I’ve been hiding out a bit the past month or so, feeling kind of lousy but not sure why. At first I thought it was a cold, then I thought perhaps a sinus infection, and gradually as it refused to go away, I realized it is once again my long-time nemesis Mr. Allergy.

It’s pretty much been since moving back to California ten years ago that I’ve had these lousy allergies, which perhaps explains why when I was a kid and living here I was sick so much. Although admittedly, when we moved up to Washington I was still pretty sick, and allergy shots for years seemed to largely help that. Hey, that makes sense.

Anyway, lately I’ve been feeling lousy, having a hard time sleeping due to sniffling and coughing, etc. My Claritin regime occasionally quits working (body gets used to it) and I have to go cold-turkey for awhile to reboot. So I needed to spend a week off the good drugs.

I remembered vaguely, about six or seven years ago, I had tried something wacky which seemed to work well. So I gave it another shot. It’s the MacGyver solution to expensive allergy HEPA filters.

I have an old 20″x20″ box fan that I got at Home Depot years ago for $20 or something. Typically here in San Francisco it doesn’t get hot enough to worry about pulling it out of the closet (the past few weeks notwithstanding). Houses don’t have central air conditioning in San Francisco since we generally have pretty good air flow here and the temperatures don’t get too crazy very often. So I scrounged the fan out of the closet again, and took a trip to Home Depot.

Interestingly, air filters for home air conditioning systems come in a variety of sizes – one of which is 20″x20″. Hey hey. For $20 you can get a pretty darn awesome “allergen reduction” air filter. There are various types and brands, and Home Depot tries to rate them with a “Filter Performance Rating” system where a higher number equals better. Get a 9 or 10 if you can.

You know what happens next. Bring home filter, duct tape to fan, turn on. I have been completely amazed at the results. I literally spent the entire week I was off Claritin in the house with this fan on. I breathed well, I slept well – a pleasant change. Okay, once in awhile I had to go find some food, and I would rapidly notice my body react to the outdoor air.

I’m not sure what’s in the air right now, maybe ragweed? But whatever it is, my body doesn’t like it. I’m back on Claritin now, and it’s helping again, but I’m in love with this hacked allergen filter. The only thing dismaying about it is that it is starting to look pretty disgusting with grime, which makes me wonder what I’ve been breathing in here the past few years. Ah well.

Highly recommended! And here are a couple others that agree. Including graphs.

I’ve been taking Claritin on and off now for probably three years. At first it was under prescription, and I paid about $10 each month, for 30 pills. When the meds became available over-the-counter, I tried a few other allergy med prescriptions, hoping to maintain that cheap price, but I couldn’t find anything that worked as well. So I sucked it up and paid the approximately $1/pill. Typically, Claritin seems to be $5.99 for 5, $9.99 for 10, maybe $18.99 for 20. That was annoying, but tolerable.
My friend Bret told me I could find it a little cheaper at Costco, but I’m not a member, and I wasn’t too worried about it. I knew that Walgreens had “Wal-itin”, and it was a few bucks cheaper, and I figured Costco had the same deal. A couple of bucks, no big deal.
Then I walked into Target a few days ago. Figured I’d pick up some Claritin there. They too have their own store brand. Only… it’s $16.99, for *120* pills. WHAT THE HELL?
That’s enough to really frustrate a person. Of course, I bought them, and of course, they work great. But it makes me wonder how many other pharmaceutical rip-offs are out there. What a bunch of crap. Why don’t most stores carry these? Schering Corporation, maker of Claritin-brand loratadine, should be ashamed.

Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. The past six weeks I’ve been seeing a physical therapist twice weekly and going to the gym nearly daily, and that has added 2-3 hours of time to each day. It’s definitely a net positive though, as I’ve lost about 10 pounds and am making progress on getting some hip/back problems straightened out, however it does fill my day up a bit more than I’m used to. It feels great to be getting back into shape again.
I saw the movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” last night… I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was originally a bit angry with the trailer of the movie; just the idea of such over-the-top violence against one’s spouse was pretty offensive to me. But the setup to the violence in the movie was done much, much, better than in the trailer; although the movie was full of explosions and violence it was also quite witty, and most of the violence played like foreplay more than anything else.
Two hours of staring at the two most attractive people in Hollywood doesn’t hurt either, although at times I found myself wondering if Angelina Jolie’s lips become sentient at night and crawl off in search of a collagen refill.

Incidentally, there are some great plastic surgery websites out there. Here are a few of them: Awful Plastic Surgery, Good Plastic Surgery.
I must say, I prefer Lindsay Lohan’s old look to her new, streamlined self.

Plastic surgery is really just another arrow in the quiver for those in Hollywood – people in entertainment know that it’s important to update their style now and again in order to keep their fans interested (see, for example, Madonna’s look). Plastic surgery is another way for them to do that. A more extreme way, certainly, but an understandable one for those who want to go a bit further (for whatever reason). Like Michael Jackson.
Frankly, I think the idea of plastic surgery is stupid except for cases of deformity. But I suppose everyone defines “deformity” a little differently.

Okay, I feel like total poo today. Frankly I have pretty much since GDC, which is almost a month now. At first I thought it was a cold, but now that the initial symptoms have simmered down, I’m wondering if it isn’t just allergies again. Seems like that same old garbage that I had going on last year.
Thing is, I thought I had beaten whatever that was. But now I’m wondering, maybe it was just that allergy season ended?
My co-worker Bret is all stuffed up. I’ve got this huge headache and fatigue and hot flashes. What the hell? I hate being sick.
The only thing I’ve found so far which seems to help is sinus irrigation. Yeah, eeewww ick that sounds disgusting. It’s not really that bad, just a little annoying to do. You use a water-pik with a special attachment and flush salinated water through your sinuses for a few minutes. It really helps!
Of course I’ve also brought in the standard accompaniment of other remedies: echinacea, Emergen-C, Claritin, orange juice, green tea, and lots of sleep.
Bah humbug.

Okay, I couldn’t ignore this crazy thing that happened this evening. Was out getting dinner with Alan Yu, Doug Church, Robin Hunicke and Austin Grossman. We were having Chinese hot pot. Mmmmmm.
Well, my naturopath had told me not to eat any chiles. But I didn’t figure a little chile would hurt much, so I mixed a tiny bit of the red paste into my soy sauce. Dipped my first bite of meat into the sauce and stuck it in my mouth, and I’ve never felt such fire. I reactively swallowed the piece to get it out of my mouth, and my throat swelled closed. What the F? I couldn’t breathe at all. Had to motion to Alan that I was having a little trouble. He pounded me on the back a bit, thinking I had gotten some food down the wrong pipe.
After a few moments of gasping, and making several frog-like croaks and coughs which rewarded me with a tiny amount of air, my throat slowly returned to normal.
I’m not sure what vitamin/supplement I’m taking right now that has made me so sensitive to spice, but WOW. Next time I’ll listen to the doc more carefully. That was a few very scary moments.