Moving the Blog

Hey everyone. I want to announce that I officially moved the blog to http://www.shamadeh.com. See you there.

Back into Business

Last month, I checked out Diclopedia, the app that I had abandoned a year ago. To my surprise, Diclopedia had over 20,000 downloads! It is not making around $40 a month, and thanks to you all for using it. After this great discovery, I decided to go back into the Android app business. Before 2 weeks, I released a new app called Chat Cloud. What Chat Cloud does is that it shows a word cloud of the words that you or your friends say in your chats. Then, you can share that cloud with your friends and see what they say about it.

Overcoming Veloxrotaphobia: The Fear of Roller Coasters

Last weekend, I went with my family to Six Flags Over Georgia. This was the first time I go to Six Flags and the first time I ever ride a roller coaster. When I arrived to Six Flags and saw a roller coaster for the first time in my life, I got horrified. I remember hearing about roller coasters that had loops, but I never imagined that they were real. As I entered the park, I was seeing roller coasters all over me. At every time interval, people started screaming like it was the end of their lives. My first thought was that I would never ride such roller coasters. Then, I saw a young boy asking his parents to allow him to ride a roller coaster. At that moment, I felt so weak that I couldn't find words to say. How can I be afraid of a game that a 10-year old boy is begging his parents to let him try? At last, I decided that I will ride the roller coasters just like everyone else did. So, I followed that boy and saw the scariest sight in my life. The ride he was heading to was called the Dare Devil Dive. The Dare Devil Dive started by going up on a 90 degrees angle. Then, it sharply curves down to a 90 degrees angle, and the coaster goes spinning and rotating at extreme speeds. As I bent my neck upward to look at the roller coaster's path, I nearly panicked. I knew it was too late since the belt has already been fastened. In an instant, the coaster started moving, and the worker told us to enjoy the ride. Is she insane? Who in the world will ever enjoy something as scary as this. I didn't have enough time to think. When the coaster started going up. I was lying on my back, and I can only see the clouds in front of me. I took a look from the side and found that I was so high. I knew that if anything wrong happened, I will certainly die. The first thought that came to my mind was to say a prayer. So, as the coaster reached the climax, I said the prayer, and immediately the coaster went down. From that moment, all I remember was that I saw the world spinning around me, saw the clouds under me, and felt the fierce wind ripping my face. All of the time, I was screaming at my highest pitch. Finally, the coaster arrived safely to the loading point. After it had stopped, the child next to me laughed and said "that was awesome!" I can't understand what was awesome about it. All I could think of was that I just rode the Dare Devil Dive and that it wasn't that bad. That day, I rode almost all of the roller coasters at the park. Every time I try a new roller coaster, I say to myself "I rode the Dare Devil Dive. This is nothing compared to it."

Kennesaw State University Student Barbecue

Last week, the International Student Association at Kennesaw State University held a barbecue that is open for all in the campus green. Because barbecue is the love of my life, I had to go. When I reached the location of the barbecue, I saw a line that seemed endless. The photo above shows nearly 2/3rd of the line. I felt a pain in my heart. I knew that there were grilled chicken, hot dogs, and hamburgers near me. The luring odor of the food was all around me. I can even smell it without a nose. Although the barbecue was less than 100 feet from me, I felt that it was at the other end of the world. Finally, I decided to stand in line before it gets even longer.
After waiting for more than half an hour, I reached the stall. At first, I took a plate of potato salad. Then, I took a burger. As I was heading toward the chicken, a girl stopped me. She said that I had to choose one of the following: hamburger, chicken, or hot dog. I suddenly felt very upset. After all what I had done, I can only pick one. So, I had a look at the choices in front of me. The hamburgers seem to be calling me, and the chicken was shouting with all its might for me. I couldn't resist the look of the juicy chicken. So, I took a piece of the chicken. Then, I grabbed my plate and took a seat at one of the tables next to the student center. Now is the time for the chicken to go where it belongs. When I had my first bite, I felt my mouth go on fire. Immediately, I got up and threw my plate in the garbage. I had never eaten something so spicy. As I was anticipating the symptoms of my allergy, I started sweating. Then, I felt that the temperature rose up 10 degrees. In less than a minute, I was feeling itchy and tears were going out of my eyes. I don't need to describe the other symptoms because I'm afraid that a child may read this post.
I learned that I can never know how can something turn out. What has always appeared like a happy day actually turned into a nightmare. After that incidence, I felt really dumb because I hadn't even thought that the chicken might be spicy although I saw black pepper all over it.

Diclopedia is 1 Month Old

Diclopedia is getting quite mature now. During the first month, Diclopedia got better graphics, bug fixes, history, and suggestions. The total downloads for the first months are 432 downloads, which is not bad. Let's hope that as Diclopedia grows older, it will have much more features. If you would like to share your ideas with me, post them in the comments. Thank you for your cooperation.

Diclopedia's Statistics: First Week

A week has passed since I uploaded Diclopedia to Google Play. To celebrate this event, I am going to share the statistics with you. Diclopedia wasn't as successful as I hoped it would be, but it wasn't bad nevertheless. As you can see, the first 2 days were a devastation, but the third day was the first day of progress. User installs were nearly 10/day during the 4th and 5th days. At the end of the week, the number of installs / day crossed the 10 installs/day and made it up to 18. My goal for the first month is 200 installs. Please give Diclopedia a high rating and a positive feedback in order to help me reach my goal.

My First Android App: Diclopedia

After months of learning and development, I released my first app, Diclopedia, to Google Play. So, you may be wondering what Diclopedia is all about? Simply, it is an app that combines several dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias in one place. Thus, you can search for something on a wide bunch of references. In addition to that, it has some other nice features, such as search history and preferences. It is a must-have app to anyone who owns an Android phone. Check it out here: