Snow keeps falling down, falling down.

Hello everyone!

Today marks the third day of the snowstorm here in Michigan and I think it's finally finished. I watched today as the snow went from snowing to sleeting during the day. I did not enjoy any of the times I had to go out and then come back inside. I was glad when the work day was finally finished. I was hoping for fitness time today; but, I understand that I can't get it all the time because they're paying me to be at work and not at home, working out.

Anyway, nothing really exciting happened today so this'll be a shorter blog than usual, sorry everyone!

Snow sucks and workout time, oh yeah!

So, this morning's forecast? Lots of snow!

It's literally been snowing nearly all day and there were at least two accidents on my way home from work, one on each side of the highway. I don't know how they happened, I was just glad the one on the northbound side wasn't hindering traffic flow.

I'm glad to finally be home today and so is Minnie. I also managed to get fitness time so I was able to avoid some of the major traffic rush at around the time I normally get off work. Got a nice workout in, showered and I'm waiting to hear word on what the final plans are for this evening. Supposedly a friend who came down from up north is staying in a hotel and we're going to hang out there; but, who knows?

Also, I've been having a lot of fun on this app, Chatous. I've met several interesting people from around the world and have had interesting discussions. However, the only regret I have is my username I happened to pick for it haha.

Snowstorm Mateo!

Just when I thought we were getting ready to be done with snow, we get a frigging snowstorm! This snowstorm, named Mateo, seems to be hammering my state among many other northeastern states with snow, cold and ice. I can personally attest from the way the snow was falling today, powdery and light but consistent, that the snow plows couldn't keep up. It was kind of ironic. I got to the movie theater to see my movie today and it was empty. I think they were hoping it would stay that way; but, I told 'em, 'I got 4WD and a little snow wasn't going to stop me'.

The movie I saw today was: Den of Thieves starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent.

The movie focuses in Big Nick, the leader of the Regulators, an elite unit out of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department under the department of Major Crimes. They're the unit that's tasked with bringing in the major criminals (bank heists, robberies, etc). On the other side, the antagonists is 50 Cent and crew, the Outlaws, a group of ex-military who put their skills to use to rob banks and get away with crimes.

The movie seemed to focus on Nick primarily with hints at Merrimen and 50 Cent (who has a family that serves no purpose other than to make him seem human, I guess?). Nick is married; but, you couldn't tell from his heavy drinking, strip club and stripper lifestyle. It just felt weird for them to throw in families into this movie, like the plot wasn't completely there. Everything else clicked; but, the families just confused me and were never present for more than a few minutes. They hint at the military background of Merrimen, the leader of the Outlaws; but, they never talk about what caused him to become a criminal. None of the men seemed to be living a poor lifestyle, many of them living in multiple bedroom houses, driving nice SUVs and one of them even lived on one of the hills with a pool.

Overall, I'd say it was an alright movie if for nothing more than Gerard Butler being a badass.

Oh, in other major news, my brother and his wife are doing the gender reveal of my future niece or nephew and I'm excited!

First MoviePass trial was....

Hello everyone!

Today was officially the first test of my new MoviePass card and it was a...

The process is simple apparently. If your theater requires the card, like mine does, you check into the time before the movie, go to the theater and purchase your tickets within thirty minutes of the check in on your phone. Anyway, I got to the theater, told them the time, picked my card and then gave them my MoviePass card to swipe. They swiped it, I got my ticket and it was game on!

The movie today? 12 Strong with Chris Hemsworth playing the star role of Capt. Mitch Nelson, based on the real person, who leads a team of US soldiers into Afghanistan after the attack on the twin towers. The movie started off just after the planes crashed into the two towers and quickly dives into the action. The action sequences were awesome, I felt connected to the characters and enjoyed the bond between Nelson and the general of the Northern Alliance forces he was working with.

Overall, a great movie and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in going to see one this weekend.

Hope everyone is staying warm and isn't getting too much snow!

MoviePass card has arrived!

So, thankfully we didn't get any new accumulation of snow today; but, the roads were still shit for a lot of the traveling public trying to go into work. I, personally, didn't have any issues; but, I could see where others easily could. The bad news? We're supposed to get another 2-4 inches tonight. While that might excite some people, it doesn't actually do anything other than tell me I'm going to have to take it slow driving into work tomorrow.

Great news everyone! I finally got my MoviePass card and I'm fully planning on taking it on its maiden voyage tomorrow to the theater and testing it out, seeing how confusing the whole process is. There shouldn't be a huge crowd hopefully, considering it'll be the middle of the week; but, if there's anything I've discovered up here, it's that nothing with Michiganders make sense.

Other news: got my letter about lease renewal.Which means I'm running out of time to decide what I plan to do. I've got three options: a.) stay in my current apartment and set up online payments (they're going to start charging $10 fees for checks apparently), b.) move to a new apartment,  or c.) get lucky and move for a transfer for my job. I have till the end of April to make my decision right now, unless I get an offer for a transfer between now and then.

Finally got around to watching some of the commercials from the Super Bowl and I was actually really curious about the new Mission: Impossible, it looks like a good ending to the series or at least, I hope it is an ending to it. Only time will tell, I guess!

