter “h1” into the selector box and click “Add” to apply this font to all “h1” elements on your site. Be sure to click “Publish” to save these changes.
When a TypeKit is loaded, it loads a CSS file from the TypeKit content servers. You can see this file by clicking the “CSS” tab in Firebug, and then selecting it from the drop down (it will be the only css file from the domain “typekit.com”). This is a great way to determine if your fonts are being correctly loaded from the TypeKit server. If you just added custom selectors, and they’re not showing up, chances are that the file has not yet been pushed out or you didn’t “Publish” it. On the other hand, if no elements are in this CSS file, there’s a good chance that your domain is configured wrong in the TypeKit editor.

Good luck!

tech

TypeKit

Tumblr

troubleshoot

1 year ago 4 notes

Twin Peaks Hike

I hiked up to Twin Peaks yesterday with Lilly on my back. We started from the East side in Noe Valley around 29th and Church. Since we got going around lunch, we stopped at St. Paul’s Market to grab a bite to eat before heading up the hill. I’ve never been to St Paul’s before, but holy crap, what a sandwich ($5 bucks for a 2” stack of meat). Lilly ate half the sandwich and then we hit the road.. half a block later, she was asleep! So much for keeping me company.

The first part of the hike is straight up the hill into the Diamond Heights neighborhood. If you’ve never walked up that hill, it’s a serious sweat buster - especially if you’re lugging a 30 lb child and 15 lbs of stuff. Noe is about at sea level (I believe Everytrail logged me at 88ft), but you end up around 900ft at the top of Twin Peaks. Roundtrip I logged a little over 4 miles, so it’s about 2 miles to the top depending on which roads you take. The hike up is absolutely beautiful, with lots of great views of the Mission and downtown San Francisco. Once you get to the top, you can then see the ocean and a nice view of the Sutro Reserve. You can also see the top of the Golden Gate bridge a bit off in the distance. I’d definitely recommend making this trip on a warm, clear day, as I’ve been up in the Twin Peaks area when the weather sucks, and it can get really cold and windy.

Highlight of the trip: There were a couple of students at the top of the hill discussing the challenges of transitioning from normal to sub-orbit flight. Seriously. #OnlyInSF

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in the Bay Area, California

hiking

outdoors

family

1 year ago

Skyara.com - “Do Something Awesome”

Just got back from a “lunch with the Skyara founders” event that I discovered and purchased through their website, Skyara.com. Well worth the $20.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, Skyara is a local-activities website where you can find exciting things to do around the city. For the moment, that includes activities as varied as marksmanship training with an army ranger, Barrista lessons, and a most-likely-to-be depressing date with this guy. Being a bit of an experience junkie myself, I love this idea. I’m always looking for fun things to do and cool places to check out in San Francisco. I find the Bay Area to have a high explorability factor as the neighborhoods are so different, the area culturally rich, and the geography diverse. So, I guess that SF isn’t just a great place to start a company; it’s also a great place to start a company that sells things to do.

The product is easy to use and impressive considering these guys have only really been riffing on it for a couple of months. You just go to the website, find something that looks interesting, pay for it, and show up on time. Pretty simple really. As the product gets built out further and there are more activities, I’d also love to see a recommendation engine. You can image with information pulled in from your social graph, Skyara could be incredibly effective at helping you part ways with your money. As for the team, they all quit their corporate jobs after getting into I/O ventures, and moved out here to start the company. True entrepreneurs, they’re cash efficient like you wouldn’t believe and are working out of the I/O office in the Summit Cafe on Valencia.

What most intrigues me about Skyara is that it could be a great platform to help niche business operators or people with creative hobbies or services to find customers - a localized Etsy for experiences instead of crafts. Right now the website has a lot of traditional outdoorsey offerings such as paintballing, cycling trips, and hiking expeditions. Although those activities are certainly valuable, they’re probably not going to make the site that interesting. More important are the unique, one-off activities - a 30 minute punch the clown session, lunch with the AirBnb engineers (to discus time travel), etc. Those will be the key to keeping users engaged and coming back to the site for more. I’m sure there will be some organic growth for these listings (as the service attracts more eyeballs, more people will think up things to list) but growing the volume substantially will require intervention. They may want to take a page out of Trazzler’s playbook by using contract writers and contests to produce content.

With a good product in place, I’m looking forward to the sure-to-be creative marketing these guys will do. They received great press last week in TechCrunch, but with so much noise in this startup environment, you could always use more. I’m thinking a contest to win a really unique experience combined with a splash of social/game mechanics could really drive registrations. I.e. the experience is won by lottery, but for every friend you refer who signs up to the site, you get an additional entry. You could spend a week brainstorming cheap guerrilla marketing activities, but I’d probably start by coming up with a catchy headline. How about: “Skyara: Do Something Awesome”.

Follow Skyara on Twitter here

1 year ago 1 note

Destination Wedding - Riviera Maya

This was our 2nd trip to the Riviera Maya. The first was to earn our scuba chops in Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen. This time the trip was for Meghan and Tyler’s wedding. Melissa and I have decided we absolutely love this area. Consider our retirement location finalized.

We flew into Cancun and took the shuttle to our resort, the Barcelo Maya, which is an inclusive resort located south of Playa Del Carmen on the coast. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of all inclusive resorts. I never understood why people went to them. You go on vacation to check out the area, to eat authentic food, and to experience culture. Or, at least that’s why I usually go on vacations. But, with a kid in tow, I think I finally understand why people go to these places. It’s just easy. After you’ve paid for your room, you don’t have to worry about anything else. No tipping, no finding ATMs or cash, no planning or figuring out dinner, etc. Everything is just magically done for you, 24 hours a day. Hot damn.

We flew in Thursday morning, the wedding was on Saturday, and we left Monday morning. That gave us a solid few days to do some fun activities which included checking out Tulum, getting our beach volleyball on, and running around with Lilly at the kids water park. Tulum was just as amazing as I remembered it. The view is epic and the beach is pristine and beautiful. They had a few more areas roped off this time around, which I’m guessing is because they got tired of tourists walking all over the structures. Probably a smart move.

The best part of the weekend, though, was catching up with old friends from Texas. We haven’t seen most of this crowd in over two years, so it was fun to hang out and get the run down on everything new in people’s lives. It’s amazing how much things have changed in a short time.

Worst part of the weekend: losing/having stolen my passport. I’m not exactly sure which one it was, but I’m leaning towards stolen. It was only out of our sight for about 5 minutes, when we were at breakfast Monday morning. We were just loading up on some food before getting on the shuttle to catch our flight. All the passports were in the blue backpack which we left at the table while we grabbed some food from the cafeteria. Didn’t realize the passport was gone until we got the airport. Luckily, US Customs had a record of my departure to Mexico, so they knew I was the real McCoy and let me back in. Cool. The only bad side: I really hope there’s not people trying to cross the border from Mexico to the US right now with a truck full of drugs - using my passport to do it.

1 year ago

Baker Beach Presidio

Ever since we arrived in San Francisco, we had been wanting to check out the shoreline of the Presidio and Baker Beach. It’s not much of a hike and is a fun afternoon get away if you only have a few hours to kill - which we did.

We loaded up the car at about 2:30 on Sunday, packed some snacks for Lilly, and headed over to the Presidio. We parked right off of Lincoln Ave next to a World War II memorial that we had no idea existed until we drove up to it. The memorial is to honor those who were lost at sea in the Pacific during World War II and never found.

The first stop on the hike is an old coastal battery that sits mid-way down the cliff. You could see where there were previously huge guns stationed, because there is a circle in the concrete about 10 feet in diameter with large bolts every two feet around the circumference. Kind of a shame they weren’t still there - that would have been incredible. My guess is that maybe it’s a bit too ominous for cargo ships and tugboats coming into the Bay to have huge guns pointed at them. Either that, or the gov needed the steel and decided to recycle it. Probably the latter.

From the battery, we headed further down towards the ocean and ended up at Baker Beach. It was pretty cold that day, so we didn’t really hang around. But, the beach itself offered some great views and gorgeous pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. We tooled around for a few, got some pictures of the family, and then hiked back up to Lincoln road and the car.

We thought that would be the end of the trip, but thanks to Trivia Night last Thursday, I found out that the Legion of Honor is also in San Francisco. So, we added a quick stop there to our itinerary for the trip home. The building, statues, and huge steel sculpture were all pretty cool, but we didn’t get a chance to see much else as there was a wedding going on and they had commandeered most of the structure and surrounding area. We also didn’t realize it at the time, but there is a small Holocaust Memorial near the parking lot of the Legion of Honor. It was a bit disturbing, so we didn’t let Lilly see it. Eventually she caught a glimpse though and asked why all the people were laying down :(

Since we didn’t get to check out much of the Legion of Honor, it’s definitely on our to-do list for a day when it’s not so cloudy and maybe a little bit warmer.

Hiking

Outdoors

Family

1 year ago

Stinson Beach Loop

After a little research, we decided to head to Stinson beach to do the Matt Davis, Steep Ravine, Dispea trail trifecta loop. Stinson Beach is accessible via highway 1 heading west about 9 miles from Mill Valley. We got an early start and left the house at about 8:30, which put us at Stinson right around 9:15. We found great parking right next to some basketball courts near the center of town and headed directly over to the Matt Davis trail entrance located off of Belvedere St.

I had read that the loop was going to be right around 8 miles, but I had no idea the vertical was so insane. The Matt Davis heads straight up into Mt Tamalpais state park and is pretty much a 1700 vertical in about 2 miles. With the Oof on my back, that was no small task and I felt whipped about 30 minutes into the hike. But, the scenic views and the encouragement from the rider on my back kept us going.

By far, the most incredible part of the hike for me was transition through micro-climates as we hiked up the face of the mountain. At sea level, it was clear, but cold. About 400 feet up, we transitioned into a moist, damp, almost rainforest like feel tropical climate with the ground saturated as if it had just rained. At about 800 feet up, we were deep into the fog - reminding me of the cloud forest in Costa Rica where it’s cold and foggy. At about 1200 feet, the forest and views were incredible. The fog was still thick, but we were close enough to the top of the mountain that the sun shone through. This created a glowing effect as if the forest were wrapped in tissue paper with a gigantic flashlight shining through it on the outside. Finally, at around 1800 ft, the trees, we were through the fog, and we stepped out onto wide areas of open, yellow grasslands.

At this point, which was about 3 miles into the hike, we reached the parking area/ranger station where Steep Ravine and Matt Davis trail come together just off of the panoramic highway (the “1”). We were a bit relieved to reach it because for a little over half a mile, we were debating about whether we should turn around so our little one could get a nap. We took a short water break and headed right back out onto Steep Ravine trail which is mostly downhill back to Stinson Beach.

Steep Ravine is, well, a steep ravine with high walls on either side of the trail. The trail pretty much parallels the ravine down to the ocean with the occasional criss-cross of the trail over the trickling stream. The features on the trail were great - lots of fallen trees on the trail for hiking over or under, a 10 foot tall ladder to descend, and several bridges (some more suspect than others). But, since we were heading downhill though, the hike was just that much easier.

About 2 miles down Steep Ravine, we hung a right on the Dipsea trail. The trail was relatively flat and led us quickly and safely back to Stinson Beach. At this point, Lilly was more than ready to get out of her backpack, so we were kind of rushing down the mountain towards the beach. The greatest part of Dipsea was the great view of the ocean and of Stinson on the descent. Most of the redwoods were gone, so the final mile and half or so is pretty much grasslands/desert brush with unobstructed views of the ocean.

1 year ago 1 note

San Bruno Mountain Summit Loop Hike

Got a chance to check out San Bruno Mountain state park yesterday with the family. Overall, I was pretty impressed. The Summit Loop trail is a solid 3.1 miles winding up and around the top and sides of the mountain. The view from the top was killer. Though, I could have just as easily have done without all the cell phone towers and buildings on the summit. Overall, it’s a great way to spend a good hour to an hour and a half if you’ve got the time. It’s just south of Daly City and you can get there from the city easily on the 101.

