Author: Joey deVilla

The Resurrection of Lazarus, by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet.

After two weeks of being out of action – a week in the hospital, followed by a week under “medical house arrest” – I am back among the living! I’m looking forward to being out and about again, having spent two-thirds of the new year so far in some kind of confinement.

I’m feeling at 100% again. My voice isn’t quite back up to what it was just yet, but I expect it’ll fix itself in a couple of days. What I lack in sound, I make up for in appearance – I no longer look like death warmed over, and a combination of working out often in November and December and being ill (which includes being on an IV/liquid diet for the better part of a week) has left me about fifteen pounds lighter and well ahead of my fitness plan. Even stays in the ICU have their silver linings.

It’s going to be a busy week. I’ll see you out there!

I’ve got to admit that I’m curious about Ron de Jeremy Rum, (“The Adult Rum”) and yes, it’s named for that Ron Jeremy. According to the blog Uncrate, it’s been “hand crafted by master distiller Francisco ‘Don Pancho’ Fernandez” and “a high-end dark rum that’s oak aged for seven years, resulting in a rich, smooth flavor with hints of vanilla, sugarcane, fruit, and spices.”

My question: is it pronounced “Ron de Heremy”?

Found via TheAaronDouglas.

I had my computer and a hard drive full of music for half my hospital stay last week, and one of the things that made my stay a little better was Trombone Shorty’s 2010 album, Backatown. His music’s a mix of jazz, rock, funk and hip-hop; if you’re a fan of Maceo Parker’s “2 percent jazz, 98 percent fonkay stuff”, Trombone Shorty should be right up your alley.

The video above is Verve records’ “Trombone Shorty” reel, which should give you a taste of what he’s all about.

Anger is Illogical, a film created by “OneMinuteGalactica”, takes audio from one of those “behavioural” films they used to show in schools in the 1950s and 60s and video from the original Star Trek TV series (run through a filter to make them look like they’re on 16mm film) and combines them for hilarious results.

Here’s another amusing little film from OneMinuteGalactica: Luke Skywalker has OCD…

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

It has been determined – though not conclusively, it’s hard to tell from the cultures they grew from my nose, throat and butt swabs (ugh) – that I had a particularly nasty variant of the flu. I’m now part of the Venn diagram encompassing the extra 1,500 flu cases that have popped up in Ontario alone over the past couple of weeks.

Doctors are recommending that you get a flu shot if you haven’t already.

Back in 2006, there was a craze for making subway anagram maps – maps of subway systems with names on the maps changed into anagrams (rearrangements of the letters). For example, in John “Robot Johnny” Marsh’s anagram map for the TTC, Bathurst became Butt Rash.

I was aware of Matthew Hollett’s anagram map for the Montreal Metro, but unaware of something in it until Eitan “Skrud” Levi pointed it out on Twitter: the anagram for Guy-Concordia station is Accordion Guy!

Here’s a closer look: