Monday, December 27, 2010

My 18 month old little ???

My little man is 18 months old today. He can be the sweetest boy or evil terror to his sister. Gives his share of kisses and hugs and recently started pushing me away... A true opinion of his own.

Many of you may remember his first real word was "poop" and on Christmas day he did a true follow-up -- 1st 2 words strung together and used appropriately "oh shit". A RC helicopter was about to hit us in the head and he was trying to warn us! Smart man.

Continuing with the theme tonight...

Just like his sister at this age, he likes to make 'bubbles' in the bath and tonight wasn't any different. BUT tonight was that one night that our luck ran out. He pushed a little too hard and I instinctually scooped out the bath toys before they became contaminated and then yanked him out and rinsed him off. He looked in there and laughed like a true little boy. Mommy had to clean up the baby Ruth.

Happy 18 months Conor!

Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

WishGenies uses Facebook Likes and community to help your gift shopping

This is an app that we can all use beyond they holidays since in all honesty most of us suck at gift giving. I know that most of the time I spend hours going through sites or standing in stores looking for the perfect gift... by using WishGenies quite a bit of that hassle is gone.



Can you believe Jeff really gave Keilee a PS3? Yes, I know both of these people and she is definitely not playstation type. Now he may be able to get her a gift that has a power cord since she has more gadget cred than he does but still...



Happy Holidays!

Amplify’d from technicallyphilly.com

If you’re still hunting gift ideas for a friend or three, a Facebook application from a local developer hopes to have the answer.

Launched in November, WishGenies is a lightweight tool in beta that leverages Facebook user ‘likes’ and an early-adopting community to offer suggestions.

This author signed in, chose a Facebook friend for whom he was seeking a gift, added some other keyword preferences of my friend and, within six hours, I had three suggestions under my $50 price range. One was a book that this friend has and enjoyed and two others were gifts that, truly, I just might purchase.

The app is from Jeff Deville, a 32-year-old freelance web developer living in Plymouth Meeting. Most suggestions come in within a day, he said.

“Two Christmases ago, I was looking for a present for my girlfriend, now wife. I went with a buddy of mine to the King of Prussia Mall, and we walked around the whole thing, both sides. We left sans gifts. A week or two later sees me walking out of the Sony Store with a Playstation 3 — for my girlfriend,” Deville, formerly the web architect for yellowbook.com. “It went over about as well as you might have expected. I was forbidden from ever buying her anything with a power cord again.”

Deville says he’s learned that it’s easier to buy a gift for a friend than a family member or loved one. That’s because you have the same interests as your friends, he says, so you should seek gift advice from those who have those same interests. With the power of Facebook groups and ‘likes,’ participating ‘genies’ can have powerful access to insight on an individual’s tastes.

Born in Baton Rouge but raised in Tucson, Deville says he’s focused first and foremost on user acquisition and developing the recommendation platform. In time, he hopes to further develop the basic commission partnerships and Amazon referrals that are already included.

At this early stage, books have accounted for more than a quarter of the first several hundred recommendations through WishGenies, Deville says.

“Ultimately, the one thing I don’t want to do is let stores pay to give their products placement as a recommendation,” he says. “I’m very serious about this being a place where the quality of the recommendation comes first.”

With just a few hundred users, the application needs a heavy influx of gift-idea-seekers to boost metrics and develop the app, but the idea is simple and effective. Its truest shortcoming is one that many new Facebook apps face, being without true integration into Facebook. The user has to return to the WishGenies interface to find if any suggestions have come through. The app also depends on big community buy in, the larger, more diverse group of ‘genies’ submitting suggestions, the more successful. Otherwise, the app might struggle to offer relevance. If it takes, the idea can be a simple success.

Give WishGenies a try, and tell us what you think. Is this a keeper?

Read more at technicallyphilly.com
 

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Going to Great Wolf Lodge

Caitlyn woke EXTREMELY early this morning and climbed into bed with me... I did my best to ignore her but I had no chance against her. Conor must have sensed the movement from the other side of the house and he woke too. Happy Sunday!!

The kids must have gotten into some sugar or something cause they were absolutely insane during the morning routine. Lots of running around, no listening and fighting over lollipops that they are not supposed to have at 8am ensued.

So the car is packed with entirely too much crap and most likely not the right stuff but we have our swimsuits and I think that is all that really matters!!

I keep hoping that Conor will catch a nap on the ride up but it doesn't look like that is going to happen... This is going to be a challenging day.

I did bring migraine meds. No clue how to keep sanity intact though.

Sent from my iPhone