300th POST!!! Where I speak of my day and job stuff

[First Off 300 Posts WOOOOO]

So today was a busy day for me well sort of at least 3 hours of fun walking up and down the mean streets of Clacton (just a clichéd phrase Clacton isn’t that mean it just has some problems) anyway it started with a trip to my local MP who I have found myself almost constantly having to go to in my dealings with Seetec. This time it was about a four week sanction for being sick and phoning in to Seetec which should have been fine but wasn’t. In case you didn’t know what SHOULD happen when a job seeker is on the Work Programme and is ill they should inform their Work Programme Provider who then has a statutory requirement to inform the job centre which then will sent out an absence form.

Well that did not happen it all fell over when Seetec were required to do something that didn’t lead directly to a payment so the process fell over resulting in a four week sanction. That is despite a written reason for my absence and an official appeal both sent to the DWP. It is things like this which drive me mad to be honest especially in the face of the current media storm calling the unemployed scroungers and these new Conservative plans. The government want us to play by all these rules heaped on rules but I get Seetec telling me they won’t help with the costs of attending interviews outside the local area despite my job seekers agreement requiring me to travel up to 90 minutes to find work. Next thing you know they will try sanctioning me for attending interviews in London, it is not as crazy as it sounds.

So last time I signed at the job centre for my JSA I got this notice that from next time (also known as today) I would be required to sign at Seetec instead of at my local jobcentre. Now the first thought might be that makes sense and streamlines things but I find myself worried by this. An interesting thing that happened at the signing ,which as far as I can tell is still done my a member of JSA staff, is that when I went to hand over my job evidence I was told that it would be unnecessary and that Seetec were now responsible totally for looking at my job seeking evidence.

What is the problem you ask? Well what Seetec consider a suitable job and what I consider a suitable job are very much polls apart. I have lost count of the times my advisor had said things like look at this 20 hour a week minimum wage job why don’t you apply for that? And I have to answer again and again that I would be losing even more money than I am now on JSA if I took that. Make no mistake people Seetec and other WPP (Work Programme Providers) are about getting you ANY job, so they don’t care that you are the potential main bread winner with a young family they will try their hardest to palm you off on a 10 hour a week cleaning job because “well it is a job and something else might come along”.

If Seetec can now decide what job evidence is valid or not and send out even more false doubts it is just another tool in the arsenal of intimidation, they could actually look at my evidence at a monthly review where I’m required to apply for at least 10 jobs with a general proviso to look for a local opportunity and say hey that admin job in Chelmsford, or that student support assistant job at Queen Mary Students’ Union in London doesn’t count because we told you, you’re not allowed to apply for jobs out of the local area. They try to do it now and I think after a recent incident where I barely managed to get my interview expenses back they are going to be trying to do it even more. Be warned, be concerned just remember in the end to be strong. 

Found this thanks to a retweet on my Twitter timeline I did not make it.

I just find it makes a lot of sense.

Seetec - Update On The Struggle

So an update to endless problems with Seetec/Work Programme. Last time I was trying to get help with attending an interview in London for a promising administration job, £43 is a lot to magic out of the air when you only get £71 a week. Seetec however were being incredibly obstinate and were using a variety of reasons like the Enterprise oscillating their shield frequency in an attempt to deny me help and indeed a chance at a job.

Their main go to is Seetec don’t pay for jobs outside the local area (my local area is one of the most deprived in the UK). Now I remember my induction and initial interviews with Seetec when I forced onto this useless WPP with a history of bullying me and at no point did they say, “hey we know times are tough and competition for jobs is crazy but we only want you to look for jobs locally” because if that would have happened I would have called bullshit and raised holy hell. Like with a lot of things that Seetec say they tend to fall apart when they get examined.

Anyway the upside of the story is that they finally paid back my travel expenses today which you might say yay but after arguing back and forth about it for over a week during the preparation for a very competitive job. This is what Seetec do to people working their hardest to find a job they put obstacle after obstacle in front of them. I can only hope that continually to fight them and to raise issues at the level of my MP and soon with my local job centre might result in someone actually taking notice of this. That is my hope it is more likely though that I will just be denounced as just one of these ‘scroungers’ which the government has successfully fooled the majority of the public into believing outnumber the honest hard working job seekers slowly drowning in a sea of debt.

Some Thoughts About Interviews

So things have settled down in the house of Shaft. Over the last few months even though it hasn't really ever felt like it I have been pretty lucky with getting job interviews but for those of us in the know getting the interview isn't even anywhere near half the job. If you ask my SEETEC advisor you can smile your way straight into a job and for some people with an easy smile and charisma (Han Solo people like that) but it is not that easy for the rest of us. I'm a serious person and I don't think that is something that should be a negative in the job market (unless you're a professional clown I suppose) but the only feedback that my SEETEC advisor is willing to offer is smile more and that I am too serious.

She says that I don't smile enough when I am at SEETEC and I can confirm that is true. Is it because the Work Programme is demeaning and that in the past while at SEETEC I was bullied by the manager and had no redress. That could be it, but then could it be because of that time when SEETEC tried to get me sanctioned (where the DWP withhold your Job Seekers Allowance because you failed to properly look for work) because I informed them I could not attend an appointment because I had got myself a job interview? Could it have been the many times where they refused to help with the cost of attending interviews which is in clear violation to the rules and regulations?

Really in the end who knows why I look so grumpy while attending appointments at SEETEC but that is beside the point as I like most sensible people try to put my best self forward at job interviews, due to that whole chance of them paying you money to work for them after the fact. For some reason which if you were to ask me I would say is down to the fact that the advisors have a very limited view of the job market and jobseekers and as I don't fit into that narrow band. I've gotten off topic this is about interviews which to me have always seemed a strange way of getting work.

In an interview you answer questions and it is all about how you come across to the perspective employer or their representatives. Fine in theory but taking a closer look is that really the best way to choose workers? In some feedback I have got back from prospective employers from administrative/receptionist roles is that they didn't think I came across as friendly, one even said that I did not seem enthused about working in an SU HE environment, they couldn't be more wrong in their assessment of me and that is the rub. On one side we are always told not to judge people by our preconceived notions but I can't help but feel judged by these interview panels as a non-traditional prospective employee. I have the experience I have the skills so when I read some of the feedback I can't help but laugh in that sort of way that contains no warmth or hope at all.

Anyway enough of this I need to go study for my next interview.

FILM REVIEW: Blood The Last Vampire

Blood The Last Vampire is a 2009 Hong Kong remake of the popular 2000 anime. Directed by Chris Nahon and starring Gianna Jun and Allison Miller, it is described as action/horror/thriller which is pretty spot on. It was released on the 26 June 2009 in the UK.

PLOT

A vampire named Saya, who is part of covert government agency that hunts and destroys demons in a post-WWII Japan, is inserted in a military school to discover which one of her classmates is a demon in disguise.

WHY I WATCHED

I remember Blood The Last Vampire it was a great film but shockingly short at 48 minutes. I figure it was worth checking this out as it would seem to be a fairly straightforward thing to turn this story into a live action, we’re not talking the latest Gundam or even DragonBall (because we all know how the latter went).

WHAT I THOUGHT

I was wondering what to expect, things like this can easily go wrong. I have watched the original Anime release but that was a long time ago so I don’t remember much about it but you certainly don’t need to have watched the original.

The pacing is pretty slow at the beginning with quite a lot of info-dumping going on but once that is out of the way things really get going and it shifts into high gear. There is a reasonably large cast of characters and there are a few other sub plots that tie into Saya’s story eventually.

Some people may be annoyed that the plot gets sidetracked by the General’s daughter and her contribution to the story. Her inclusion can be thought of as the Westernisation of the film to appeal more to those strange people for whom senseless violence and bloodshed is not enough to make a film. It works though it adds something to the story and in some way makes the whole Saya against the Horde slightly more believable.

So in closing I would definitely recommend this for the anime completists out there as a fun and action packed ride.

WATCH FOR…

Great fight choreography

Fleshing out of the origin and background of the story (may or may not be canon?)

DON’T WATCH FOR…

A copy of the original Blood The Last Vampire

VIDEO GAMES: My Thoughts on World of Warcraft 5,4

A Nightmare month after the death of the fan in my HP Pavilion G6 (less than a year old apparently this fault is pretty well documented on the Internet) and I’m still waiting for it to be fixed though that is down to the fact that I just got paid not any fault with the repair shop. To say I’m a little twitchy about being away from WoW would be understated it has though given me time to do some reading and clear up some misconceptions I had.

The first thing that I sorted out was the Connected Realms feature which I and a lot of others thought that would be launching with 5.4 but that is not the case it actually will be launched AFTER 5.4 with no real timeline on that. I would put Connected Realms as one of the top 5 ranked features that I was looking to. I always tend to stay away from the changes to spells and stuff as that really only matters after the launch.

I am looking forward to the catch up stuff for the legendary as to be honest those initial drop rates of Sigils were KILLING me something like 7 weeks of LFR without getting the 10 and 10. Before the fan died I was 17 and 9 so hopefully it should be over soon once I get my laptop back.

One thing I hope that the Connected Realm thing might deal with is the ridiculous ilvl requirements that we get on the trade channels 515ilvl for a heroic scenario, that is pretty much the level of current Normal gear and so over the top it was ridiculous. I was running HC scenario with ilvl 480 with no problems and I was hardly being boosted by the other two. Some of the lesser run scenarios can be a problem because they are just plain weird but they are certainly not DPS checks.

