Testing, testing...1, 2, 3....

Drew and I learned to sail! :-)
So I wanted to wait until I had something half way interesting to say before attempting to post something....and though I haven't been jumping out of any planes lately, Drew and I did learn to sail this weekend. We took a 22 hour intensive sailing course and received our American Sailing Association certification, so now we're like official sailors or something. The test was pretty intense - it was the first time we studied for anything since college. We both passed (I whooped Drew's butt) but I must admit he at least rescued "Bob" during our man-overboard drills, while I let "Bob" drown... Let's see if I can figure out how to post more pictures....



The view of Manhattan from the boat (A 24 footer!) which was called The Flying Dutchman. Now all I have to do is buy some more pirate pants and an eyepatch....Arrrgh!

(I can't figure out how to do any sort of layout with pictures on this thing.... And since I'm having enough trouble posting and haven't tried commenting yet, let me just say I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone else's posts!)

Not so lucky this time

Remember when we went to Atlantic City for Liuzzi's 21st, and Jason and I were so happy we won money? Those were the days. Unfortunately, we didn't do so well on Thursday night. After writing the painful checks to Becky earlier in the day, we decided to go to Atlantic City to win back our money...seems like a flawless plan, right?! Long story short, I lost $50 and Jason lost $300. We treated ourselves to Phily diner afterwards, of course, to lift our spirits. This, after buying wings and french fries for lunch. A day of spending (and losing) money and eating junk lead to a decision for us to not spend any money on food or drinks beginning in July and lasting until the vacation in August (except for the Yankees game, if we go in July). That will be good for the health of our bodies and our bank accounts. That being said, we're hosting a power hour this Saturday night if anybody wants to come (it's allowed, it's still June).

Demetriou, You Can Do This Better. Make Me a CD?

If I could play the piano (and guitar better), I would record an album soley of these songs. And then I'd include one silent track at the end, called "None," for Demetriou to listen to.

Mario Kart Wedding Cake Makes Me Want to Marry.

This is a delicious wedding cake, presumably of the coolest couple to live on this planet.

At first glimpse, you might think this is a generic Mario-themed cake, judging by the Princess Peach castle and such.   But you'd be wrong.   Oh, how you'd be wrong.  Notice the middle portion... what's that they're riding on, you ask?   That's Rainbow Road, my friend!  Below that?  Sherbet Land, perhaps?  And below that?  .....I dunno, Yoshi Circuit or some crap.  One of the boring Mushroom Cup tracks that I would never play except for when Demetriou pulls his "C'mon guys, let's play them all!" BS.

In my opinion, all this cake is missing is a giant Waluigi sitting on top, saying "Waluigi's the winner!" and dancing with a giant Hammer-Bot, who's throwing Dr. Mario pill trash down from above, crushing all competition.

For a bunch of awesome close-ups, including one of Toad (Penrith) and Luigi (Jason), click the picture above to go to the Flickr page.   

Addendum #1: I found ANOTHER cake right after I typed this whole entry.  Go here to check that one out, too!

Addendum #2:  Haha, while we're on the subject of Mario Kart, I found this image fun (click it for more images of it's kind)

My drunk roommate

Jason went to a concert tonight, drank a lot, came home, ate lots of pizza, then went in his room and fell out of bed. I, Dan Demetriou, took a picture. Enjoy. By the way, that's an iced tea container you see.

In Case You Haven't Seen This...

If you haven't been to FunnyOrDie.com before, I recommend it.  It's founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay; and it's basically YouTube, but only comedy videos.  Some celebrity comedians make exclusive videos just for this site.  I have my favorites, but here's one I think all can enjoy.  It's an old one, but I'll never tire of it.

For a simple (but funny) video I also like, featuring Link from the original NES game, go here.

Demetriou's Best Friend

Who is this Steve? As person who likes everyone, I must say this particular person does tend to get on my nerves. So, how do you make a Steve?

1. A dash of "stereotypical black person at a movie theater"
2. Two cups of social awkwardness
3. Three tablespoons of being extremely opinionated
4. A spoonful of stubbornness
5. One cup of 'Even though I am wrong, I am right'
6. Four teaspoons of anger
7. A large dash of extreme self-confidence

Take all of those ingredients and mix them all up and you get our beloved Steve. Demetriou says he means well... but in all honesty this person should not be allowed around people. So, why is Demetriou friends with him? It could be that Demetriou is a good person who see the good in anyone. Or, perhaps there is more?

