#then the 3rd time in 5 minutes that popped up IN THE TUMBLR APP and could not be dismissed til i force closed the app

[gontagokuhara]

i love the tumblr mobile app

[bapofficial]

As a baptan stan, every time I see people say things like “b.a.p would have been as popular as bts is right now if it wasn’t for the hiatus” or “b.a.p fans left and became bts fans because they got bored of waiting during the hiatus” I kind of want to bash my head against a real living version of the stupid ass tsent tree logo. 

I mean of course the hiatus did come at a bad time in terms of where they were in their career, and some fans did leave, so ultimately it did harm their popularity. But seeing this repeated everywhere sheds unnecessary negativity on the hiatus which we really don’t need because there’s already enough of that. B.a.p filed a lawsuit because they were being mistreated and taken advantage of by their shitty company, and were on hiatus for so long because said shitty company played dirty and kept postponing things and dragging it out. (Also please don’t ever wish b.a.p never took action to protect themselves for the sake of maintaining their popularity - wouldn’t it be hypocritical for a group known for their musical themes of social justice and standing up for what’s right to stand down when it came to their own matters and let themselves be used like that? Of course we don’t know exactly how things are now, but if they have money to buy cars and get time to go on holiday and see their families etc, it’s definitely better than before. Popularity is not more important than health etc.) 

Do you really think that a company who still pays their managers two months late, and announced a world tour out of the blue even though b.a.p members on several occasions said that they wanted to stay in korea in 2017 and focus on domestic activities (at least someone knows how to promote), would be able to put in half the thought and promotion that bighit has been doing since day 1? Of course nobody could predict the extent of the immense popularity bts has acquired (and several other kpop groups, or kpop in general recently), but bighit has been consistently marketing bts so well even since before debut: they were inevitably going to have a strong breakthrough of some sort.

Since everyone seems to be so eager to keep comparing the two groups (??????? never understood it and the pettiness shown by some fans from both sides????? please don’t be a loser thank you), let’s compare the management and marketing for a minute instead. 

Awesome things bighit has done to show they actually care about their group: 

constant presence on social media (twitter, facebook, youtube!!!!!!!! personally what made me really pay attention to bts back in 2013 was their bangtan bombs - humour reaches people where music taste might not)

actual dance practice videos!! (it’s ridiculous how easy it is to get views on youtube and yet we only have 2 proper b.a.p dance practice videos???)

focused on constantly promoting in korea without running the bts members into the ground and instead waiting for good times to go on tours, thus establishing a strong fanbase in korea (very important!!!!!)

don’t want to go on variety shows? make your own! bts run and gayo videos on v app - cheap and easy way of keeping fans interested during times when there’s not much new content

Stupid ass things ts did before the lawsuit (aside from the whole mistreating them thing y’know) that limited b.a.p’s popularity from the start and showed that they didn’t give a shit about their main money-makers:

not doing any of the cool things above that bighit does

no but seriously where the FUk are the dance practice videos???? listen this loses ts out on millions of youtube views I don’t understand what’s so hard? about filming them doing what they do all the time? and posting it?

Stupid ass things ts does now after the hiatus:

hahaha international fans = $$$$$$ right? milk out the international fans and throw b.a.p on an impromptu world tour when you’re in debt why not

it’s not like b.a.p is a korean group living and promoting in korea right? not like appealing to potential korean fans matters right? of course not hahahah :))

only gave b.a.p two-ish weeks to promote wake me up instead of the usual four (+ extra week of follow-up promos) to squeeze in said world tour

literally does not know how to promote - spends a load of money making nice music videos but then doesn’t seem to care about getting people to watch them

So basically, even if the whole mistreatment/lawsuit/hiatus thing hadn’t happened, and music styles/member personalities/etc aside, as long as b.a.p was with ts to begin with, you can’t really say they could have been as popular as bts. If they had debuted with a better company - well that’s too much guessing - we really can’t know what might have happened then. People really like to exaggerate how popular b.a.p was before the lawsuit and talk as if the hiatus completely destroyed them - really not the case. To quote something I wrote on a previous post:

people sometimes compare B.A.P’s youtube views to other groups, where we usually don’t do as well. then there’s the usual topic of some fans leaving and moving to other groups during the hiatus etc etc etc……. well actually, our youtube views aren’t really that different from pre-hiatus? I remember when 1004 (their main breakthrough and at the height of their career back then) was released on the 3rd of february, jongup’s wish was for the mv to reach 1 million views by his birthday on the 6th - 3 days later and it still didn’t reach 1 million. on the other hand, wake me up reached 2.25 million views in around 5 and a half days. with the explosion of kpop in the last couple of years, some groups enjoy immense success on a whole new scale. our achievements only seem inferior if we compare them to others 

(post)

So final remarks:

let’s please stop comparing everything b.a.p ever does to bts. and before you somehow call me out for doing that on this post, the point i’m trying to make is they’re really not the same and bts’s success was not a direct result of b.a.p’s hiatus. sure, it might have made a tiny impact in 2015, but right now? really? nope

b.a.p hasn’t been frozen in time since 2014? they’ve been active and gaining fans for the last year and a half. take a look at b.a.p mvs’ youtube comments and see how many people are curious and wanting to learn more. see how many new b.a.p blogs are popping up on tumblr. see how many more people are starting to make gifsets etc. see how many more views their comeback stage for wake me up got compared to any of their other post-hiatus comeback stages.

neither b.a.p nor their fans need pity

and on the bright (?) side, some slightly nicer things ts has done recently / since the hiatus:

this 찰떡B.A.P series on youtube and v app - posting fun videos at times when there’s no new content thus keeping a constant stream of it to keep fans entertained (finally)

letting the b.a.p members have more creative freedom. letting yongguk and sometimes zelo and the other members control their music, their concepts, their music videos etc clearly resulted in better quality music.

let jongup have blue hair

;) semi out

[jammylittlefingers]

How old is your little one? .... she's starting to walk and you can sometimes get thee naps longer than 45 min??????! Mine is 10 months and I'm lucky if I get two half hour naps!!! Tell me your secrets!!! Help!

