What the hell happened to Strong heart?!!

(The two happy kids)

Okay, I had to make this post.

I stopped watching Strong Heart for awhile mainly because I was too busy with school, work, drama, family, friends and (add more boring stuff right here)

So since I've been having a somehow more relaxing life lately, I went back to watch some Strong Heart episodes.

But, what do I find instead?

Two soul-less crappy excuses for MCs have stationed themselves in the places where Ho-Dong and Seung-Gi used to stand.

 (When I watch SH now, I cringe half the time because these two)

I knew both MCs had been replaced after the scandal with Kang Ho-Dong. And I also heard who they were going to be replaced with but I thought with the help of the original script-writers, the show itself wasn't going to suffer.


But, boy was I wrong.


The show is a much bleaker, awkward and sad shadow of what it used to be.


And I put all the blame on both MCs for this.


The reason for me blaming all of this on them, it's that the rest of the cast is pretty much the same, the old scriptwriters of the show are the same ones, the show has the same concept, the guest are in the same categories as the ones they invited before. But the show suck ass now, whereas before it used to make me laugh until I had tears in my eyes.

I'm actually quite appalled at how bad the MCs are.

I don't understand it though. Okay, Dong Wook is new to this whole MC thing, but Dong-Yeop is anything but new to it. He did a good job at EHB a couple of years ago, and he is recognized in the industry as one of the top MCs there are.

So why is he so bad here??

Many of his side-comments to the guests or to other cast members seem mean and out of place. Other people can make those kind of comments without sounding genuinely mean and hateful, and at the same time give out a good laugh to the public. But Dong Wook doesn't seem able to do this (At least not on SH)

As to DongWook, well let's just say that as an MC he is a good dancer~~~(Meaning he SUCKS, in case you don't get it)

(This is the funniest thing Dong Wook has done as an MC as

 of today. And it wasn't even that funny!)

He is such a sad excuse for an MC here I can't even feel pity for the poor guy.

And I don't care that this is his first time as an MC, if he accepted the position then he should have practiced for it until he was good enough instead of just accepting the offer and not adding anything to the show.

I'm not even an anti of  Lee Dong-Wook. Like I mentioned before I enjoyed LDW's acting and I've watched my girl with and I enjoyed a lot. But as an MC he really should have thought about it twice before accepting the position. Even though he is new to it he should know how to play along to seem more natural at it.

I mean, Seun-gi was new to it too and he acted like a pro from day one. In other words, if he (DW) didn't feel like he was prepared for it, why accept this position?

(Such a cutie :) I don't really like most of his dramas, 

but he was an exceptional MC)

The dynamics of SG/HD and the rest of the cast members was so fun to watch. It was like they all knew each other really well and took advantage of this to make the show funnier.

On the other hand, Dong-Wook and Dong-Yeop are so awkward with the rest of the cast members that is almost as if none of them knew each other outside the show. But I highly doubt none of them know each other, given that a lot of them have been in the industry for a while and the SK entertainment industry is not that huge.

Dong-Yeop has more experience so at least he talks during the show, but Dong-Wook just stands there and makes a forced comment that totally feels like he is just reading from his script.
He looks uncomfortable and out of place. Sometimes the cast has to move around to exaggerate show their reactions, but DW is the only one who stays in place, and when he walks out from behind his little podium, it just feel awkward and like he doesn't know when to walk back to his place. In conclusion, he is just awkward.
 

I don't know if DongWook and DongYeop knew each other from before or not, but if they did they sure know how to hide it, because there are so many uncomfortable silent moments coming from these pair.

I wonder who decided to go with Dong-Wook? Whoever it was he/she must be kicking him/herself in the behind (Who can blame him/her, I want to help with the butt kicking myself)

This show now is like a watching a game where your team is losing 100-0 and there are still 40 minutes of game time. You just want it to end because you can't bear watching it anymore.

I don't feel like I'm even exaggerating things. The show is just shit now.

I feel like both MCs don't even care about what the guests are saying in the show. It's almost like they are just waiting fot guests to be done with their stories, and then continue with the next thing on the script. Maybe, Kang Ho-Dong and Lee Seung-Gi also didn't care, but they sure knew how to pretend then. You always got the feeling that KD and SG were honestly interested in the guests stories. They had the best reactions, when the story was sad, KHD and LSG both offered comments at the end of the story to make the guest feel better and wrap up the segment in a more relaxed manner. I even remember KD crying to no end, when one female comedian shared the story about her dying dad. You could totally feel his sincerity.

I don't get that feeling at all from Lee Dong-Wook and Shin Dong-Yeop. They don't do their transitions from guest to guest in the right way.
I'm just not feeling it with either one of them in this show. I was completely open to embracing them and have good laughs with them as the new MCs, but they have left me more than disappointed. They are just ruining a show that used to be so good and which had an already settled fan base

I hope that either this show goes through some drastic changes in its format or just gets canceled all together

As I see things I don't think either MC will step down from his place. Maybe they are just in the delusion that they are actually good at it. Maybe no one from the cast or the crew is informing them that they are doing a horrible job and they are unable to see their own poor performances without having someone else point at it. So I if the MCs don't quit and the show keeps on going to route its been going, then we will to continue to watch the slow agonizing death of a once iconic SK show.