Dan Liuzzi and Hank Hill: A Comparison.

As my first post, and for experimentation purposes, I decided to compose a comparison between my brother Dan, and King of the Hill's Hank Hill. The reason for such a comparison? Dan hates King of the Hill (without warrant), and there are many similiarities that viewers of the show and friends of Dan that people may notice. You'll see that some of the similiarities are just as strong as the differences. Let me know if you agree.

Similarities:

• Dan is uncomfortable saying "Thongs" and "Bras". Hank refers to such items as "Women's undergarments." (while shuddering due to being uncomfortable saying it.)
• Hank is "not one to make special requests" of people in the service industry. Dan would never make special requests of anyone in service industries.
• In social situations, both Hank and Dan both try to relate others jobs' to difficult realities of their own experience (Hank relates everything to selling Propane andPropane Accessories, where Dan relates everything to working in a restaurant)
• At a bachelor party, Hank assumes the "late night entertainment" was karaoke. Dan would probably assume the same. (It was actually strippers, to which each would be uncomfortable.)
• Hank can't say he "loves" another male, neither can Dan.
• Dan often over explains irrelevant things to people. Hank once explained to a cop that the "individual in the picture weighs 190 pounds, whereas he is 197, which was just an extra layer around the stomach."
• Hank: "Ah, finally, some paper work. Now, we're finally getting some where." Dan: "They probably have some kind of form for that."
• Dan and Hank each wear thick black glasses frames and a relatively conservative hair cut.
• Hank can't convey his emotions without much blabbering and hesitation. Same goes for Dan.
• Both are naive and believe that no one would ever do something wrong with malice intent.

Differences:

• Hank was a football player. Dan HATES football players, and all sports.
• Dan is very liberal; Hank is very conservative.
• Hank drinks beer with his friends socially everyday; Dan despises people who drink beer socially "just to drink."
• Hank preaches about propane, Dan doesn't know the difference between Propane, Butane, Methane, and Charcoal.
• Dan is an atheist, Hank is a devout Methodist.
• Hank is upset that his son is into theatre and comedy, and not sports. If Dan has a son, he would want him to be artsy and creative, and not into sports.
• Dan hates Rednecks; Hank IS a redneck.

So there's some of the similiarities and differences between my brother and favorite cartoon character. In retrospect, this was pretty much a useless post, and quite stupid. And unless you're me or Dan Demetriou, you probably won't even understand it.

In the future, I will try to debunk the myth that I'm an angry, close minded, self-righteous, miserable, and bigot version of my brother - a myth that Pendrith pretty much created.

*My apologies to Dan for seemingly personally attacking him.

But Can Demetriou Do THIS? (Answer: Probably.)

Demetriou, after your last post, I felt so guilty that me and my date of birth caused the Phillies to lose a game, I thought I could somehow try and make up for it.  Enjoy!  (My sincerest apologies on behalf of June the 4th.)

"Famous Phillies Batting Stances"

Another birthday LOSER

Another birthday in the books (Happy birthday Kristi), another Phillies loss: Here are the results so far:

Jason's birthday [4/18 vs. NYM]: Lose, 6-4
Liuzzi's birthday [6/4 vs. CIN]: Lose, 2-0
Penrith's birthday [6/17 vs. BOS]: Lose 3-0
Kristi's birthday [6/18 vs. BOS]: Lose 7-4

Nice goin guys. All four were home games, you'd think you guys could pull out at least one! 2 shut-outs, too, that's impressive considering the Phils have only been shut out 4 times this year. They actually won on my birthday, but it was a spring training game. Becky, they have off on your birthday, so we'll have to wait until Geoff's big day in September to see if they can pull out a big "W."

Penrith's Birthday Celebration

So I had my friends over for a power hour, including my friend Julie, whose birthday was last Friday. Jason showed up after work with the pictured birthday cake. Jason wrote on the cake himself! How thoughtful. Happy Birthday Penrith!

This One's For The Guys (Becky and Kristi, I'm sorry.)

This is the Wii Fit.  Say hello.

