I haven’t used my Wii in a little while, so when I popped in the disc, I had to wait through 2 consecutive software updates to use the disc.

Now that’s done, and I see the Netflix icon in the top left of the home screen.

Clicking on the icon, I can choose to Start or to go back to the Wii menu.

I have to activate my Wii so I can stream from Netflix. I do this by taking a code from the screen

and going to http://www.netflix.com/Wii and entering the code.

I do this, and now I’m told: “Your Netflix ready device is being activated. This may take up to 3 minutes. Once activation is complete you may add movies and TV episodes to your instant Queue and watch on your TV via your Netflix ready device. If you encounter any problems with activation, request a new activation code from your Netflix ready device, come back here, and try again”

In the time it took to write that paragraph, I’m ready. Much quicker than 3 minutes.

My TV screen now shows my Instant Queue in a Cover Flow-like interface. Kind of reminds me of boxee.

I can browse my instant queue by genre or I can flip through the DVD images on the horizontal scroll bar.

Clicking on an image takes me to details about the movie, again, looks a lot like boxee. From here I can play the movie or remove it from my queue. I can also rate the movie from here or go back to the prior screen.

Clicking Play goes online to retrieve the movie. I have cable internet and it took about 8 seconds to grab. The picture quality is amazing and it plays seamlessly. Can’t even tell it’s not on a disc in the DVD player or on TV. Awesome. I’m going to really enjoy this.

Update:

Accidental discovery: If you click the ‘trigger’ button on the Wii-mote, you can pause the show, then either resume, play from the beginning or remove from the queue.

Did go out to the Village and to the outlets. The Village was packed. Picked up the obligatory VS wishlist items w/complimentary tote bag, just like the last 3 years. Walked in, then out, of American Eagle. Bought the husband some stuff at Macy’s. Bought the daughter a hoodie at my most-hated store in the mall–Abercrombie & Fitch. Went to the outlets. They were surprisingly mellow, except for Coach which was a zoo. Bought various pajama items at Old Navy. Walked in, then out, of the Gap. Bought holiday foaming hand wash and a couple of Wallflowers at Bath & Body Works. Left.

Decided to go and see Twilight with the daughter, who thinks Edward Cullen is beautiful. Pointed out to each other all the inconsistencies between the book and the movie as they happened. Agreed that the book was better than the movie. Agreed that the movie direction had no ‘flow’. Agreed that the actress cast as Bella really wasn’t as bad as we thought she’d be. Thought the special effects like running and climbing were cheesy, but kind of liked how Edward sparkled in the sunshine. Decided that Stephanie Meyers better get a bigger budget and a better director for New Moon because that book has way more big screen potential than Twilight. Agreed that Robert Pattinson (Edward) was the best thing about the movie.

Went home. Ate leftovers. Shopped online. Typed this. Going to sleep.

Cloverfield is an in-your-face, whirling, swirling, dizzying attack on your senses. My daughter left the theatre twice just to keep from puking, and finished out the longest 84 minutes in cinematic history watching from behind the fur on the hood of her coat. I caught myself hugging myself tightly trying to protect myself from ‘whatever-it-is-it’s-winning’.

The beginning gives you practice in mastering the art of watching a movie by camcorder. The party is rolling along, and then–BAM. From that moment on, nothing is ever going to be the same. Was the monster what I expected? Well, kind of. It was big and scary and loud. And when it was in your face, it was IN YOUR FACE! Hud was by far my favorite character, providing the flick with some much needed levity with quotes like, “I have to document this. This is important. People are going to watch this,” while the monster stomped around Midtown.

I dropped the F-bomb quite a few times, and by the end, I was ready. Ready to start breathing again, ready to stop clenching my teeth, ready to walk out of the dark to a place where the monster wasn’t. Not even Space Mountain gives you a ride like Cloverfield.

Now I have a daemon of my own, compliments the website:

Get yours too. The movie is due out December 2007.

Well, the very informative Hacking Netflix site gave some tips on an unofficial ‘lottery’ of sorts where random account holders might log in to find a Watch Now tab miraculously appear, allowing one to be an early adopter of the service. Well, wouldn’t you know, I logged in tonight and there she was! The Watch Now tab!

The trick is as follows:

1. Log in to your Netflix account.
2. Click on the “Your Account” link at the top of the page.
3. About halfway down on the right, click a link that says “Learn how to watch movies live on your PC”.
4. If you win the ‘lottery’, a Watch Now tab will appear in your set of navigation tabs. If you don’t, you’ll see the Watch Now preview page telling you to wait until June.
I tried this about a half dozen different days before it worked. It’s also been said that IE takes preference over Firefox, so to increase my odds of being picked, I used both IE 7 and the Firefox IE tab. I hit the jackpot using the Firefox IE tab.

I had to install a smallish app (the Netflix Movie Viewer), which took only a few minutes on broadband, and my chosen movie began to play. I’ll update on the quality and ease of use once I actually watch it–I picked The Puffy Chair because it was in my queue anyway.