Judah Mahay, Writer » Articles

Vote for App Ideas Via Appswell

Judah Mahay — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:39:23 +0000

Recently, I posted a few ideas to Appswell.com, which are rated by users. Each month, the idea with the highest rating is developed as an app for the iPhone or iTouch.

Below is a list of some of what I posted. If you like what you see, please vote to help them be considered for development. Detailed information is provided for each app through the links.

In order to vote, all you have to do is go to Appswell.com and register (it takes about thirty seconds) then go to the links below. Also, they factor in comments, as well as the votes, in the selection process so please leave your thoughts and suggestions.

iAuthor
Take control of your novel. All your ideas, your outline, your glossary, your timeline, your notes, and so much more in one place to help develop your dream novel. Being a writer, I can’t think of a better app to help my career as a novelist.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/136

Singer’s Toolkit
Sing a single note into your iPhone and the notation will appear on the screen. No need for a piano to begin your songs. This is also a great way to practice pitch.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/96

Federal Register – US Government Daily Activity
Finally, know what the US government is doing behind the scenes. The Federal Register is the day to day activity of the federal government. Recently, the government started releasing this information in an organizable format, allowing an app like this to be made for the first time. Leave comments, view recent activity, view popular activity, search the Register, browse categories, rate activity, and more. All discussions and ratings will be sent to the US government and your congressmen on a weekly basis, helping them understand the stance of the people. Finally, know what the government is doing and voice your thoughts.
http://appswell.com/site/idea/165

Thank you all so much for helping me with another one of my crazy adventures.

Best iPhone App for Writers – Story Tracker

Judah Mahay — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:52:51 +0000

I’ve been using my iTouch for a while now and I’ve downloaded numerous applications with an eye on productivity, entertainment, and knowledge. Through the cacophony of the iPhone App popularity game, on a rare occasion I’ll give voice to a product worth the hype. Strangely, the most useful application I discovered so far has little to no exposure. I hope to change the mistake.

Thus enters Story Tracker. Being a writer, I have found this application unbelievably useful and well worth every penny, even at a sum of $9.99, a small price to pay in order to help yourself get published. This tool helps you in countless ways to track, organize, and respond to story submissions. Story Tracker is excellent for any writer looking to take the serious steps towards publication. Let’s look at a breakdown of the benefits taken from the developer’s site.

Story Tracker

Check the status of your stories, markets, and submissions at a glance.
Use the index to jump through long lists of stories and markets fast.
Add or remove stories, markets and submissions with ease.
Add details for each story, including title, word-count, genre, and notes.
View total income earned for each story.
‘Trunk’ stories to hide them from the story list when creating submissions.
View the submission history for each story, sorted by date.
Add details for each market, including title, genre, editor and more.
Use the embedded web-browser to quickly check on market websites.
Launch email or phonecalls directly from market details.
Log whether a particular market is open or closed to submissions.
Closed markets are hidden from the market list when creating submissions.
Quickly check whether you already have a submission at each market.
View submission history for each market, sorted by date.
View response times for each submission.
Add details for each submission, including story, market, and sent/response dates.
Log whether a market has rejected, bought, or published a story submission.
Store income earned for each submission.
Statistics show totals for:
- stories, markets, and submissions.
- stories that have never been submitted, or have been abandoned (ie trunked).
- submitted stories still out to market.
- rejections, sales, and publications.
- income earned.
Always remembers what screen you were looking at last.
Saves changes on exit, or when interrupted by a phonecall.

All in all, this application is a must have for any serious writer, needing an edge in the heavily competitive publishing industry. Find story tracker in iTunes.

