#apple pie demographic

[blueequin0x]

Mane 6 Cutie Marks in My Style //  Art + Speedpaint

Nothing says “Autism Acceptance Month” like a gen 4 MLP speedpaint with dubstep in it /joke

I had to put the 2 massive watermarks because the Internet ™ unfortunately has a habit of cropping this kind of art and stealing with it without credit -_-

//DISCLAIMER//

Most of my blog is light horror art, be wary if you click on it lol [but I heavily tag warnings]

CONTENT WARNINGS: none, for once lol // please tell me if I missed any :]   

IMAGE UNDER BREAK

DO NOT REPOST // DO NOT REMOVE CAPTION AND CONTENT WARNINGS

total time taken: 4 hours 37 minutes

link to the speedpaint: https://youtu.be/kOSdfUvp800

#my art #digital art #artists on tumblr #mlp gen 4 #mlp fim #mane 6 #mane6 #mlp horror #<-- for my usual demographic lol #pinkie pie #apple jack #rarity #rainbow dash #fluttershy #twilight sparkle #cutie mark #medibang paint #speedpaint #image description will be added later

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

Thinking about what each Yellowjackets survivor did with the settlement money from the crash (bc we all know they most likely got lawsuit money) and how it relates to how each character copes with trauma.

Shauna- Uses the money to buy Jeff his furniture store. Shauna is coping through denial. She thinks that if she fills her life with stable things (a working husband, a child, a house, a business) that she will become stable too. She’s trying to live a boring apple pie life in an attempt to deny her desire for the adrenaline and danger that living in the Wilderness gave her. You can see this in her demeanor, too. Shauna acts very sweet, innocent, and harmless, but in a actuality she’s hiding a darker, more unhinged side of herself.

Tai- Uses the money to fund her college education/political pursuits. Tai copes through drive and determination. She works and works and works so that she doesn’t have time to think. Taissa is acting out the life that she wanted before the crash. She keeps striving for success and accomplishment hoping that these things will make her happy, but as she says to Shauna, “none of those things felt real” to her.

Lottie - Uses the money to start her wellness center (cult). Lottie is coping through her spirituality, as she did in the Wilderness. She leans on the idea of forces outside of herself having a plan for her and those around her so that she can relinquish control. This allows Lottie to have faith that things will get better and that everything is happening for a reason even as she is going through intense trauma. Lottie feels at peace when she is using this faith to help others, which is why she starts her wellness center. And even though she at first attempted to focus her spirituality on holistic means rather than the supernatural, the Wilderness eventually creeped back in.

Van - Van uses the money to open up her VHS store. This shows that Van copes through living in the past. She shells out her own little corner where she can surround herself with things that made her happy before the crash and hide from the rest of the world. Similar to Tai, she’s trying to be who she was before the crash. Van surrounds herself with 90s memorabilia and all of the movies and music that she used to love so she doesn’t have to acknowledge that she’s not that person anymore.

Nat - Nat uses the money for drugs, traveling, and material possessions like cars and clothing. Nat is trying to fill a void within herself. She’s focused on what will make her feel okay in the present moment. Getting high or buying a fancy car or designer handbag that she could never afford in her childhood numbs the guilt and trauma for a moment, and when this numbness wears off, she seeks it out again and again because she doesn’t have a long-term solution. She lives as a transient using the money to move from motel to motel trying to escape herself and avoid creating any attachments because she feels that she destroys everyone she comes into contact with. Basically, Nat is focused solely on on what will get her through each day, as she had to do in the Wilderness and even before the crash living in an abusive home.

Travis - Similar to Natalie, Travis uses the money on drugs and isolation. Not much is known about adult Travis unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you feel about him), but we do know that he had a drug problem like Nat and fled to New Hampshire to try to hide away from everything. He isolated himself completely in an attempt to block out the world and reminders of what he did in the Wilderness.

Misty - Uses the money to fund her education and career in the nursing field. Misty is coping by making people need her, as she did with Ben and all of the Yellowjackets in the Wilderness. She craves being depended and relied on because this is the only way she has ever received acceptance from others. She becomes a nurse for the elderly because she knows this demographic will depend on her more than any other. Using her medical knowledge to help those in need made her feel loved in the Wilderness, and she is still chasing that feeling.

Anyways can you tell I think about these characters way too much?

#yellowjackets #natalie scatorccio #van palmer #misty quigley #nat scatorccio #taissa turner #yj #travis martinez #jackie taylor #tai turner #vanessa palmer #shauna shipman #lottie matthews #lottie yellowjackets #Yellowjackets survivors

[crisp-sweet-pink-lady]

Summer of Strawberry Shortcake: Cooking Up Fun

I've got mixed feelings about these episodes. On the one hand, it's annoying that so much of the runtime is literally showing you how to cook the recipes exactly, but on the other hand, I'm sure if I were in the right age demographic I would love this for exactly that reason (one of my favorite videos growing up was a Betty Crocker cake decorating video, so there you go). And it's a little disconcerting for Strawberry to keep insisting that you should always get a grown-up's help with cooking when there are no adults to be seen. Seriously, every time she mentioned it, I kept waiting for someone to look around, trying to locate these "grown-ups" of which Strawberry speaks.

This DVD is basically the return of all the core characters who haven't had speaking roles in season three: Apple Dumplin', Honey Pie Pony, and Huck. Plus, this is the first time (and maybe the only time) that Orange Blossom has a spotlight episode. Sadly, that episode was the most "instruction-y" but it had some levity added with Angel Cake inserting herself into the others' recipes. I would have preferred if that happened a little more, but ah well.

During the last DVD (Berry Fairy Tales), I noticed that you can tell the voice cast is getting older, and in this one we see that time has progressed at least a little in-universe, too, with Apple Dumplin' acting a little older than the last time we saw her. Granted, this is to facilitate the plot, but it makes me wonder if the showrunners had already decided to age up the main characters for the next season. "Adult" Apple Dumplin's hair does look kind of like season four Strawberry's....

Next up is the movie!

