The Magic Of Vampire Diaries

Oh Vampire Diaries, I am convinced that this show has some hidden mystical powers above and beyond the ability to entertain a cynic like me how else can I explain suddenly noticing how beautiful Phoebe Tonkin is. Somehow throughout the entire run of The Secret Circle I never noticed Phoebe but then you have a show with Shelley Hennig and Jessica Parker Kennedy the latter spent the first few episodes in nothing but her underwear very distracting indeed.

I think it has something to do with the Faye the character she played on the Secret Circle she wasn’t the nicest of people and that might have blinded me to her appeal. So since Phoebe started on The Vampire Diaries I have done a little research into her and I was rather surprised to find out she is Australian, who knew? Her accent is excellent.

I am assuming the readers are familiar with these shows and Ms Tonkin but if not I have included a gallery.

If this has only whetted your appetite then be sure to head over to Shaft's Words Extra for a bigger gallery dedicated to our new favourite former witch turned werewolf.

SHAFT'S TV ROUNDUP

So I watch a lot of TV and I figured that it was more than time to do an article about shows that in my opinion are worth watching, further than that these show are great with usually top notch writing and thoroughly entertaining characters that keep you coming back. In this action packed instalment of Shaftsword we will be discussing three top shows Vegas, NCIS LA and Homeland.

VEGAS

Set in 1960s Las Vegas, the series centers on Sheriff Ralph Lamb (Quaid) and his dealings with Chicago mobster Vincent Savino (Chiklis), who moved west to set up his own operation. The Lamb character is based on a real-life former rancher who served as Sheriff of Clark County from 1961 to 1979.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect given it is a period drama but I took the plunge initially because Michael Chiklis was one of the principals and after being a dedicated fan of The Shield.  I am not usually a fan of period dramas but the glamour of Vegas in its infancy sucks me right in. It reminds me a bit of OTR (Old Time Radio) broadcasts from the 1920s to the 1950s which told of private detectives, cops, robbers and speakeasies.

Dennis Quaid is the right choice for Ralph Lamb a former military investigator who is pressed into service as a sheriff when things the previous sheriff disappears. Between him and Michael Chiklis you have two opposing forces that can’t help but clash over control of Vegas. In this story it is a mob boss and a sheriff but it could easily be two opposing countries locked in a desperate war it is a simple tale that is presented very well with a variety of support characters that hold your interest so you end up wanting to learn more about them too.

NCIS LA

Pretty much everyone knows NCIS either you know Gibbs and his angry cop routine or like me you pine after Ms Sciuto. That show has been going for 10 years and doesn’t look like it is about to end. NCIS LA is of course a spinoff… of a spinoff but somehow it is still kinda awesome. For me its success is in its simplicity it is a buddy cop movie but it pretty much as three pairs of buddies appealing to broad demographics. Add to that an average of about 10 clips of ammunition spent per episode and you have something that just works.

HOMELAND

The first season of this epic show blew my mind, I mainly went to it because I was a fan of Damian Lewis and was pretty upset at the two season run of Life which in my opinion was one of the finest cop procedural shows out there. Now thinking about Damian’s performance in Life it does have some similarities to what he brings to Homeland. Both of these are stories about men who are loss then found and struggling to adapt their new found freedom. Life of course has a vein of comedy running through it whereas Homeland is as serious as a heart attack.

Homeland is based on an Israeli Television show Hatufim (Prisoners of War), the series stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency officer, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a U.S. Marine. Mathison has come to believe that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was turned by the enemy and now threatens the United States.

So that was my roundup of three excellent shows that maybe you should check out. You can leave comments on here or tweet me @shaftsword. Thanks for visiting.

Two WP Visits - Double The Pain

UPDATE: Hey post number 250 wowzers

2 WP Visits, Twice the Pain

So welcome back to Shaftsword VS SEETEC or my ongoing dealings with all aspects of the Work Programme. This post will cover my fifth and sixth visits mainly because the fourth was quite quick and not worth a whole post. So let us get to it.

The fourth visit was an early morning visit to a BDC advisor, which I had no clue about as it wasn’t explained. Basically the BDC advisor is in charge of looking out for jobs for me, jobs not placements as I checked that at the time to make sure. Anyway we had a talk about the kinds of jobs I was interested in and any restrictions to that work, commuting distance that sort of thing.

Overall it was a very pleasant experience, the only glitch was in the discussion of my CV once again we fell into the WP Waltz (I’m working on a snappy title) where he talked about sending out my CV to jobs. I then informed him that he could not send my CV out for jobs, he was like “But you signed the waiver” to which I responded no I didn’t, that caught him out a bit and he asked why yadda yadda yadda. They always use the what if a job appears and you are not at home when we e-mail.

I really have no idea where all these strange advertised-for-24-hour vacancies come from but apparently SEETEC has some sort of deal with them. I once again told them I was more than capable of applying for any jobs that came up, plus I got the advisor to e-mail me a job he wanted to send my details to.  I applied for it when I got home well before the deadline which was the day after.

MY REVIEW – DUN DUN DUN!

When I went to my first proper SEETEC meeting I was given a list of tasks to go through including things like, sending them my CV (which I did after some changes), listing companies I wanted to work for and a few other things. When I came in for my fortnightly review I was informed that I would be changing advisors to a new person.

ONCE AGAIN there was discussion about using their e-mail address, I refused arguing that I have an e-mail address and I am not happy to share that information with the WP provider. They were very insistent about it to the point of becoming rather aggressive about it. I was in the unfortunate position of being seated with my current advisor right next to the new advisor who felt the need to butt into our conversation and make snarky remarks when I talked about not wanting to use their e-mail, pretty much saying that as I am on the WP now I have to do EVERYTHING they say “You’re on the Work Programme now”. Rude is understating how she was with me, way to start off the relationship in the right manner.

Basically I am going to have to go into the next meeting on Wednesday on my toes and ready to wholeheartedly defend my reasoning for not signing the data waiver and wanting nothing to do with their e-mail address system. Wish me luck.

One other thing I thought I would mention was signing on the register of the WP, something we are asked to do as soon as we step through the door. I had just been initialling my name without putting in a signature and the manager at the WP confronted me over it. She said that if I didn't use my correct signature then I was not attending. She also stated that they send their attendance registers to the DWP every week which sounded very unlikely to my ears but I am just tell you what they told me. So not wanting to get into a lengthy sanction battle over not appearing I put in my signature. A loss for me then on that score.

Stay tuned for the results of my first meeting with this new advisor it is going to be a slobberknocker.

GAMING - I needed a WoWcation.

So if you have an interest in World of Warcraft and are staying current you might have heard of the endless back and forth over the current content in terms of the dailies and reputation requirements. If you haven’t heard about it and have a appetite for MMO drama grab your popcorn and head over here or try here, they should get you started.

Anyway moving on, as the title suggests I was not playing World of Warcraft for the last week so I have been looking at some other titles. 

APB Reloaded

A free game from Steam it looked interesting and described itself as a sort of Grand Theft Auto MMO. My initial thoughts are that yeah that is a pretty accurate description with some interesting extras. You can choose to play as criminals or enforcers and then you are let loose on a fairly large urban sandbox and go about doing missions with others against other players of the opposing factions.

My problems though are few but very important, it is REALLY difficult to get going in the beginning the so called tutorial is more than a little lacking. I really didn’t know what to do so I did some exploring and tried to get used to how ridiculously sensitive the controls are. That comes from someone not used to FPS type games so it could just be me. What I saw of the game was interesting but a tutorial system would really help.

Since then I have checked out YouTube to get some ideas and I now at least have a notion of how things are going. I will have to give it a try again but at the time I decided to move on to my next game of choice.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I have already played a little SWTOR, got to level 11 on a Sith Warrior and pretty much enjoyed the experience other than somehow managing to make the character on a French server (oh how I laughed at myself). In reality that matters little as I was on a trial account and therefore could not talk on the general chat or send tells and such.