It's a new game for the Wii.  You stand on it, and it measures your body weight; you can do yoga on it, push-ups, aerobics, and mini-games like hoola-hoops.   It keeps track of your health/fitness, BMI, etc.

It's supposedly really fun (and good for you!), and I would like to eventually get one.

And if you have a girlfriend who's cool and likes video games, then the following video is all the reason you should need to buy her one.  (Again, Becky and Kristi, I'm sorry. ...Unless you actually enjoy this, in which case: hotttt.)

Birthday Boy!

Blogging

Hello All!

Liuzzi, I must admit, this whole 'Blog' thing actually seems like a pretty cool idea. Brings back memories of those yester-years with easyjournal. I think all of us had a journal going (except for Kristi, who I believe was officially pronounced dead during those years and was replaced by 'she who must not be named') which allowed us to stay in touch despite the distances between us. Plus, some of the posts were pretty damn funny. The one thing about our group of friends is that we are all characters in our own way. This blog should help us all stay in touch much better and allow us to enjoy the kind of humor only we find humorous. I promise to contribute as much as possible with stories of life with Mr. Daniel Dean Demetriou. Good work Mr. Liuzzi, and Happy Birthday Mr. Dan Penrith and Ms. Kristi Christ!

Very Helpful Instructions for Parents-To-Be.

(Click photo to be directed to a whole list of helpful hints!)

I suggest passing this along to anyone you know who is expecting.  There's alot of good tips and tricks here.

For instance, did you know babies prefer a game of peek-a-boo over a thoughtful game of chess?

(Really, it's true!  Head over to the site to see for yourself.)

I learned something today.

So last week I did this.

And it was amazing.

(For a gallery of about 24 photos, click the above picture to go to my new Webshots account!)

With me (above) is my friend Lauren. We were the first to go up. After we landed, my friends Claire and Rich suited up and jumped themselves (Since I have about a bajillion pictures, I didn't upload all of them. I uploaded mostly ones of myself considering you guys don't know the other people who went).

So, yeah, after signing our lives away about 36 times, me and Lauren suited up and got in the tiny, tiny plane with our tandem jumpers. Think of the smallest interior of a plane you can, then shrink that image about 50%. We sat on the floor, and fit together with each other like tetris pieces. After a little flying, I looked out the window and saw how high we were. I asked my jumper if we were jumping soon and he pointed at his handy altitude meter on his wrist. We were 500 feet up, and we needed to get to 10,000 feet. Hol-y crap.

The rest of the ride wasn't too scary, surprisingly. It was about 25 minutes till we got to the correct height. Lauren and her jumper opened the door, at which point cold air came rushing into the plane. I watched Lauren and her jumper disappear out the side of the plane in an instant. Then it was my turn. VERY tightly attached to the guy behind me, we knee-d our way up to the door. This was the scariest part. You have to put one foot out on this metal 2x4 looking thing and keep your other knee inside the plane, on the floor. Holding onto your chute, the jumper holds your head and does a *1.. 2... 3.* action. Then all of a sudden you spin around and are flying downwards at a hundred and some miles an hour.

It doesn't even feel like you're falling, really. It feels like you're suspended in the air, with a huge fan underneath you. It stings a tiny bit, and is incredibly loud. After about a mile of falling (around 45 seconds), your chute deploys and all is quiet and peaceful. My guy, Lonny, goes, "Here, grab the handles of the chute," to which I replied, "Ohhhh nooo no no thanks." But he made me, and it was fun.

The parachute ride was very serene and nice. I felt very safe, I must say.

So here comes the landing part. I heard many stories of people breaking legs, so when my guy told me, "Okay stand-up now..." at which point I thought, "And break my legs? I think not, good sir." So I decided to sit. Well, Lonny decided to stand... ya know, like he told me to do. Our unspoken disagreement lead to us tumbling on the ground for about a minute, rolling around on the floor, legs flailing. Also, the parachute grabbing some air after I thought our gay tumbling in the grass ceased, didn't help.

I already wanna go again. I may go with my uncle in July when I come home. I highly recommend it to anyone on the fence.

Where's the polar bear, Jon?

This one's for Becky and Geoff. This is a clip from The Daily Show, featuring their new correspondent. Considering he talks mainly about Lost, I give it (and the new guy) double thumbs up.

My apologies to Demetriou, who will despise everything about this post, because it combines two things I love.