Apparently, I’m allergic to cedar pollen… in January

 

Pollen forecast for my area

I woke up this morning feeling like it was the middle of Spring. My eyes were itchy, my nose runny. I checked the pollen forecast for today and it would appear that I’m allergic to cedar pollen, among other things. My testing mechanism is much more effective than getting my blood drawn for an allergy test. What does that silly doctor know anyway?

I’m also in a bit of a quandary right now. See, I was really, really hungry this morning on my way to work and decided to splurge on some McDonald’s. I was all excited to take my Allegra-D when I got into work, but then I read the bottle and it told me that I needed to take it on an empty stomach, 1 hour before eating or 2-3 hours after. I also have regular Allegra, which I can take on a full stomach, but I’m not supposed to take with orange juice, which I also had for breakfast. If only I knew someone in the medical field…

Netflix + Xbox 360 + HD = Awesome!

Netflix instant queue

I’ve had my Xbox 360 for a while now and I’ve had my Netflix account for even longer. And, I’m pretty sure I’m the target customer for Netflix; i’ve had an account with them probably since they opened their doors, and as a member, I’ve probably rented 10 total movies. But with their Instant Queue stuff, it’ll all change.

Over Christmas break, I discovered The Office on Hulu. It’s awesome that you can watch real TV shows on their site, but unfortunately, you can only watch the current season or the last few shows of the current series. I also learned that they have classic shows like Doogie Howser, M.D. and completely awesome movies like The Karate Kid, but I digress. I was trying to figure out how to watch previous seasons of The Office without waiting a few days for the DVDs to arrive from Netflix. I almost bit the bullet and purchased the episodes from iTunes, but then I remembered Netflix Instant Queue.

I found the DVD on Netflix’s site, hit the “play” button and it started playing right away on the screen on my Mac! It was decent quality, but nothing to write home about. After a minute or so, I decided to try it on my Xbox to see how it looked. To my surprise, all of the episodes from Season 4 (4 DVDs) were listed, and it indicated that I had already watched 4% of the first episode. I hit play, it continued from where I left off, and kept playing in HD. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Best of all, instant gratification and no additional cost. Well done, Netflix, well done. Almost as good as the Sharks beating the Red Wings last night. Almost.