My second experience with SWTOR was going Republic side and choosing a Jedi Consular, you watch the preview video on the website and tell me they don’t look cool. Going through the second time even with completely new quests was a lot quicker. I’m not really a light side fan but at least I get the choice to go with some dark side choices.

the light side has scantily clad warriors

For a lore nerd like me it is nice to be able to go all dark side especially in the time of the Old Republic as the Jedi Order then is makes the Tea Party look liberal. I am more of a fan of the later time periods but they don’t have an MMORPG based on them.

So I hope you liked this glimpse at what I did in my Wow-cation.

Work Programme Visit 4

CV WORKSHOP

So today bright and early I had a CV workshop, it was one of the three, specialist appointments I guess you could call them. It started straightforwardly we had an adviser not my regular one but he seems to have some sort of specialism. He basically went through CVs and their purpose and highlighted various approaches to CV design. I didn’t agree with all of what he said but I can’t say that his advice would be damaging.

My issue with the 3 hour long session is that my CV was not in need of work, of the people at the session there was two without CVs and one who needed guidance on things like dealing with gaps. In discussions with my advisor, they never stated that they thought anything was wrong with my CV the only real discussion was me outlining in detail the fact that I was not happy with them doing with it whatever they wanted (more on ROUND 2 of that fight later).

Part of the CV session was a one to one opportunity where the advisor personally looks at your CV and rewrites it, there doesn’t seem to be a choice in the matter. It was at this point that IT happened. First I was asked if I had a CV on file which of I did, as a watermarked PDF with ‘do not copy’ written all over it. When the advisor asked if it was a PDF to prevent them messing with it, I said simply ‘yes’. I was at pains not be rude about it still left him a little stunned, he looked through the CV then suggested he wanted to make changes to it at which point I said I was more than happy with it.

This was the moment where after some back and forth he said something along the lines of “Well you know you signed the waiver so…” to which I responded “No I didn’t”. That left him flummoxed to say the least and he went in a bit about how they need the waiver so they can apply for jobs on my behalf, I said if they find a job they can get in contact with me, what if I’m busy they said? I patiently explained about wanting to be in control of my job searching.

Another interesting thing that happened was during the CV Workshop the manager of SEETEC came into our session and tried to get me to sign the desk register I just initialled it but that wasn’t good enough for the Manager and I was told that “We would have to have a talk”. So that is something to look forward to.

Tomorrow is my next meeting where I have a meeting with someone called a business adviser but I don’t really know what it will be about.

Next update should be up soon if you have any questions about my experience you can leave a comment and I will get back to you or contact me on Twitter.

BOOK REVIEW: Hidden (House of Night #10) By PC & Kristin Cast

Hidden is the tenth instalment of the House of Night series by PC and Kristin Cast. It was published on the 16^th October 2012 by Atom in the UK. The hardcover edition of Hidden is 320 pages long.

PLOT

I'd known it before we saw the fire trucks and the smoke. I'd known all hell had broken loose at the House of Night the moment it had been proven beyond all doubt that Neferet was on the side of Darkness. Only now I had a terrible feeling that outing Neferet would serve more to free her than to force her to pay the consequences for her lies and betrayals.

At last, Zoey has what she wanted: the truth is out. Neferet's evil has been exposed, and the High Council is no longer on her side - but she's far from done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world.

With the seeds of distrust sown and Darkness breeding chaos at the House of Night, everyone must band together - but that's proving to be more difficult than ever before. The twins are barely speaking and the House of Night's former enemy, Kalona, has now become their warrior, pushing their trust to the limits.

To top it all off, Zoey is pretty darn sure she might be losing her mind - she saw something when she looked at Neferet's minion, Aurox, through the Seer Stone that she can hardly explain to herself, let alone her friends. Zoey knows that following her instincts might be just what they need to defeat evil... but if she's wrong, it could cause the destruction of those closest to her.

With the tension at a breaking point and friendships on the line, can the nerd herd come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it's too late?

NOTES ON SPOILERS

It would be near impossible to discuss Hidden without spoiling some of the details from the previous books. I would highly recommend if you are interested in reading House of Night that you should start at the beginning, the books follow on immediately after one another and could not be more connected.

HON Controversy

I don’t feel like I can write a review of a House of Night novel without talking a little about the controversy surrounding the title. The controversy is about the maturity level of the content, while HON is about Vampires in High school with magic powers there are a lot of mature themes including things like sexual themes and swearing. When I read book blogger reviews of HON they highlight this content as if there isn’t a clear warning on the back of the books about the mature content.

I feel that book stores both physical and online are partly to blame as they tend to incorrectly place any books not overtly romantic straight into the children/teens section. While House of Night could be described as a YA or Young Adult novel it really isn’t for kids despite it being set in a school.

WHAT I THOUGHT

House of Night novels are regular as clockwork around October each year and I am always eagerly awaiting each new addition to the series. Zoey Redbird and her gang are fully engaged in the fight against darkness but things are becoming too much for Zoey. This book is about Zoey as well as several other of the major protagonists taking steps to decide their own destinies. 

While this is obviously a series about magic and vampires it is also about people choosing between easy and the hard choice. A lot of times when I read YA books I question whether the characters are inspirational, whether or not they could be thought of as role models.

The characters in HON are relatable, now too flawed and not too perfect though I have to say Jack was pretty brilliant. They are some of the most believable characters I have come across in literature and they have a permanent place in my heart (yes I know that is so cheesy especially coming from an adult guy).

Religion and the way it is portrayed has always intrigued me in HON and the religion of the Nyx is a fairly well defined one and it throws up an interesting relationship dynamic, it makes possible a triangular romantic relationship, whereas 90% of YA books make use of the love triangle this book goes in another direction entirely suggesting a new relationship structure and I find that interesting.

WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT

First if you are a fan of House of Night this is a great addition to the story, if you left the series because of the change in the storyline a few books back I would urge you to come back as the essential qualities of House of Night never left even if the story has changed somewhat since the beginning.

If you are new to the House of Night series I can tell you that it is not just another Vampire book it is a richly detailed alternate world and a story about friendship first. House of Night is definitely worth adding to your read pile.

If you want to get in touch with me, maybe to argue the merits of House of Night or YA in general you can find me on Twitter on @shaftsword, I’ll be happy to reply.  

Third Visit to the WP

This is my third visit to the Work Programme run by SEETEC. This time I was booked in for a two hour session on the virtual training environment. This is where we can get some training on basically everything involved in getting ready for work and applying for jobs.

They asked me to go through the online presentations for cold calling for jobs and good interview habits. The second part seems quite useful to me and I suppose the first may be useful depending on what sort of jobs you are going for certainly not in my case due to the type of organisations I apply to.

The Training

The training material is fairly straightforward stuff just a PowerPoint slide with a voiceover that is intentionally distorted so you can’t tell gender and I guess it makes it harder to pick up accents, very strange. As you wait patiently through the voice track at various intervals you have to click on videos broken into multiple parts that give you tips and what and what not to do.

All in all a good idea however the implementation is more than a little off. The first problem is that the videos are at least 15 years old, considering that these providers are being paid to help it would be nice if they used some of those profits to buy some training materials from the last decade. The problem with the age of the material is that a lot of it is no longer relevant and maybe a quarter of the things they suggest seem that they just wouldn’t be possible now.

And then there was the time, all in all I spent a little over 2 hours just sitting there clicking my mouse every now and then while watching this largely pointless material and of course listening to the strangely distorted announcers voice as they guided me through the material. I would add this was mandatory so I wasn’t going to raise a stink about it certainly not worth getting or having to fight a 4 week sanction.

The thing that annoyed me was that perhaps 10 minutes before I finished up I got a tap by one of the floating advisor types to say “Hey you can go as soon as you finish” I looked at the time on the computer and yep 2 hours had passed. There was no interview at the end to round things up or even to ask if what I had just watched made any sense or was in anyway useful to me moving from unemployment back into the workplace. It was the epitome of a ticking box episode and frankly I and everyone who attends these Work Programmes is worth more than that.

Anyway that is enough from me; feel free to join me next week when I attend the CV workshop which is another 2 hour mandatory activity to take place at the WP.