Sunday Snow and Super Bowl

So, today turned out to be exactly as I expected. It wasn't snowing very hard this morning when I left for work; but, it didn't wait long after I got there to start coming down with a vengeance. The roads and highways were passable until I got closer to work and then I had a couple of fish tails; but, luckily I've got experience driving in snow and I was able to handle it without concern and there wasn't any traffic to be concerned about. The snow was pretty relentless throughout the day though and there had to be at least an inch or two of accumulation by the time I was finally off work.

The drive home wasn't horrible, which was surprising; but, I guess because it's Sunday and a lot of people are off work or at home with preparations for parties for the Super Bowl tonight, that there wasn't a lot of traffic to contend with. Still had to weave around a few people who were driving probably 30-40 mph on the highway. I understand the desire to be cautious; but, at the same time if there's visibility and the road conditions appear fine, try to at least drive the minimum legal speed limit.

Anyway, Minnie still hates the snow. Made me think about my old Aussie that I used to own before she passed away. Girl used to love fresh snow and would pounce on it and wouldn't come in until we made her and then we'd have to take the time to make sure we dried her paws off because they would literally be covered in ice. Minnie, on the other hand, she hates so much as stepping foot in snow and will throw a fit when I make her do so. Which makes it really nice when it's really, really cold out and she's in and out in under five minutes.

Anyway, for those of you watching the Super Bowl tonight, feel free to leave a comment with who you think is going to win and after the game is over, what you thought of the half-time show or your favorite commercials, which let's be honest, is the best part of the whole thing!

Curse you Jack Frost!

Guess what I found out was happening today! More snow.

Guess who was super excited? ...........Not this guy.

Apparently they're forecasting up to three to five inches for tomorrow, yay. *sarcasm*

Among other things, I finished the first episode of Altered Carbon. Not sure how I feel about it. It reminds me a lot of Blade Runner; but, it's supposed to have taken place after it on the timeline, even though the two aren't correlated at all. Anyway, it was interesting. I enjoyed the main character, he's had some interesting roles lately, still remember when I stumbled upon him in The Killing and then he was in the remake of Robocop and now he's in this. I'll try to watch an episode a day or so and let you guys know my own take on it.

Also, I'm really hoping that my MoviePass card comes in the mail soon. There's a few movies coming out this month that I'm hoping to drag myself to the theater to see. Maybe even start trying to go on Friday and Saturday nights again, even if I'm working, just to take advantage of the card. Just think of all the reviews I could write and all the new upcoming movies I could fill you curious lot in on!

Again, another not so interesting day. Not a whole lot happened; but, I guess that's par for the course when I work ten hours of the day and then come home to workout and just want to relax and stay warm.

More Snow? Jack Frost must hate me.

You know what I wasn't expecting this morning when I went into work - snow! You know what began to slowly flurry down on the drive into work - snow!

I guess that's what I get when I don't fully examine the weather forecast before letting Minnie out to the restroom and then hitting the road (my usual routine). Luckily, despite there being a promise of 4-5 inches today, I think the actual accumulation was far fewer, which is a relief. I was just beginning to get my hopes up for summer and wouldn't you know it? The temperature drops back below freezing and it snows! I know, I know. I should expect snow, it's winter and I'm in the northeast, right next to several of the great lakes. It should be a given that I should expect at least a little snow.

Anyway! On to more annoying news. I found out today, after having driven to one location with the intention of driving a fellow coworker over to another location and eventually coming back around 8ish this morning to do our annual leave bid, that the so called individual who would be performing the bid for our annual leaves was sick again. I don't mean to sound like a horrible or insensitive individual; but, we're literally the only ones left at work who haven't bid for annual leave and the guy leaves at the end of this week for his own transfer out to another location. The question my coworker posed and a valid one at that - 'why don't they just have another person or steward perform the bid for us?'

To which, I replied with a shrug, 'I don't know.'

It's entirely frustrating because I was hoping to be there when the bid was conducted so I could begin to plan my summer vacation. I'm debating visiting my cousin in San Diego and going to a concert and visiting with friends in North Carolina, both of which are entirely fun sounding adventures; but, neither of which can be done until I know what weeks I have. The concert takes place the 4-6th of May and if I can't get that week off for annual leave, there's no point in buying tickets for it. I'm hoping that the new bid sheet I sent in was filled out correctly and that I'll be getting a call tomorrow morning at around 8-10ish that will ask to confirm my bid selections and I'll know whether or not I got either one of them.

I've also been discussing working on a fantasy role play with some old role playing buddies. I'm hoping to persuade one of them to co-admin since she's familiar with the game and has a pretty good grasp on how to run things in exchange for me running the day to day and handling the things she can't or doesn't want to. I've managed to convince the other friend to be on board for participation; but, there's been nothing set in stone yet and we haven't even fully decided on an actual role playing concept yet.

Stay tuned for more information on that -

In other news,

The Last Skycity should be back on track for writing these next few days as long as I remain committed and steadfast in my goal for an early spring completion and then editing, publishing, blah, blah, blah can all follow after friends' critiques.