And that's all for venting. Off to do homework now -_-

Working @ Express SUCKS: My experience

 I'm awake finishing some school homework when I suddenly felt the need for some good old
online shopping

One thing led to another and I ended up browsing through the EXPRESS online store.

Suddenly horrible memories of the two worst weeks of my life (Exaggeration at its best but I tend to be dramatic) came back flooding my mind



First of all. working in retail tends to suck everywhere. There are always rude customers, the pay is horrible, the expectations are usually too high for what you get and the hours you get tend to suck at best. All in all, not the best field to work at.

But Express takes the cake in my book.

I worked at Express for less than three weeks but I still remember a lot of things that made me  
want to run out of that place after one hour of work.



Everything began with me being broke. And as you know broke college students do not look pretty. I had been working at a shoe store until recently but it freaking closed down with the owner telling us about this one week before it actually happened

So there I was broke, sad and hungry. I of course began to apply everywhere and as things turned out I got one of my first calls from Express.

The woman who called me sounded extremely nice so I was actually excited about the possibility of working there.

I went to my first interview. The person interviewing us was actually the assistant manager and not the manager herself.


One word to describe her would be: Bitch


I seriously could smell the bitchiness emerging from her pores as she made her way to us from the backroom.

During the entire interview she kept reminding us how she was soooo harsh when it came to hiring new people and how she never kept people who wouldn't immediately giver results and how we needed to be available every single day that we were putting down on our applications (Even though she wouldn't give people more than 8 hours per week HA)

I of course kissed her ass and tried to be as outgoing as possible to get the job. Let's just say I was desperate at the time.

Me and one other guy from that group interview ended up getting hired.

So, there I was on my first day of work. Besides the usual nervousness I was feeling okay about the whole thing. I finally met the manager who turned out to be a total sweetheart.

But of course since I'm sooo lucky it turns out the manager wasn't fat as I had thought but 81/2 months pregnant. So she was taking her maternity leave for two months. And yup. The bitch was going to be in charge from then on.

Let's pretend the assistant manager (The b...) was named 'Rosy'.

Well Rosy acted like a totally neurotic, too-good-for-everyone over-confident beyotch the entire time she trained me.

She gave me tips on:
-How to push merchandize to customers until they wouldn't be able to say no.
-How to get customers to get credit cards they didn't actually need.
-How to kiss more ass.
-And on how to act like stalker and follow customers around the store asking them their names.

Yup. Overall the place was shit.

I suddenly remembered why I had never like shopping at Express.

One reason was because of the clothing. It's so dull. It's mostly for women over 35 who want to pretend they still got it. And the prices are just stupid for such mediocre clothing

Another reason was because of the workers (stalkers) working there.

Back then, I used to blame them and curse quietly at them because they just wouldn't let me breathe.

Sometimes one just wants to browse around. Look at prices. Walk around the store and just enjoy our time there.

But at Express, you can not do that!

You just can't.

If you work there you get am earpiece with a small microphone attached to it. Every worker around the gates Has To run to a customer and ask them for their name (WTH!), tell them we have oh so many good looking things in the store (LIE) and demand an answer as to where the fuck they are going so we can get them to spend some fucking dough in our establishment.

'Hi what's your name?' I had to ask this more than 100 times in less than 3 hours working there on my first day.

People gave me the stink eye (I probably would have done that to myself too) and walked away although some good Samaritans did stop to tell me their names (There's still nice people our there **tear)

After asking all these very important questions I would have to tell every other worker all the information I had gathered from our new victim. It went something like this

'This is _______. A lady named Cynthia just walked into our store. She says she is looking for a pair of pants to go have a hot date with a married man'

Yup

Ok. I never had someone tell me that many details but you get what I'm saying.

Imagine having to have to grab my little microphone and having to tell all the other workers what some innocent stranger wanted, who they were, what they were doing, etc. I felt like a pervert. Stalking my prey as soon as I saw them

And I had to hear these type of conversations about 5000 times from all the other workers as well. Because of course we all had to stalk people.

And so Rosy (remember the witch?) would always come to me and say things like:

Her: "You're okay so far but I just wish I could inject you with Red Bull to make you more hyper"
Me: Smile/nod ---- Actual thoughts: Okay psycho

Or another one of my favorites

Her: "You can't let anyone get away. You must make the sale. That is the one priority you must have"
Me: Sure, I'll try harder ---- Actual thoughts: ***Sigh / I really want to hit your face right now

So I had to work like that for two miserable weeks. Everytime I walked back to my car after work I would think to myself. What the hell is wrong with that place?

Seriously though, who made that kind of selling strategy?

From what I've gathered online and from my own experiences at other Express stores they are all on stalking-mode.

A lot of people (potential buyers) would just walk out of the store as fast as their feet could take them after being approached by three different workers wanting to know their name.

Poor them. Customers just wanted to have a nice day shopping around without being bugged but
No no no. We can't let any enjoyment happen there.

Just when I was going to pass out from rolling my eyes so much at all the other dummies working at that place some kind of powerful being took pity on me and helped me find another job less than a week later.

And so I got out of the damned place never to look back at it again.

To date I have worked in fours retail stores, a bookstore, as a babysitter, waitress but Express has given me the biggest heartache and headache in my entire working life (So far)

I hope the bitch Rosy gets the stick up her ass out so she can actually see what customers want and how to approach them in a less pushy way.


Nah. I just hope she fell on her butt at least once.

Bye Express. See you never