Issue date: December 3, 2000

Last week's Best of the Web: Craft, giftmaking sites and wishlists

Sell your story online

The Web has opened up a brand new avenue to success for aspiring screenwriters. While actor-writers Matt Damon and Ben Affleck pick finalists in their online contest at Projectgreenlight.com to write and direct a movie, several other sites tout direct lines to Hollywood producers and directors:

At scriptapalooza.com, this year's winning screenplay gets $25,000. Winners are to be announced Aug. 15. Actress Mary Stuart Masterson (Fried Green Tomatoes) is directing last year's second-place winner for Universal Studios.

Producer Robert Kosberg (12 Monkeys) will help sell your idea to Hollywood at moviepitch.com. First, you need to spend $20 on a CD-ROM with writing tips and a password before you can submit ideas. Kosberg promises feedback and advice on how to pitch your idea, if it's worthy.

Moviebytes.com supplies a regular listing of ongoing contests, rules and regulations, and upcoming deadlines. Visitors also are invited to rate each competition, so you can get an insider's look before applying. If you want to get right to work, check out the classified listings.

My Web

Rabbi Nachum Shifren

Rabbi Nachum Shifren, 50 -- known as the Surfing Rabbi -- has managed to combine his dual devotions of surfing and praying. He's chronicled his spiritual quest from L.A. surfer dude to Orthodox rabbi in Surfing Rabbi: A Kabalistic Quest for Soul (Heaven Ink Press, $17.95), out this week and already optioned for TV and film. He also promotes the Zen of surfing and Torah in a weekly newsletter, "Surf & Soul Magazine," and at his Web site, surfingrabbi.com. Shifren surfs the Web before he surfs the waves:

"Every day, I check WaveCast.net. It tells me what the surf is like in any city in the world. For every surfer, it's a must."

When he has more time, he turns to SurfersJournal.com. "It's the top online literary magazine elucidating what it's like to be a surfer and to travel the world in search of the perfect wave." -- Susan Karlin

Happy volunteer year

The United Nations kicks off its International Year of the Volunteer with a star-studded Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build in Los Angeles this week. To learn more about the U.N.'s yearlong celebration of volunteering, log on to iyv2001.org, which provides contact information for hundreds of organizations. Other ways to get involved:

VolunteerMatch.org Search volunteering opportunities by ZIP code, or learn more about "virtual volunteering," where you can help out online by moderating a domestic violence chat room or raising funds for a good cause.

www.idealist.org A clearinghouse for volunteering opportunities, with 20,000 non-profits listed.

Give.org Can't donate your time? Then donate money, wisely. The National Charities Information Bureau has the tools you need to make informed contributions.

By Rachel Cericola, a writer who covers Web and technology trends, and Rula Razek, editor- in-chief of Internet Cool Guide (internetcoolguide.com).