If only I could convince everyone that a web page is a privilege, not a right. Unless you're a blood relative, I'm not at all interested in your cat's pictures, or three pages of broken links. Remember that you're putting the site up for other people to see, and it's useless to them if it has no current information and no reason to be book-marked. Keep your site as current as humanly possible. In most cases, that means avoiding anything that's time-sensitive.
Nothing turns browsers off of a site like a description of an event that took place long, long ago.
Unless you spend time on your site on a weekly basis, at the least, your site runs the risk of becoming dated and losing its value. However, they are useless by themselves. You can be one of the most talented Java designers around, but you won't attract repeat business with a cute applet surrounded by hideous design and worthless content. Keep your graphics small. A 28.8kbps modem is still the standard, and that means graphics come down at about 2k per second, given net lag.