Self Actualization

Judah Mahay — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:05:37 +0000

We all begin within our selves and somehow along the way we become lost within the mess of living. Some of us never find our way back home, but wander amidst the tangle of experiences and knowledge, which they try to call self. I pity them, because I find myself peer. It is here that life is formed. In the twitching and flopping of existence that we experience life in it’s darkest and liveliest. Or so it seems. As we throw ourselves against the wall of failure over and over again wondering why we are not making progress, all we have to do is stop, wipe the blood of our face and turn around. I find that when I sit down with the six year old Judah and ask him what he thinks, it’s truer to self than any other approach that I could muster. Strange, it seems, but I’ve met many people in my life who are glorified for their childish nature in their mature years. Why is it that when a person has not reached the prime age of wisdom (culturally around 45) the child is supposed to be lost? Society seems to push for their youth to cast aside the passionate little hearts they are born with, only to replace it with a tin heart of scars paradigms and expectations. I pity this temptation. For I have fallen sway of its cold metal grasp. We all have many battles and we need an inhuman amount of strength to conquer them. Where do we get this, is a question I’ve been asking myself for for fifteen years now. I was constantly to told to rely in God or to fight and the strength will come. Both these ideas are good, but inherently wrong. They both lead to answers for some, but not by the nature of the action alone. We do not get are strength from simply doing it and we do not get strength from prayer or from God slapping it into our clammy palms. We get our strength from within. The perspective is wrong, not the action. By doing these methods we come to realize our potential and grow confident in our ability to achieve our goals. The practice allows us to see that we can accomplish the difficulty. Prayer gives us the confidence that God will take care of it, which is wrong. God does not take care of our problems. God allows us, and imports upon us the abilities to accomplish the difficulties before us in the best way possible. This does not mean I’ll be able to buy that new laptop some day if I make enough money. It means God will make sure I will always be able to accomplish what I need to to by means of a laptop. He will give me the strength to overcome the difficulties set before me. So God gives us the ability. I ask, so what? What is the ability going to do for me if I can’t realize/use that ability? Well, it’s worthless. That is where the child comes in. The abilities of confidence are only found through self actualization. If you don’t understand yourself, then you will never know what you can accomplish. This self discovery can be achieved through many methods, but the problem comes in that, even though you will never change from that little six year old you were born into, the elements fixed upon that child which defines it are ever changing. Thus, the process of self understanding must, absolutely must be continual. I cannot stress this more. I’ve know way too many people who have lost their grip on who they are. They have left life take over and forgotten that child. You might ask, if the defining elements of the child are always changing how can you truly understand and realize that part of your in the fullest. I believe that is the beauty of it. I think you can understand your true nature completely, but it has to be a daily process. Wake up and ask self, how are you, what was you night like, have you learned anything, what do you think of it, that was funny wasn’t? You must always self explore. We in America constantly talk about exploring, but what happened to the greatest discover, self. This is were the richest and darkest treasure can be found. I don’t know about you, but I’m terrified of who I am, but I wouldn’t want to be anyone else. I love the beauty and the dark all alike. I am as God created me. I’m able to accomplish the must terrifying horrors and the most stunning acts of love. I do not shy from the fact that my ancestors of enslaved, killed, raped, tortured, punished, condemned, among many more atrocities. That is within me and that is what makes me want to speak. I can do these terrors and much more, just like you. So here I am trying to discover that self, which didn’t want to hurt, who was empathetic, but not understanding of it. Empathy must be taught, but the emotion is innate. Human children are some of the meanest self centered creatures on this planet and I was one of them, but the ability to empathize was given to all of creation. Thus, a struggle when looking back on the self is taking the child and putting it into the light of what has been learned or unlearned purposefully (racism for example). For me the best method to self actualization is to continually lay myself out there. It hurts, damn it hurts, but it’s worth it. It is too easy for me to fall behind the shell of wonderful safe apathy. If I don’t feel then I don’t hurt. I won’t even start about what may be lost by closing the doors. For that should be obvious and if it isn’t I pity you, even though sometimes I like to let myself ‘forget’ the consequences of such a direction in life. I just ask myself daily, why am I here, and I find myself at the keyboard once more.

Words

Judah Mahay — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:04:55 +0000

Words within come unbidden before my eyes struck within my mind. I cannot bare the ache of unsettled turmoil within. Words must come forth or surely the I of self will die. Lost, I fall within the space of convoluted thought, where only imagination can hone my mind to some semblance of clarity. Madness be the disease of word’s caress. I must give. I must be. I am.