It looks like starting October 1, 2006 I will be getting a pay increase of 2.6%. I believe this is to keep my wage on track with the CPI increase. I won’t be the only one though, as I believe everyone working for the government is receiving the same increased percentage. Now I can think of all the possibilities on how to spend this new found income… Too bad it wasn’t 26% then I would be able to take longer planning!

Last night I saw Huo Yuan Jia, aka Fearless. It was a very good movie. The story followed a very familiar pattern of a character who starts off greedy and ignorant then loses everything and his life spirals down. Then at his depths he soul searches and learns from his mistakes and changes. After this period of change he returns for the finale. The movie itself was very well filmed. The characters were deep and really grabbed the attention of the viewer. You really started to feel emotions for the well being of the characters. Jet Li’s performance, for his last martial arts film, was phenominal. I know that I will be buying this DVD as soon as it comes out.

Well it looks like the weekend is finally here. What am I saying, I only worked 3 days this week with my days off in the middle! Well anyway, I am not going to be working this weekend. On Saturday, there is going to be a CSSS games night, so I should probably make my way to that. Then, on Sunday, I am hoping I’ll watch the Riders play. I am probably going to watch the three Maple Leafs preseason games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). Well that just about sums up my weekend. I found out that if you make less plans you actually end up doing more anyway.

That’s right! The Office is back. I have been waiting for so long to find out what is going to happen. The season ended on a cliff hanger and now I’m hoping that everything gets resolved. I want to know what happened with Roy + Pam and Jim, not to mention Michael with Jan… Stupid Michael. Is everything going to be ok with Dwight and Angela? Hmm, by the way I’m talking this seems more like a soap opera than a fake-documentary based show set in an office. The title of the season premiere is “Gay Witch Hunt”, I wonder if this has anything to do with Oscar? I’ll find out tonight at 6:30 (8:30 EST).

I just got back from the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Saskatoon at the Credit Union Center. You have to wonder why Regina doesn’t have a concert facility to attract concerts of this magnitude. By closely examining the highway both before and after the concert it wouldn’t take much to figure out that probably 80% of the people at the event were from Regina. With crowd support so high, artist would definitely take a look at Regina if a decent facility was in place. Nonetheless, the show must go on.

To start off the night, Mars Volta opened up, and again underwhelmed me with their whole act. The 9 person or so band didn’t seem to have any sort of cohesion that is needed to resemble music. The music felt unorganized and didn’t sound very good at all. At some points, it felt like the band wasn’t all playing the same song. So after an unpleasant hour of the noise, they got off the stage. The applause they were given was because they were done playing and not because they played well.

After a little break to remove all Mars Volta’s equipment, the Red Hot Chili Peppers took to the stage. They played really well, and put on a fabulous show. They had some very entertaining video being broadcast on four separate moving screens behind the stage. The video was actually from cameras that moved around the stage. The video was then dressed up in some special effects to create very entertaining videos. The music was very diverse, they played a bunch of songs off the new album, as well as some of their classics. Then it was time to leave, but it wasn’t over. After about 6 or so minutes of cheering they came back out and played 3 more songs. Then the jam session started up. Anthony Kiedis (lead singer) sat down and let Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (i think . .), from Mars Volta, come out and jam. They kept going on and on building off each other trying out different things, changing it up, always building. Very intense stuff, and surprising to hear. The jam session seemed to last 20 minutes or so. Anthony Kiedis had left after about 10 minutes when he had heard enough and left. During the jam session it looked like John Frusciante was having some problems with a monitor. He kept motioning to the roadies and pointing to his ear. He looked frustrated.

Another thing I should mention, Saskatoon has some of the worst security. Maybe it’s just because of the band that was playing, but they didn’t heavily search for cameras or anything. So many idiots were trying to take pictures in the concert using their flash from way back. Somebody has to tell them that the flash won’t help. Another security lapse was when some idiot got on to the stage and was being stupid. He touched the lead singer and looked like he was going to hug him, and after that he ran off the stage. The whole time, no security went up to take him out. The whole thing was very disapointing, and luckily, made Sasktoon look like a hick town.

Overall, it was a great show with a lot of enjoyable music. The band wasn’t afraid to improvise portions of songs, mixing it up, and thus freshening it up for everyone. The sound was clear and didn’t suffer any of the ill effect that Mars Volta seemed to have. I think it is official now though, after watching The Mars Volta open for two different bands, both times sucking, they officially suck. Red Hot Chili Peppers officially rock!

Tomorrow night in Saskatoon will be the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. This concert was months in the planning. In the beginning we had been saying 919, and right now its 918. The concert itself should be really good. This will be a different type of concert than my last couple; System of a Down, and Tool. Nick will drive to the concert, and Ryan from the Z will accompany us as a passenger. Should be fun times. I wonder if they do pat downs at the door??

It is almost time for me to get a new vehicle. I have been driving “Amy’s car” for the past while now since my old car is pretty much junk. Since Amy is going for her license next week, and seems to think she is going to get it, I have to start looking. I am hoping to get a new/newer car instead of a cheap old car. I’m more interested in the small car/good fuel economy market. As well, I will not be paying more than $20,000. So with those rules I am setting out on my research project for a new car. Some early names that are around include, Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, and Toyota Yaris. My goals for the car are just transportation, I don’t plan using it for racing or anything so I’m not concerned with having excessive amounts of power.