Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

September Words: Katrina improves Zepfanman.com

On Sunday, My pastor quoted an "8-day-forget rule." I can't remember if he mentioned his source, but basically it's the idea that eight days after a disaster, public support drops off drastically. I'm hoping that this won't happen to the people on the gulf coast. Below are a few of my thoughts on the disaster which eventually lead me back to what's happening with my own website, Zepfanman.com.

It's now been about 8 days, but I think that, like 911, the American people will continue to give—just remember that the Red Cross will still be needing large donations three months from now, when things will finally start functioning again in the disaster cities. I'm tired of hearing all the complaints about how our country has responded. Instead, how about we explore our real options and determine the best way that we can help out? Taking a trip down there is only helpful if you're doing it with a program that knows what its doing!

I'm sure you've already heard too many opinions about the disaster, so without further commentary, I give you some helpful links.

Hurricane Katrina on Wikipedia

This general information source gets updated every few minutes. Use this as a portal for activism.

American Red Cross Donation

Katrina PeopleFinder Project

You can contribute by centralizing several databases of missing people (either as a volunteer or tech specialist). This is a part of the Katrina Help Wiki, an widely popular source for help; it even has mirrored copy of the site—also remember 192.122.183.218 as an alternative way to get to the site. Just in case anyone stumbles upon this post in dire need of help, this wiki also has a very useful Life & Death? Get Help Now list of immediate resources.

Your religious organization

It's likely that your local church is providing spiritual support as well as physical support to the hurricane victims. For example, my church is looking at several avenues (donations, missionary hosting, NOLA church partnering, local refugee centers, and prayer) to make sure that we're doing everything we can to bring good news to the afflicted, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners (Isaiah 61, The Message Bible).

I've finally started using the popular del.icio.us online bookmarking website (see my katrina tagged bookmarks, for example). I foresee Delicious (as it is informally spelled) links, Flickr photos, Feedburner subscriptions (I haven't created one yet, see Lisa's as an example), and Answers.com/Wikipedia information as the main tie-ins or tools to accomplish my site's goal as as a unifying, publicizing, WWW help center.

I'm currently budgeting for some DreamHost web space. This will take me one step closer to my vision as a professional web developer. Using free services as an amateur just won't cut it in the business world! Realistically, I'm hoping to have a much-improved Zepfanman.com by November.

By rockofvictory | Tue 2005Sep06 19:55 CST | Beliefs
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