She's ten months. (10.5) So she's walking a little early, but her dad and his whole family walk super early, like 8 months, so not a huge surprise to us. (To balance that they talk really late, like 2 years old, something else we'll keep an eye on.)Naps. So, she was a terrible napper for the first 6 months, and then we had a big breakthrough that was a combination of her development- she started moving a lot, rolling, wiggling, soldier crawling around, and I think it tired her out, and her new abilities also made her a generally happier baby. (She was a pretty miserable colic-y tiny infant.)AND. I was complaining about her crummy naps to her pediatrician, and how a few times recently she'd actually fallen asleep on her mat during play time. And her pediatrician was like "You should have seen tiredness cues before that and PUT her down for a nap. Like an hour before that." And it was a big lightbulb moment because I'd just been letting her set her own sleep schedule before that. Which is perfectly correct for a tiny new baby, but we'd now moved past that. I also thought that if it took much effort to get her to sleep at all that it meant she wasn't ready for a nap. Not so. When I started really 'putting' her down for a nap it would sometimes be 10-15 minutes of rocking while she fought it, but then she'd sleep for like 2 hours, so obviously she really was tired, but just like adults babies sometimes have problems actually getting to sleep. Even if they're tired. So I started watching for her cues- rubbing eyes and yawning, being more cuddly. Also I use a baby tracker app for sleep (as well as food and diapers) so that helps me look at her schedule over say, the last month, and get a feel for it. So, her routine for the last couple weeks, 9.5 to 10.5 months has been- Wake up for the day mid-morning. Play for 2 hours. This is her shortest awake period, sometimes she starts yawning at 1, or 1.5 hours and I start moving into our nap routine then. But she's not usually asleep until 2 hours from wake up anyway. Sometimes now it's 3 hours or even closer to 4. So- tired baby cues. I shut the blinds and make it dim 10-20+ minutes ahead. Turn on white noise, she likes ocean waves or river. Sometimes lullaby music too. Start talking quieter, being less active, not doing loud stuff, or anything that riles her up. Really get that sleepy atmosphere going. Make a bottle. I schedule her bottles to go before naps because they really help her get sleepy. We sit down on the couch together and I give her her bottle. If I'm really lucky she falls asleep eating her bottle and I let her sleep next to me on the couch. Done. If she's really groggy but awake, I'll lay her on the couch and she'll usually drift off on her own. Sometimes I sit her on my lap and rock a bit or jiggle my knee and make shushing noises while we watch some tv. And then when she's been asleep for on me for a few minutes and is really out cold I lay her down next to me. And then she sleeps next to me for 1 to 2.5 hours. If I stay right there. 🙄 She half wakes up every so often and sort of cracks one eye open to make sure I'm still there. And if I'm not all hell breaks loose. If I am she'll go right back to sleep or maybe fuss for a second and I pat her back a little and she's back out. Lately she's been sleeping w one foot touching me, and if we get separated she'll wiggle over, in her sleep, to reconnect. If I get up and leave she'll be up and screaming either immediately or within 30 minutes, super upset, and the whole nap is over, so this is my compromise. I get two hours of peace and quiet all to myself as long as I'm within a foot of her. Usually I read, check tumblr and FB, play a video game, or watch TV. Sometimes I bring a project w me, like a pile of laundry to fold, or thank you cards or something. I always bring water and snacks and try and pee before hand. It's sort of a hold over from our nursing routine when she'd breastfeed for like 45 minutes and then nap on me and I needed to be camped out w everything I'd need. We just started the couch sleeping, before this we'd put her in her cradle and rock it w a foot, and she'd sleep there, still insisting on being right next to you, and when she'd fuss I'd rock her a little and she'd drift back off. So when she wouldn't go all the way to sleep yesterday after almost 2 hours I popped her back in the cradle and rocked her to sleep. She's outgrowing it, and I'm really happy she doesn't need all the rocking, I think it's a good step towards more independent sleeping, but I'm still keeping it around for "emergencies". It used to bug me a little, at first, all the stuff I could get done if she'd sleep by herself. But I'm a stay at home mom, and she's my first and only baby, and it won't last, none of it does, so I just try and enjoy my quiet time and accept it. I think it's pretty natural for a baby to want mom close, and our routine's clearly evolving and changing to fit her needs so I'm not too worried about her being too clingy or anything. She's been having a hard time cutting teeth too, and that's making her a little extra clingy right now. So she sleeps 10 hours at night, then up for 2, nap for 2, up for 3-4, nap for 2, up for 3-5, go to bed. Repeat. I go by how long it's been between things rather than following a clock schedule like 'nap every day at 2pm', so our routine flexes a little each day, earlier or later, but it's usually within an hour or so. And that allows for things to change pretty organically overtime.When we started the nap routine I'd also tuck her in w the same blanket and soft toy every time too because I think rituals are comforting and it's good to have as many signals as possible about what's happening, but she doesn't seem attached to that, and things are pretty settled now so we don't always do that. She actually gets really hot when she sleeps so she sleeps better if she's not bundled up. Also she just dropped her 3rd nap on and off about a month ago, her 2 day naps used to be a little earlier and then she'd take a 3rd nap late, but that seems well and truly over now, booo, so I've nudged her 2nd nap later so she's not losing it at bedtime. If the second naps earlier or she seems really tired we bump bed time up an hour early. We're still perfecting this.So. That's what's working for us. 🤷‍♀️ I'd say watch for the tiredness cues, and start a routine so they can expect what's coming. Make the environment really conducive. Dim, quiet, music, lavender oil, whatever you and your family like for sleep or think is good. Err on the side of more routine to start and then drop things that don't end up being important later. Anything people recommend for bed time works for nap time too. Same blanket, read the same book, sing the same song, etc. We have a super bare bones bed time routine, basically pjs-bottle-bed, because bed time is almost never an issue. But for naps we need it. 🤷‍♀️Your baby might sleep longer if they're near you? Eve's always napped in the living room w me, I like to be able to keep an eye on her. Also Eve wakes up mid nap sometimes for 5-10 minutes, but if I mostly ignore her, maybe a few back pats and then go back to whatever I was doing and ignore her, she'll usually settle back down and fall back asleep for another good chunk of time. So your baby may not be truly 'up' and totally done w their nap after 30 minutes? I dunno. Every baby's so super different. Good luck!Jfc. Sorry for the novel everybody. 🤦‍♀️