#strawberry shortcake #summer of ssc #ssc03 #cooking up fun #baby takes the cake #piece of cake #might not get to the movie for a bit though #I'll be on vacation next week #so between getting ready and traveling I won't have too much time for these #but I'll do what I can

[pokefan1241]

WAIT I DIDNT REALIZE YOU DID THE. ok 1 8 23 24 25 HI

HIII PERI HI. swallows all the numbers flawlessly mid air 1.favorite type ok can i be weird for a second. i LOVE using normal types in playthroughs and they usually have such Animal designs and fun diverse movepools (ESPECIALLY through tms. basically all of those dudes can learn thunderbolt or shadow ball it's so epic) i think a lot of normal types tend to be pretty overlooked (understandably) but i love just grabbing pokemon ive never used before and running with them just to see how they fare in casual gameplay and ive grown really attached to a lot of normal types through that. also return is like my favorite move ever and full power return + stab is so satisfying (why did they get rid of my boy fuck you sw/sh)

8. least favorite gym leader juan. literally THE most forgettable guy im sorry you will never be as cool as wallace. not even the devs cared about him like can we talk about the fact that his overworld sprite in emerald is just a slightly altered version of steven's bc that shit makes me lose it every time ITS SO FUNNY. honorable mention goes to all the forgettable kanto gym leaders (erika blaine etc)

23. favorite music track from a pokemon game OH YEA WOWHWOW YEYEA WOAH YEAH genuinely impossible for me to remember all of my favorites but i will compile some bangers slumbering weald. awoo woo woo etc eterna forest driftveil city. of course. a focking groove. i need to listen to the b/w ost again i know theres more bangers on there that im forgetting boutique theme from x/y i dont know whyu this one is such a bop but it really goes hard purification chamber from xd its literally such a vibe also cipher peon battle theme. wait how could i forget miror b's theme from xd also the classic iconic theme of all time. primal dialga fight theme my beloved (just imagine i put every song from pmd sky here)

24. your favorite team of pokemon you’ve ever had  I LOVE THESE GUYS. from a nuzlocke i never finished. this run made me appreciate watchhog for the first time (callback to my rant about normal types <3) and also swoobat

OH AND THESE DUDES!!! alsofrom a nuzlocke (variant where you pair each pokemon up with another and can only swap between the two) i actually finished this one.

(there are many more. too many to screenshot. i also loved my original ultra sun team i think i drew them all one time. also my legends arceus team was kind of a banger. also shoutout to my first diamond team as a kid which consisted of an overleveled empoleon, a staraptor from the safari zone, and the toys r us event shaymin lol)

25. favorite design of a pokemon god. this one is so hard i dont wanna just rehash favs ive already listed so im just gonna point out some cool guys: -scolipede. looks like a bug that you could ride into battle what more could you want -appletun, i know some people dont like the food pokemon but appletun has some of the coziest vibes imaginable they are literally an apple pie how could you be mad -sawsbuck's design has really grown on me over time they kinda went off with the winter form -OBSTAGOON ALSO GREW ON ME i hated it when it was first revealed but theyre one of my favs now -shaymin my friend shaymin. land form in particular is literally so marketable (i am the target demographic) -archeops?? looks so fucking cool? ive never used one in game bc of the shitty ability which is a shame bc i adore the design

(pokemon ask game)

#thank u peri enjoy my essay length response <3

[immortalbeigewizard]

ok so I was thinking about the dc super heros girls show & how like because Lauren faust made it the main 6 girls are pretty much the mlp gen 4 main characters mapped onto these preexisting characters. like in the show:

twilight sparkle = wonder woman

pinkie pie = Batgirl

fluttershy = bumblebee

rainbow dash = supergirl

apple jack = green lantern

rarity = zatanna

what i think matches the characters better:

wonder woman = I think that she's probably the best example of an apple jack that's not boring. her stubborn determination, loyalty and focus on fairness really matches Diana more than as twilight sparkle

Batgirl = twilight sparkle or pinkie pie, now because they chose to have the Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl in the show she SHOULD have been mapped onto to twilight. the more serious, business minded bookworm personality matches both of these characters, but I'd they really wanted to go with a pinky pie Batgirl they could have gone with Stephanie and stretched her jokes and pep into pinkie pie proportions (rainbow dash also fits Stephanie, but so many of the super heroes for rainbow dash that I've decided to narrow down the ones that could work as other ponies)

green lantern = fluttershy, like with Jessica's backstory involving PTSD and some kind of panic disorder i think if you wanted to adjust her mental illnesses into some thing the preschool demographic could understand I think fluttershy is the closest bet.

honestly for the punk supergirl they've got going on in the show rainbow dash suits her fine, but if they went for a more cutesy, peppy supergirl like sometimes exists, she'd be a great pinkie pie as well

bumblebee = she's a twilight sparkle type too, like she's a more serious, intelligent type of person in the comics and I think she's not really much of a fluttershy.

zatanna = yeah zee is really one of the few characters whose got anything close to a rarity type of backstory/motivation. zee is a stage magician/real magician whose got a legacy of both, closest thing to raritys whole deal.

who i think works better as who:

twilight sparkle: Batgirl(Barbara) or bumblebee

apple jack : wonder woman

fluttershy: green lantern

rainbow dash: supergirl or any number of other i.e. wonder girl (cassie), huntress, black canary

pinkie pie: Batgirl (stephanie), supergirl, starfire?

rarity: zatanna or maybe even vixen

#dc comics #dc superhero girls #wonder woman #batgirl #supergirl #dc bumblebee #zatanna #jessica cruz #my litte pony friendship is magic #mlp

[nerdscollective]

Illuminating the Enigma: Navigating the Landscape of Consumer Research Agencies

Hey there, curious minds! Welcome to the captivating universe of Consumer Research Agencies – the stealthy architects of business success, unraveling the intricacies of consumer behavior! Ever pondered how companies seem to know your desires even before you do? It's no crystal ball; it's the wizardry of an Consumer Research Agency. Join me as we dig deep into this fascinating domain, exploring how these agencies decipher the puzzle of consumer preferences, needs, and cravings.

The Chronicles of Consumer Research Agencies

Hold on tight as we embark on a journey through the maze of Consumer Research Agencies. What's their secret sauce? How do they pull it off? Let's peel back the layers and demystify the enchantment that transpires behind the curtains.

Deciphering Consumer Behavior: It’s Not Rocket Science!

Understanding consumer behavior might seem like cracking an ancient code, but fear not! Consumer Research Agency have cracked it wide open. Their adept researchers dive deep into the minds of consumers, dissecting patterns, trends, and motivations.