Anyway I can’t finish this WoW post without remarking on the awesomeness of that 5.4 trailer, it was definitely worth waiting for and went someway to reigniting my passion for WoW though that was probably aided by the fact that I haven’t been able to play for more than a month.

Questions For You:

11.       Do you like the idea of Connected Realms or not?

22.       What size of realm are you on?

33.       Does the Legendary chain feel grindy or too RNG?

Answers in the comments. Much appreciated.

FILM REVIEW: Man of Tai Chi

Man of Tai Chi is a 2013 martial arts film starring Tiger Hu Chen, Keanu Reeves and Karen Mok and directed by Keanu Reeves. It was released on the 5^th of July 2013 in China.

PLOT

A young martial artist's unparalleled Tai Chi skills land him in a highly lucrative underworld fight club.

WHY I WATCHED

Keanu Reeves as a director you got to at least give it a try right? There has been a lot of hype about another of Keanu’s films but this one came out first and is more my speed as I prefer unarmed combat to swords, although swords are beautiful pieces of arts.

WHAT I THOUGHT

I was really surprised by Man of Tai Chi and that surprise was pleasant. This was a nostalgic trip back to those awesome Hong Kong made films that used to play late night when I was a youngster. Those martial arts films are so different from what we get today which in my opinion are lacking and an attempt to go mainstream by combining it with other genres.

Man of Tai Chi is a barebones martial arts offering and just shuts up and gets on with it. There is only a hint of a possible future romance and nothing to detract from the story which is of a man who has come to a crossroads in his life and must choose which path to take.

The fights are excellent and pretty much stay away from the curse of modern day action films which is wire work. I only noticed the use of them in a couple of fights and fortunately it only irked me for an instant. In general the fights are expertly choreographed and feature excellent martial arts instead of just the usual brawling.

I can’t review this without talking about Keanu Reeves, I don’t know much about making films so I can’t comment on his directing other than to say I enjoyed the film. He also has a role in the film though which is something I can talk about. Donaka Mark is a seriously dark guy and his tendency to spout weird one-liners manages to work with Keanu’s unique delivery, trust me when I say he comes across as plenty sinister enough. Special mention has to go to Donaka’s 2^nd in command that came close to stealing the show away from Tiger, the man has a face stonier than Mt. Everest but I found myself staring at him even when he’s in the background of a scene.

If the story of a man battling his darker nature and solid martial arts action sounds like your idea of a fun evening then Man of Tai Chi is right up your alley. Also Hollywood take note, no panoramic views, super slo-mo or CG and this still works 50% than half the martial arts based films they are making right now.

FILM REVIEW: Red Line

Red Line is a 2013 Thriller starring Nicole Gale Anderson, John Billingsley and Kunal Sharma. The film was directed by Robert Kirbyson and written by Robert Kirbyson and Tara Stone and was released n the US on the 16th July 2013. As of writing this review it has scored a 5.7 on IMDB.

PLOT

A Los Angeles subway train is brought to a slamming stop, the tunnel partially collapsed, and several people injured. The survivors must figure out what caused it, and must deal with the greater danger that soon faces them.

WHY I WATCHED

I could talk about the immediately interesting idea of the plot or the fact that I like the contained nature of the action as it all takes in a subway train. The real reason though that brought me here was Nicole Gale Anderson who I did not know about until I started watching the CW Beauty and the Beast reboot starring Kristin Kreuk and Jay Ryan. Apparently she is also going to be the star of the upcoming Pretty Little Liar’s spinoff Ravenwood.

WHAT I THOUGHT

It is amazing how well a simple idea can be executed with a small budget. This is a fine example of that, a small efficient movie that does what it sets out to do. At the heart of Red Line is a story about people and fear and that is what holds the attention of the audience so well.  The pacing is excellent, the film doesn’t need to constantly go at break neck speed even the quieter moments are filled with tension.

Everything in the film is set in the narrow confines of that train with a small cast it definitely promotes a feeling of claustrophobia which then leads to the paranoia around who it is we can trust. The actors do a pretty good job as it is their job to sell the peril and later the despair of being trapped down there with a killer with no way out.

Another factor that makes the film interesting is that in essence it is really a cut down whodunit with all the suspects trapped inside the train, while it is not quite Agatha Christie it does give your mind something to work away on while moving through the film.

This is a film that I can easily recommend for a fun night in something that will make you think even while entertaining you. Something that surprised me was the article that popped into my inbox while I was writing up this review check it out to see how unusual Red Line as a production really is.

Red Line article