Highlight of trip: Lilly chugging a pint of water before getting into the backpack, soaking her diaper through, and peeing on my leg at about the 2.5 mile marker.

trails

San Bruno

Hiking

1 year ago

Montara Mountain Hike

Amazing weather in San Francisco and the peninsula compelled me to drag the family to Montara state beach for the McNee Ranch hike up to the North Peak. We got the gear ready and the car loaded so we could just grab the “Oof” from her crib, put her in the carseat, and head out with hopefully minimal interruption of her nap. That actually went incredibly smoothly. The drive there was about 20 minutes from San Francisco taking the 280 West/South and then jumping onto the 1 to head South towards Pacific. It was also relatively un-trafficky at 2PM on a Sunday, which I was pretty happy about.

Parking at the McNee Ranch entrance is a bit of pain in the ass and was not as easy as I had hoped. There’s space for a solid 5 (maybe 6) cars, which makes it tough. The best bet is to go just past the entrance to Montara Beach parking and grab a spot there or along the road. The only challenge from there is a walk along 1 for about 150 meters. Which, normally isn’t much of an issue unless you’ve got a little one with you.

The hike was pretty awesome with great views along the trail. The hardest part by far was the initial stretch which was a solid incline for about a half mile. Once you get past that, the rest (for at least a mile or so) is pretty smooth sailing and a gentle uphill slope. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the top. Lilly hurt her a leg a little and was not particularly interested in getting back into the backpack. So, we carried her down and called it a day. We probably made it about half way up before turning around, and the views we did catch were amazing. We’ll definitely be back to finish it off when the weather is right again.

Hiking

Montara

1 year ago

Muir Woods Tourist Club

Took a nice trip with the family and some good friends to the Tourist Club in Muir Woods this Sunday. If you’ve never heard of it, the Tourist Club is a hike-in members only club situated in Muir Woods. “Hike-in” meaning you can’t reach it by vehicle and “members only” meaning that you can’t get into the place except on a few key weekends when they open the doors to the general public. Generally speaking, this means that any trip to go there has to be well timed and researched ahead of time to make sure you won’t leave disappointed (to this point: this was our second trip to the Tourist Club - the first did in fact end in disappointment).

All that said, if you time it right and you don’t get lost trying to find your way, you will leave pleased. They serve several Belgian and German beers including Dunkelweizen (my fav) and hearty/salty snacks including some killer German sausages. Probably not entirely the best idea to go there and have too many drinks as the hike back would most certainly result in some sort of disaster. But, if you’re looking for a fun weekend getaway trip, this is definitely the spot.

1 year ago

Chi to SF - Day 3 - Yellowstone!

Yellowstone is the most amazing place I’ve ever been - both in terms of wildlife and landscape. Jon and I started out heading directly to Old Faithful to meet Alexis and Emily (friends from B-School). Not even half an our into the park from the Eastern entrance, we came to a dead stop behind a line of stopped cars. As we were in a bit of rush to make our rendezvous, we pulled around to pass them. Bam. Grizzly - walking along the side of the road. This was a highlight for the drive, but not the only cool sight. We also passed about 2 or 3 bison that were near or in the middle of the road.

Once at Old Faithful, we met with with Emily and Alexis, and proceeded to grab a seat by the geyser. Apparently it blows every half an hour or something like that (plus or minus 5 minutes maybe) - hence the name Old Faithful.

From Old Faithful, we decided to drive up the west side of Yellowstone to see some of the thermal features and then loop back around to Old Faithful for the night. The north western side of Yellowstone is known as the thermal feature area and the entire landscape is full of them.

If you’re looking to plan a trip, definitely get a Yellowstone map or guide with the natural features listed on it so you can plan your trip and check out as much as possible. We were really lucky in being able to get a hotel room at Old Faithful for the night because we were persistent and called frequently. However, we were literally only able to get the room for one night and it wasn’t exactly the Ritz Carlton. I’ve heard of people calling ahead a year in advance to book a place to stay.