the first pics from my digital camera are up, snapshots from this year's bad taste new years party. the whole crew was there (all 3 of us), & you can see shots of us all (except me; no new pics of myself yet, i'm too busy behind the camera) in the pics section, http://www.oocities.org/stalliongsta/pik.html

speaking of new years, it is now the year 2001, the year we first discover that rectangular black rock on mars, the one that taught the monkeys how to kill so long ago. it's 2001, when finally everyone can agree that it really is a new millennium (well, everyone except for the jews... the muslims... the mayans... the chinese... never mind). this is an event whose significance seeps into even the sermon calendar. in light of this era, we at the wAy must establish a new vision, new goals, new ideas, new in-jokes for this new millennium. we need a bold, sweeping new statement for this new future (which is a lot like the old future, except that it's happening now instead of someday after now). you might even say that we're making "resolutions" for this new year.

(look, i know that the "new years resolution" story idea is one of the most tired, uninspired, & totally played-out ideas in the history of editorial columns; has been done a billion times by a billion better writers than i'll ever be, back 50 years ago when the idea was still somewhat fresh; is just a lame excuse that writers make after excessive partying so they can dish out one more self-centered list of promises they know they'll never keep; & is generally the kind of banality one would expect from mike redmond of the indianapolis star or possibly from ann landers, but not from anyone remotely creative. but bear with me here. i didn't bother to make any resolutions for my personal life; i'm only doing it for the wAy, & only because, like the rest of the media, i'm struggling to find any story now that the election is over.)

[1] send out those prizes! this should be my first priority. i know i've been saying for years that i intend to send these out, but dammit, you contest-winners sure haven't been helping to keep me motivated. i'd expect at least a message each year saying "hey, where the hell is the prize that i supposedly won back in y2#8?!", but no. you're just too lazy to do that, i guess, so i say shame on you. we must resolve together that in this new future, those people i owe contest prizes to shall receive them! if you know or suspect that you won a prize which was never sent or given to you, i urge you to just take that first step & write me. hopefully, with our combined strength we can make it all better.

[2] finally redesign the site. i did a little work on the sermon section, which is hopefully at least not so cluttered anymore. i even made some new graphics & even uploaded them before i realized how lame they were & that i'd rather have the same old piecemeal design i've had forever than a site that looks uniformly crappy. this place has needed renovation for years now, but i've generally been too busy with other projects to do much about it. eventually this will change. i'd even like to separate the site into two sections, the wAy & a stAllio! music/discography page. that way fans of my music (all 3 of them... no, not the bad taste crew; i mean a different 3) don't have to wade through all these ramblings. as soon as i come up with ideas for the graphics. don't worry; there won't be any pointless flash animations.

[3] promote myself more. i haven't spent 5 minutes promoting this site in at least a year, or so it feels like. the list of sermon subscribers grows ever smaller as one by one addresses expire, never to be replaced. & this viral marketing crap, having the url at the bottom of all my emails, doesn't seem to help all that much. (maybe that's because i tend to frequent music-related forums, & people there are more interested what my tracks sound like than how i feel about skooter shorts.) so it's obvious that i should buy one of those "millions" cds i keep hearing about (it's apparently so wonderful that every once in a while a complete stranger will write me about it. i must've heard from dozens of satisfied strangers by now) & send out an unsolicited email to anyone who might be interested in some insight. for the subject line i could write "SALVATION FAST LIKE NOW!!!!!!!!" or possibly "WORK AT HOME READING EMAIL, $6H-$*5P/WK". that would be sure to draw in new flockettes. i could even come up with some nonsensical string of characters to tack on at the end, something like "gjk634fle34p".

[4] finish this list. three doesn't seem like enough for a proper list of resolutions. it sure isn't enough to establish a bold new vision for a sparkly new future. but already this sermon is a couple pages already & i clog too much bandwidth as it is (that can be another resolution, switching in brief mode occasionally instead of verbose mode). besides, this terry's chocolate raspberry is calling to me. so i'm going to quit for now. maybe more resolutions to come, or maybe that's a promise i don't intend to keep.