Looks like I got out of World of Warcraft just in time - a plague that accidentally spread and killed pre-50th-level characters? Very interesting....
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Looks like I got out of World of Warcraft just in time - a plague that accidentally spread and killed pre-50th-level characters? Very interesting....
Posted at 03:59 PM in Gaming | Permalink | Comments (0)
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This is the sermon I didn't preach on Sunday, September 11th. After working it through with Micky (my wife) we both felt it had too much anger and was not appropriate to be preached from the pulpit. We both felt it had a lot of merit, but I need more distance from the events before preaching on it. It's too personal right now.
BTW, I am aware of the dichotomy of preaching about Anger and wrath in what can be considered an angry way. I will be working on my own anger about this situation - the sermon is part of that process.
Sermon for Proper 19, A 09/11/05
David+
Posted at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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These days FEMA's website is so overloaded, we can't even get our people registered. When you do get that far, their server often buckles under the load halfway through a 25 minute registration and you have to start over again. Very frustrating.
David+
Posted at 03:15 PM in Personal | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I'm not sure what my favorite Federal agency is, but FEMA isn't it. We had been expecting someone for days to show up to help us figure out how to get people enrolled for disaster benefits. We got a call today - no one is coming. They provided us with an 800 number that all our people are expected to call on our one phone line. Upon calling that number, they get a message that states that there are too many people calling and that they need to call back at another time.
We figured out that you could also do the forms online, although it uses a proprietary Microsoft system that requires Internet Explorer on a Windows machine. It takes about 25 minutes to enroll someone, which means, hmm, we will spend about 60 man-hours doing FEMA's job for them.
Since we did the Red Cross's job locating relatives and FEMA's job getting people enrolled in benefits, I'm wondering what those two organizations are doing? Certainly not much here, although the Red Cross has had a volunteer at the shelter all day today.
David+
Posted at 09:40 PM in Personal | Permalink | Comments (2)
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So here's the scoop. We received 119 refugees on Saturday night and another 20 or so last night. On Sunday, a couple of of church members and I began to set up a computer network to allow the refugees to try to track relatives and be found on the Red Cross web site. It was challenging, because we had to bridge about 50 feet through several walls to get to the DSL line, but we set up a wireless bridge and it's working very well. We have four computers on the Wi-Fi G network. We've had a LOT of refugees make connections through the web site. A few have left, and others are making arrangements. Some are considering relocating here. We still have not seen a FEMA representative.
We seem to be WAY ahead of the curve. There are several centers that are not answering their phones or refusing to take messages because of their lack of infrastructure and number of refugees. Luckily, many of the refugees have cell phones and many have web-based e-mail accounts.
My major frustration has been how this has played out on the web. There are two separate databases at the red cross and at MSNBC. Both are voluntary, that is, they have to sit down at the computer and enter themselves to be found. Wouldn't a comprehensive database compiled by the Red Cross or FEMA containing all registered refugees and made available to all authorized shelters be an intelligent thing? Wouldn't it be an easy no-brainer? The local Red Cross people promised us copies of the reg forms they took at the shelters, then called back two days later to say HIPA made that impossible, even to put on a Red Cross web site! And the Red Cross website as it exists is frustrating because it contains only one name field and names are not being entered in a consistent manner nationwide.
God help us if we were hit with a disaster that we didn't have warning about - hard to believe we didn't even have a rudimentary IT architecture to deal with this.
David+
Posted at 03:15 PM in Personal | Permalink | Comments (0)
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From the Courier Journal Article yesterday....
Clifford Jones, 8, got a hand from the Rev. David Simmons yesterday morning as he got off one of the buses that delivered hurricane evacuees to the camp. They are expected to stay up to four weeks while local housing is found.
Posted at 08:45 PM in Personal | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Murray has received 119 Refugees from Katrina housed in the Woodmen of the World camp. They arrived at 4 AM this morning, and I haven't slept since Friday night. Of course, many of these people haven't been sleeping for a week. The stories are truly terrible - WORSE that what you hear on television. We had one mother who was put onto a separate bus from her children, only to have their bus diverted somewhere else - we have no idea where. Today myself and a couple of members of my congregation set up a Wi-Fi network and three computers so that the refugees can check the Red Cross family registry to find relatives. We solved a need no one else had seen yet. Hopefully, we will be able to key the refugees we have into the system tomorrow.
Sleeping soon....
David+
Posted at 06:53 PM in Personal | Permalink | Comments (0)
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