Survey Sprints: These agencies are like speedster detectives, conducting surveys faster than an espresso-fueled cheetah! From online questionnaires to good old-fashioned phone interviews, they cover all the bases.

Focus Group Fiesta: Ever been part of a focus group? That's Consumer Research Agencies at play! They gather diverse groups to hash out thoughts on products, ads, or ideas, unearthing insights that could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

Trends, Tidbits, and Tea Leaves: Unveiling the Insights

Consumer Research Agencies aren't just in it for the glamour of surveys and focus groups. They're after the gold mine of insights that shape industries. Here's how they turn data into actionable intelligence:

Data Crunching Dance: Picture a data scientist doing the cha-cha with spreadsheets – that's the daily grind. These agencies meticulously analyze mountains of data, spotting trends and outliers.

Psychology Jamboree: Consumer behavior is a psychological playground, and these agencies have front-row seats. By understanding the quirks of the human mind, they predict what makes consumers tick.

FAQs – Your Burning Questions Answered!

Got burning questions about Consumer Research Agency? Let's shoot and demystify the puzzling world of market research!

1. How Do Consumer Research Agencies Choose Participants?

It's not as mysterious as a secret society initiation – they aim for diversity! Agencies want a mix of demographics, ensuring they capture a wide range of perspectives. They might use random sampling or target specific groups based on the research objectives.

2. What Happens in a Focus Group?

Picture this: a cozy room, snacks galore, and lively discussions! In a focus group, participants spill their thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to a product or idea. It's like a brainstorming session, but with more laughter and fewer suits.

3. How Accurate Are Survey Results?

Consumer Research Agencies take accuracy seriously! They use statistical methods to ensure the sample represents the larger population. While no survey is perfect, agencies strive for reliability and validity, making their findings as trustworthy as your grandma's apple pie recipe.

4. Can Consumer Research Predict the Future?

While they can't predict your lottery numbers, Consumer Research Agencies are excellent at forecasting trends. By analyzing current behavior, they make educated guesses about future consumer preferences. It's like being a market trend fortune teller!

5. Is Big Data a Big Deal in Consumer Research?

Absolutely! Big Data is the belle of the ball in the world of Consumer Research Agencies. The more data, the better the insights. These agencies harness the power of technology to sift through vast amounts of information, uncovering hidden gems that shape strategic decisions.

Navigating the Consumer Research Maze: Pitfalls and Perils

As we uncover the secrets of Consumer Research Agencies, it's crucial to acknowledge the challenges they face. It's not all rainbows and unicorns – there are pitfalls in this journey through the consumer research maze.

Survey Fatigue Fiasco: Consumers are bombarded with surveys daily – from emails to pop-ups. Survey fatigue is real, and it threatens the quality of responses. Agencies must find ways to keep participants engaged without drowning them in questionnaires.

Bias Brouhaha: Even the most well-intentioned researchers can fall prey to biases. Whether it's confirmation bias or cultural bias, staying objective is like tiptoeing through a minefield. Consumer Research Agencies deploy rigorous methodologies to minimize bias, but it's a constant battle.

Tech Turmoil: While technology is a boon, it can also be a bane. Consumer Research Agencies navigate the ever-evolving tech landscape, adapting to new tools and methodologies. It's a race against time to stay ahead in the tech game.

The Future of Consumer Research Agencies: A Sneak Peek

What does the crystal ball reveal about the future of Consumer Research Agencies? Let's gaze into the murky depths and catch a glimpse of what's to come!

AI Integration Extravaganza: Brace yourselves for an AI revolution! Consumer Research Agency industry is increasingly harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to analyze data, predict trends, and enhance efficiency. It's like having a digital assistant on steroids!

Virtual Reality Voyage: Step into the future where focus groups happen in virtual realms. Consumer Research Agencies are exploring the immersive world of virtual reality to gather insights. Soon, you might find yourself discussing the latest shampoo not in a room but on a digital beach!

Ethical Enlightenment: As the world becomes more conscious of ethics, Consumer Research Agencies are on a mission. Transparency, privacy, and responsible research practices are taking center stage. The future holds a brighter, more ethical path for consumer insights.

Conclusion: Navigating the Market Seas with Consumer Research Agencies

In this rollercoaster ride through the world of Consumer Research Agencies, we've unveiled the magic behind understanding consumer behavior. From survey sprints to the AI revolution, these agencies are the unsung heroes shaping the products and services we love.

So, the next time you wonder how your favorite brand always seems to get it right, tip your hat to the Consumer Research Agencies working tirelessly behind the scenes. They're not mind-readers, but they're pretty darn close!

[sardaraamir]

Apple got rich in China. Other Asian markets offer the next ‘golden opportunity

Hong KongCNN — 

Apple launched an online store in Vietnam this week, in another nod to the rising importance of emerging shops for the iPhone maker.

The opening on Thursday, which followed the high-profile launch of its first real shops in India, means trades in the fast-growing Southeast Asian low-cost will be able to buy any Apple product directly for the first time.

Markets like Vietnam, India and Indonesia are becoming more significant for Apple as its growth in developed markets, including China, slows down, prompting the company to focus on places where it’s usually been less active.

For decades, China was central to Apple’s extraordinary climb to become the most valuable company on Earth, portion as a backbone for both its invention and feeding. While the country remains key to Apple’s operations, the tech giant is now hedging its bets.

Vachira Vachira/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook has pointed to the company’s prospects in emerging economies, calling them bright spots in the company’s financial results. On an earnings call this month, Cook said he was “particularly pleased” with the performance in these markets during the first three months of the year.

Apple “achieved all-time records in Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE, as well as a number of March quarter records, including in Brazil, Malaysia and India,” he told analysts.

That came as the California-based giant also reported its second straight drop in overall quarterly revenue, prompting concerns about a broader slowdown in demand amid economic uncertainty.

“Clearly, growth has slowed globally and thus put more pressure [on Apple] to aggressively go after emerging markets,” said Daniel Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities.

A ‘mega-market’

Ives predicts that “over the coming years, Indonesia, Malaysia and India will comprise a bigger piece of the pie for Apple, given its efforts in these countries.”

The start of online sales in a country usually precedes the launch of brick-and-mortar stores for Apple, he told CNN. This was true of India, for instance, which got its first physical outlets last month and a pledge from Cook to further invest in the country.

Thursday’s launch showed how Apple was “further cementing” its presence in emerging markets, according to Chiew Le Xuan, a research analyst who covers smartphones in Southeast Asia for Canalys.

He said the tech giant had been “actively increasing” its presence in the region in recent months, ramping up its distribution and network of authorized resellers, especially in Malaysia.

Apple has ample room to run in these markets.

Currently, the company only operates its own stores in more developed regional economies, such as Thailand and Singapore, according to Canalys.

Even Indonesia, a vast archipelago that is the world’s sixth-biggest smartphone market, doesn’t have a physicalApple store yet, said Chiew. Apple’s market share there is tiny, at just 1% in 2022, according to Canalys data.

“We’re putting efforts in a number of these markets and really see, particularly given our low share and the dynamics of the demographics … a great opportunity for us,” Cooksaid during Apple’s results call.

Apple joins a growing list of global businesses that have become bullish on Southeast Asia, where more investment is being poured into manufacturing.

The region’s consumer base also holds promise, with the number of middle-income and affluent households in economies such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines projected to grow by around 5% annually through 2030, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

The consultancy has called this group of consumers “the next mega-market.”

The allure of Southeast Asia’s rising middle class “has changed the dynamic in these countries, which previously Apple stayed away from,” according to Ives.

“This is a golden opportunity for Apple,” he said.

Challenges remain

For years, premium brands like Apple have have struggled to compete in emerging markets because of the price of their products, choosing instead to rely on local resellers.

iPhones, which cost between $470 and $1,100, are expensive for consumers in less developed Southeast Asian economies, where the bulk of smartphone shipments are priced under $200, according to Chiew.

He said Apple’s absence from places like Cambodia or Vietnam was typically more apparent around the launch of a new iPhone, as buyers from those countries often flew to Singapore or Malaysia to purchase devices and take them back for resale.

A view of an Apple store at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in 2020. Buyers from other Southeast Asian countries without their own Apple stores typically line up outside such outlets to buy devices for resale, according to an analyst.

Edgar Su/Reuters

This could change in the coming years, particularly as Apple continues to increase its firepower in the region.

Ives predicted that Apple could “further expand its ecosystem and tentacles to emerging markets using itsChina playbook,” meaning it could try to hook customers through “various pricing strategies and building out from there.”

Once those users have converted to Apple’s operating system, iOS, they tend to stick around and become loyal customers, he added.

This has “been the core part of its success in China that now can be replicated in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, among others,” said Ives.

But Apple may face hurdles in Southeast Asia, where several countries have placed stringent requirements on foreign businesses, according to Chiew.

For example, at least 35% of the components of electronic goods sold in Indonesia must made locally, a threshold Apple has had to meet by working with partners, he added.Similar rules prevented Apple from setting up shop in India for years until the relaxation of regulations in 2019. And while consumers are becoming more affluent, the company’s price points are still considered high in many emerging markets, noted Ives. “Growth will be choppy we believe.”

[avillarreal]

In Streaming, Original Films and Series Alone Aren’t the Draws They Once Were; Games, Sports, News & Audio Should Also be in the Mix

Since Netflix introduced the first streaming service original, House of Cards, in 2013, all streaming services have followed suit introducing their own original content and seeing great success through these originals. Offering original content is a significant way in which streamers can differentiate themselves and attract consumers. However, new research is revealing that original content is not going to be enough moving forward; rather an expansion into sports, video games, news, and audio should be the future of streaming.

When looking at the market of users between the ages of 18-34, the numbers get even more interesting. In this demographic, gaming and music/podcasts are even more favored with 15% and 16% of the pie, respectively. Evan Shapiro, former cable network chief turned producer, professor, and industry consultant, tells Deadline that movies and TV are no longer a differentiator, and that if they are all that streaming services have, these services are pretty much guaranteed to not see long-term success. With churn remaining high (over 60 % of streaming customers canceled a service last year) and even the most popular streaming services suffering through hard times, attracting and retaining customers has never been more important. Shapiro further discusses how “it’s no surprise that the two streaming players with the most data—Apple and Amazon—are both heavily invested in bundling numerous genres of services.” It’s almost like they know. Even newborn Paramount+ is considering a merger, and they already have music covered with their MTV Unplugged revival. So, streaming services are truly in a new era. When broken down by age group, streamers aged 18-34 showed the most willingness to pay for entertainment content, so as arguably the most important market, they should definitely be given what they want which is films and tv, gaming, music/podcasts, and sports, and only then will they be satisfied and streaming services safe and sound.

[thestevenstark]

The 2022 Life Cycle of Mobile App Development

Global smartphone use is increasing with more than 3.5 billion users. These numbers are steadily increasing and show no signs of slowing down.

Studies show that the average American checks his phone once every 12 minutes. More than 10% check it every four minutes. Here are some more statistics.

On average, mobile app users spend 35 hours per month using their device.

More than half of all digital media time is spent on mobile devices.

Around 90% of smartphone users use mobile apps.

An average smartphone user has more than 30 apps.

The data will be motivating for anyone who is interested in developing or building a mobile application. Let's first get a better idea of how mobile app development works.

Although it may seem like a lucrative idea to build a mobile app in order to grab a piece of the $1 billion pie, it is worth careful planning.

Your software will also be competing against approximately 1.5 million apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

How to Develop a Mobile App

There are two main parts to creating a mobile application: the frontend and the backend.

Frontend development

This is how you create the app's interface. A mobile app developer must take into account several factors when designing and building a frontend for a mobile application.

Local data storage

UI development and upgrades

Proper data synchronization

Clear wireframing

This includes the MVP of your product. The MVP helps you understand and know what your product needs right now, from the client's point of view.

Based on their development and requirements, the priority of items is determined. All the possible changes to the app can be listed. This allows you to clearly see the purpose of the app and ensures that it is well-developed.

It is important to offer a simple experience that requires little learning. To transfer information easily, it should be in sync to the backend.

Backend development

This is the most important aspect in any mobile app development step. A robust backend will make your app more powerful. The backend must be designed and built to scale and allow for easy management.

The server is as important as the app's design and UX. It also has responsibility for its back-end performance. Backend development is mainly code writing that takes into account the language, data, wireframe and other factors.

Push notification service in proportion

Server-side logic development

Explaining the backend structure

Data integration

The team then moves to the development of the app's functions and aesthetics after thoroughly discussing and understanding the procedures.

Your mobile app's designer will create the screens. Once the development phase has been completed, the testing phase starts.

Clients' General Concepts

Our clients often bring a vision of the app they wish to create, along with information about competitors and consumers. Now that the foundation research is complete, the project can be accelerated.

Let's take a look at the data prospects bring with them.

Who are the users?

Companies can determine who will use the app at a surface stakeholder level and in terms of research user demographics. To determine the user demographics of users, such as their age, where they live, how they use their devices and their location, companies often conduct user research.

Learn about their competitors

Customers are well aware of the apps' competitors. After conducting research on the brands that their app would be competing with, they contacted us.

Basic viability of an Idea

Companies arrive when they have confirmed that the app concept is feasible and will provide substantial value to customers.

The app's concept: Clients are well-aware of the features in the app.

#mobile app development #app development services

[absolutebl]

So I know the point of your blog is BL but do you think with the increase in BL we'll start seeing more GL? There has historically been decidedly less GL (once you filter out the porn made for straight dudes) and as a queer woman I want more!! Western media doesn't seem to do the same kind of storytelling as Asian BL. Even if Asian BL

aren't always telling queer stories, they are doing romance in a way I haven't seen over here yet (like give me a queer romcom or a queer crime drama Western media! Does it exist)? And I want that for GL.

ASIAN GL

OMG another ask for me to spin into stats. WEEEEEEEEEE!!!! (Thank you!) 

SO

I REALLLLLYYYYYY hope so. I WANT THIS SO BAD. 

I actually love GL as much as BL, but there just isn’t very much of it. Unfortunately, I don’t think we are going to see much in the future either. So sorry to say, but I can explain. I have data! 

But I’ll need to talk about the source materials and why the lack first. 

So ready... here we go... 

History of GL - Popularity Struggles 

So BL comes from Yaoi manga. There is a female version of this, Yuri. Historically, in Japan it is MUCH less popular than Yaoi. 

On the other side of the globe at round the same time (late 90s early 00s) there are lesbian-centered queer indie films from the USA, also historically less popular than the gay stuff. Although both really struggled. (There are series too. One could contrast the ratings and viewer numbers of say, Queer as Folk against The L-Word.) 

Now, let’s look at the romance literature industry because it is a demographic bellwether for romcoms and romantic films, TV, and web series in general. (More on that in the next section.) 

F/F, lesbian, and non-gay queer focused romance novels sell the least within the romance genre. If we divide that genre purely on sales lines, it goes: het, m/m or gay, f/f or lesbian, other forms of queer. 

There are exceptions, especially when popular romance het authors branch into ff. But this is not the norm. 

Sales Demographics for BL 

I’m talking broad brush stroke sales demos here. Please don’t take it personally. This is just following the eyeballs, to the numbers, to revenue generated. The entertainment industry is a commercial industry. It desires to make money first and foremost. 

Yaoi, BL, and gay romance has been historically consumed almost entirely by women of a specific age demographic (25-65). Hollywood will occasionally refer to this demographic as the Apple Pie demo (see Lynda Obst’s book Sleepless in Hollywood.) I personally think this demo is skewing younger right now, but I haven’t tunneled into the data because, frankly, there is no point until we return to normal (this post from 2020). I specialize in predictive analysis and what we have right now is a non-predictive culture state. (It definitely skews younger for BL because of the technological barrier to entry - AKA the general need to consume online or illegally.) 

Anyway, Apple Pie is ALSO the demo that consumes romcoms and romance novels. This is a powerful consumer demographic for material objects (they do most of the shopping for most households in terms of goods) but historically not a very powerful demographic in terms of entertainment. The Apple Pie has a habit of doing pretty much anything else instead of stopping their lives to watch or read. 

When they do get obsessed with a piece of pop culture Apple Pies move mountains, see Twilight. (Which is one of the reasons it’s SO VITAL to have positive representation in these kinds of films, even if only as side characters, Apple Pie is also a powerful voting demographic when it comes to culture change like marriage equality. When I talk about being pro-normalization this is that angle.)

Unfortunately, the Apple Pies are easily distracted and easily placated. Historically they will go along with media that other demographics would rather consume (those demos being children, teens & college age, men age 25-55, and retirees). Teens, college age, and men 25-55 often share similar tastes, they also spend the most on entertainment, and historically dominate the entertainment field’s focus. (See superhero tent pole movies etc...)

Okay so, this means BL is most popular with the Apple Pie demographic. (Particularly over the last year and a half because Apple Pies have been less distracted from pop culture than in prior years. I anticipate watch numbers going down when C19 has been dealt with.) I liken this to the popularity of lesbian porn amongst straight men. There’s fetishization, fantasy, exotic appeal, distancing from an act that one cannot participate in oneself, and whole lot of other psychological things going on here. (No shade. This is a pro sex, pro kink, pro self analysis and self understanding space here.)

BL is also popular with gay and queer identified individuals but there just aren’t as many of us to significantly tilt the scale of watch numbers when pitted against the majority of viewers. Sad but true.

Sales Demographics for GL 

GL/lesbian film watchers and Yuri/lesbian/queer romance readers are ALSO members of the Apple Pie demographic. But, in broad brush strokes the only people who actually regularly consume this kind of pop culture are an even smaller wedge of that demo. They are:   

women/female identified individuals who identify as lesbians, bisexual, or pansexual 

gender non-conforming individuals who identify as queer or within the LGBTQ+ culture 

In other words, GL is not consumed by straight identified women and they make up the vast majority of Apple Pie. Yet the Apple Pie is already one of the hardest demos to market to. So GL watchers are the smallest wedge of an already difficult target wedge. 

So this is a VERY long way of saying that GL doesn’t have the demographics to be profitable. There just isn’t a big enough audience for it to sell well at volume. There’s basically no market. 

Which is not to say we won’t get some GL. It just a long way of saying I don’t see GL ever going the same way as BL. 

I would LOVE to eat these words - as if they were apple pie. But I can’t see how a surge in GL popularity and production, demographically speaking, would be possible in the current social make up of consumers. 

Here endith the market analysis lesson for today. 

All that said...

Some GL that DOES exist 

Couple of Mirrors (Chinese - sad end, censored romance) 

Dear Uranus (Taiwan - cliff hanger ending) 

Friendzone 2: Dangerous Area (Thai - subplot) 

The Handmaiden (Korea) THIS MOVIE IS A MASTERPIECE (it comes from Fingersmith, which is also great, and the same author as Tipping the Velvet which is fantastic) 

Handsome Stewardess (Taiwan - sad ending) 

Hormones 2 (Thai - subplot)

Nevertheless (Korea - subplot) - warning the surrounding het characters are unbearable 

Pair of Love (Taiwan) 

Pearl Next Door (Pinoy) 

Ride or Die (japan) VERY DARK murder lesbians 

Transit Girls (Japan) - stepsisters trope 

Triple - Do You Want? (Korea) - experimental one act where 3 couples (BL, GL, het) each perform the same first love scene with the same dialogue 

Very Complicated (Thai - subplot)

Water Boyy (Thai - subplot) 

Yes or No 1 & 2 (Thai)

Ones I haven’t managed to watch yet or dropped 

Afraid Of (Korea) 

Albino (Japan) 

Between The Seasons (Korea) 

Butterfly (Hong Kong) 

Chasing Sunsets (Pinoy) 

Club Friday The Series 12 (Thai) 

Diary of Tootsies (Thai) 

Girls Love (China) 

He's a Woman, She's a Man (Hong Kong) 

i STORIES (Thai) 

Intimates (Hong Kong)

Jellyfish (Japan)

Joshi-teki Seikatsu (Japan) 

Legend of Yun Qian (China) 

Life is Peachy (Korea) 

Lily Fever (Korea)

Love My Life (Japan) 

Love/Juice (Japan) 

Love Songs Love Stories: Pae Jai (Thai) 

My Dear Friend (Korea) 

On Air (Korea) 

Our Love Story (Korea) 

Out of Breath (Korea) 

The Painter of the Wind (Korea) 

Spider Lilies (Taiwan) 

The Substitute (Taiwan) 

We Are Gamily (Taiwan) 

White Lily (Japan) 

X-LOVE (China) 

GL Trends by Country

Like with BL I’d be wary of the stuff out of Japan and China as it has a tendency to go dark. 

Hong Kong seems particularly interested in exploring cross dressing and gender identity. 

There are more from Korea than I expected and less from Taiwan. Sadly, the Korean stuff is particularly difficult to get hold of internationally. 

The Thai stuff is all over the place but sometimes can be cute and sweet. 

Here’s @heybisexuals Asian WLW Media Masterpost which is full of tasty links and more information.  

This post and list date 2021, GL occurring after this will not appear but MAY be in the comments. 

(source)

#asian gl #sales demographics #market analysis #bl demographics #watcher nnumbers #meta analysis #history of gl #history of bl #apple pie demographic #asian wlw #thai gl #korean gl #japanese gl #chinese gl #taiwanese gl #romance genre #romance in film #film industry

[lizardboy66]

this is the only platform I can safely rinse heartstopper on so I’m going to rinse it.

based on the trailer I would say I as a uni student am not the demographic for this show, the fanbase and the characters skew younger and I’m aware of this HOWEVER

The cinematography on its own doesnt look promising, the blocking is off and the colour grading is weird, the script sounds contrived and the characters seem flat.

My main issue is with the plot. If they stretch out their “getting together” story for the entire season and the main conflict of the show is that Nick is assumed to be straight for most of it, it’s playing deeply into stereotypes and comes off as more of a fantasy than reality.

I’m not against women writing gay love stories, I think there have been good gay love stories written by women but I also think there are very clear markers of when a woman is writing the gay men, and the result is usually deeply sanitised.

*edit* I have been made aware that Alice oseman has a difficult relationship with their gender and isn’t a woman so it would be unfair for me to say that this story was written by a woman because it wasn’t. I am going to refer to stories written by non queer men about queer men as such from here on out.

Could this be a byproduct of setting it in secondary school? Yes. However, I believe this is more because not only the writer is a non queer man, but the fanbase skews apple pie demographic (women between the ages of 15-30), which is a demographic that cultivates the fetishisation, infantilisation and sanitisation of gay relationships. If Charlie as a character can easily be replaced with a girl and the only difference is that his obstacle is that Nick supposedly doesn’t like men, it’s going to become reminiscent of gmmtv Thai BL, a thriving market, but one aimed at straight women and not at the queer community. I think a majority straight female audience can be a detriment to a tv show about queer men, not because they are women but because the characters are written differently when they are written as a fantasy for straight women and not a story about gay men.

That being said, I haven’t seen the show, please don’t attack me this is just some preemptive analysis on what could happen with this show. It’s one of the possibilities.

#heartstopper #heartstopper netflix #heartstopper tv #heartstopper tv show #lgbt #lgbt show #also if anyone says anything to be abt how straight women are more oppressed than gay men and deserve to fetishize gay men because of sexism #kindly don’t ❤️ #it’s a nuanced discussion abt intersectionality that is bigger than this post #this is not a place to discourse abt intersectionality #I’m pointing out a trend #have been made aware that Alice oseman isn’t a woman so I have edited my analysis slightly but a lot of my points stand

[militantinremission]

Jan. 6th: One Year Later

1Yr ago today, America was forced to take a look in The Mirror. Most were horrified, but recent Polls show that around 4% of Americans have no problem w/ the insurrection that took place @ The Nation's Capital last year. Some may laugh off 4% as insignificant or manageable; but to be clear, we're talking about approximately 10 million people. That is a significant number- especially when U consider those among them w/ Military & 'Law Enforcement' training. What motivates them, appears to be a fear of losing their 'position' of Chief Oppressor, & being marginalized to the level of The Oppressed.

According to the same Polls, this 4% see nothing wrong w/ using violence to enforce their Beliefs. We saw this last year. Not just in Washington D.C., but in several Cities Nationwide. This was a coordinated effort that is being substantiated more & more by the Jan. 6th Select Committee. Sean Hannity's testimony may be a key to determining 'how coordinated'. For now, Steve Bannon & Mark Meadows appear willing to fall on their swords. I said last Yr, that Donald Trump is not the only one to blame in this- One Yr. later, many GOP Members appear to be choosing Party over Country.

It's interesting, watching The Mainstream Media explain the motivation of last Yr's Insurrection. They allude to several factors, but focus on Donald Trump's attempted Coup, during the Electoral Confirmation Vote. Trump is accused of whipping his supporters up into a lather, & dispatching them to overthrow The U.S. Congress (Stop The Steal). What about the other Cities targeted? What about the presence of White Supremacist Groups, like The Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Boys, & The 3 Percenters in the D.C. Metro Area, & the concern expressed by The Black Community?

The demographics tallied from that Mob of Insurrectionists show that most were 'Middle Classed Working Folk' that come from areas where the 'Black & Brown' Population is beginning to outnumber the White Population. Like the Tiki Torch Marchers in Charlottesville, Va., they felt like they were being marginalized. From my vantage point, this group was a stampeding herd being used as a distraction. Hidden from view on 1 Side- is Donald Trump & his allies, attempting to (internally) nullify Joe Biden's victory.

On the other Side- there were an assortment of White Supremacist Groups organizing outside of D.C.; armed & ready. In the days following Jan. 6th, some affiliated w/ these groups spoke on Social Media Platforms about waiting for a 'signal'; a Green Light to mobilize & overthrow the current Government. Others spoke about setting off a Race War called 'The Boogaloo' in D.C.'s Black Community.

Regardless of the motivation, America has a Race Problem that needs to be addressed. The COVID Protocols of the last 2Yrs have exposed this nasty side of American Culture. Until We can have an honest discussion about the role that Race plays in Who gets What, & How Much in America, We can expect an escalation of 'anti-establishment' behavior- from The Left & The Right. From a Historical Perspective, I see America mimicking Post War Germany of 100Yrs ago.

Germany was also going through Social Unrest & Inflation, back in 1922. The War Debts of WW I were wrecking their Economy. Germany's Economic Collapse in 1923, gave rise to Adolph Hitler & The National Socialist (Zionist?) Party. Donald Trump & his allies are in a similar position today. That 4% of the population willing to use violence to support their Beliefs, is large enough to start a Revolution. We should also look @ Donald Trump's activity on the State & Local level. He is challenging ANYONE that went against his Agenda, & The GOP appears to be Kissing the Ring.

White Supremacy, is as American as Apple Pie, so the rise in Group Activity is expected during times of Recession. 'Privileged Folk' should be concerned about the rise of White Supremacist Activity, coinciding w/ a rise in Authoritarianism. This was the basis of Nazism. The Jan. 6th Select Committee has their work cut out. We, The People, have to also do Our part. It's up to Us, to remind each other that We have a Right to an Opinion, & We can 'agree to disagree'... A little Respect goes a long way.

-Just Sayin'

#MassFormationPsychosis

[sinkix]

Haikyuu!!│Boys going grocery shopping w/ you! HC’s│Ft. Bokuto, Nishinoya, Terushima, Kuroo & Kunimi

I had this late night idea and just HAD to follow through, the chaos would be O F F T H E C H A R T S. Thank you to @deathcab4daddy​ for helping me brainstorm some good characters for this post lmao I love you bby and can’t wait to do a collab. <3

E N J O Y ~ 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

BOKUTO:

WHEN I TELL YOU THIS BOI PICKS UP EVERYTHING IN SIGHT LIKE A 6 YEAR OLD

 I FUCKING MEAN IT.

“(Y/N) we need this” 

“Bokuto we do not need a 7th jar of peanut butter.”

 “But (Y/N) it has a squirrel on the front-”

“BOKUTO I SWEAR TO GOD”

Tries to drift on the edge of the cart like something straight outta CSGO and the cart nearly obliterates under his weight.

V e r y l o u d u n e c c e s s a r i l y.

Everyone always stares at y’all when you’re going through the isles bc ur literally escorting a man-child sprawled in a shopping cart who’s going “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” at everything he sees like he’s a toddler at the zoo who’s never encountered a chimpanzee before.

Unless you have a bottomless bank account do NOT take him shopping of any kind he is LETHAL.

When you’re at the check-out he turns it into a basketball competition and tries to launch everything perfectly on to the conveyor belt.

Volleyball player? Nah this sis with the NBA now.

Do not ask him to go get something, he will return with at least 9 items you didn’t need and everything BUT the item you requested

He turned up with a whole ass pineapple, a jar of jam, a stick of butter and a bottle of olive oil.

Like,,,where is the correlation in those items???

Once made the mistake of asking him to grab some pads from the hygiene section and specified it HAD to be with wings

Boy showed up ten minutes later and looking very confuzzled.

You questioned why he has a pack of wingless pads in one hand and a can of red bull in the other.

He said it’s because they didn’t have any with wings so he figured the Redbull would suffice and do the job for you.

i-

NISHINOYA:

Can literally fit him in the little cart seat made for kids and he LOVES it lmaoooo IT’S SO CUTE MY HEART.

HE JUST SWINGS HIS LEGS EXCITABLY WHILE YOUR GETTING STUFF AAAAAAA

Ppl give you such weird looks though bc you have a guy who’s at least 14 years older than the intended demographic sitting there and raising his hands in elation over you copping a cookie dough pie and chucking it in.

Again, another who is VERY LOUD FOR NO REASON AT ALL.

Get’s out of the cart after a while bc his legs be growing numb and begins roaming around.

Someone came back with a feral Noya in hand stating “Is this your child” WNDKJWEFNWJEF.

M’AM HE’S LIKE 18 EXCUSE YOU.

Was salty about it for the rest of the day.

Just ruffle his hair and call him Senpai 

Problem solved.

Picks up tons of exotic fruit that look more like plastic or fuzzy poisonous plants and begs you to get them.

“Noya what the fuck is that.”

“...a Pitaya.”

“...”

“Can we get it-”

“no.”

“(Y/N)-”

“I SAID NO DAMMIT”

Last time you bought some strange fruit he took it to practise and got Tanaka to spike it LMAOOO

IT SPLATTERED E V E R Y W H E R E

AND OVER DAICHI’S SHIRT.

He begged you to no longer allow Noya to purchase weird fruits from then on since he is like a child with a nerf gun.

He once picked up a phat wrinkly purple fruit and turned to you asking if it was an overgrown raisin.

“Noya sweetie that’s a Date.”

HE FULLY TSK’ED AND THREW IT BACK SINCE IT REMINDED HIM OF DATE TECH I CAN’T.

My boy out here defending Asahi even in the Grocery Isles.

We stan a loyal king.

TERUSHIMA:

Another one who tries to stand on the ledge and the cart wheels almost collapse because it wasn’t designed to hold the weight of a young adult.

Oh young adult??? Sorry I mean’t MAN CHILD.

He treats a shopping experience as a time to practise his aim apparently because he ALWAYS THROWS SHIT AT YOU TO THE POINT YOU’RE THREATENED TO BE KICKED OUT.

Definitely picks up phallic looking objects and places them against his crotch, snorting and saying “Like what you see (Y/N)?”

Homeboy is stood there in front of a wife and child presenting his cucumber appendage for the world to see.

He once grabbed a pair of fat ass melons and pressed them against his chest, shaking them and belting the lyrics to ‘My Milkshake’ while begging you to SQUEEZE HIS MELONS.

“Look (Y/N) they’re bigger than yours!”

I just- 

I give up.

Constantly tries to sneak mutli-packs of energy drinks into the cart to the point you’re convinced he is going to keel over from heart failure and kidney stones by the age of 20.

Has his airpods in 90% of the time and treats the isles as his personal dance floor.

He busting them MOVES and performing the MJ moonwalk while in the dairy section.

ONCE HE SLID TOO FAST AND SLIPPED ON HIS REAR IN FRONT OF LIKE 12 PEOPLE LMAOO

He was DEAD silent the rest of the trip.

Probably the most serene shopping experience you’ve had to date.

The checkout clerks occasionally hit on Mr. Sore-Ass over here.

Until he opens his mouth and they realise he’s a total dolt and question how you have the patience for him.

You don’t know either honestly.

The whole bagging experience is spent with them shooting you sympathetic glances as if to say ‘sis you shoulda’ left him at home’.

Yes, yes you should have.

Never a dull moment with Teru as your shopping partner.

KUROO:

LITERALLY LIKE A MIDDLE-AGED MAN OR A TODDLER WHEN Y’ALL GO SHOPPING THERE IS NEVER AN EVEN MIDDLE-GROUND.

Frequently cracks lame-ass food puns or dad jokes that make you want to crawl into a hole and die.

You have competitions on who can come up with the most and the loser always faces a penalty.

Kuroo and creating penalties do NOT mix safely so you better hope you win.

“I love you a waffle lot.” 

Proceeds to hold up a wrapped waffle.

Ok that one was kinda cute you’ll let it slide.

“I ap-peach-iate you Kuroo.”

Cue HyenaLaugh.mp3

“Want a pizza me baby? Bitch peas, doughnut take me lightly.”

You changed your mind.

You didn’t talk to him the duration of that shopping experience, no penalty could be as horrifying as what just came out of his mouth.

“(Y/N)... sometimes I feel like you don’t carrot all.”

You slapped him with said carrot and obviously had to pay for it after.

You forced him to eat it raw.

He is the definition of Neutral disaster when you go shopping.

Shitty food puns aside, he is actually very responsible when making sure you both get what you need.

Not without tons of poking, prodding, and blowing into your ear while you’re trying to decide what ingredients to buy for dinner.

You contemplated serving him a plate of bubbling snot and moulded broccoli seasoned with rosemary.

Bone apple teeth, bitch.

Ofc you didn’t because he always pulls out the puppy eyes and cuddles card after since he knows he’s well and truly rattled your patience lmao.

Actually picks really healthy food options?? Being the captain of a team he has the responsibility of keeping his health in top condition and leading by example so at least he knows the right ingredients to make a bomb-ass and nutritious meal ig.

Y’all always bicker and tease each other at the checkout which is usually great amusement for the clerk serving you as they often smirk and perceive you as an old married couple.

Which tbh you kinda are, it feels like it at least.

Still such a big asshole though lmao you never leave the store without your sanity being scathed.

KUNIMI:

Honestly just wanted an excuse to make jokes at the expense of the Aoba Johsai teammates.

and what better candidate for cracking these than Kunimi.

He’s a very chill partner to have tag along with you on your endeavours.

Not without some grumbling and groaning on his part though, lazy bitch.

You always finish shopping trips with a busted lung at how much you have been laughing though with some of the SHADY ASS REMARKS HE MAKES ABOUT THE OTHER TEAM MATES.

You were outside the store when you both spotted an angry looking Doberman tied to a nearby post.

“Smh who let Kyotani outside again.”

You hadn’t even set foot in the store yet and he was already spitting flaming insults.

[Walking up to the automatic double doors]

“Damn Oikawa move out of my way.”

Oikawa just tryna live and he keeps getting roasted for his flat cheeks 

#StopOikawaAssShaming

Ten minutes of scouring the store later he picks up a spikey Kiwano and compares it to Iwaizumi’s hair.

Proceeds to beg you not to tell my boy Iwa because he KNOWS he will get decked to the gym floor.

Passers by often wonder why you’re wheezing and producing noises like a boiling kettle.

When I tell you no one is safe, I mean N O O N E.

“These Yule logs really out here looking like Matsukawa’s brows.”

The finisher was when Kunimi picked up a turnip and said 

“Huh, kinda looks like Kindaichi.”

I just-

He could roast a whole chicken in minutes from the burn of these comments I stg.

You can now never look at the Seijou team without various foods or inanimate objects plaguing your thoughts.

Thanks, Kunimi.

#hq #haikyuu #kuroo tetsurō #nishinoya yuu #bokuto kotaro #terushima yūji #karasuno #johzenji #nekoma #fukurodani #haikyuu headcanons #hq headcanons #haikyuu x reader #aoba johsai #kunimi akira #seijou #seijoh

[justlookfrightened]

4, 5, or 35 ? Because I’m indecisive as hell and love your writing.

From this prompt list: 4. “If I die, I’m haunting you first.”; 5. “But I’ve never told you that before.” ; and 35.  “Oh honey, I’d never be jealous of you.”

Bitty played hockey and Samwell and went on to be a cookbook author; Jack went directly into the NHL.

Bitty’s eyes traveled up the the shelves of the cupboard, wondering what ingredients he could reasonably expect someone who did not cook or bake for a living to have.

Flour, of course, if they were volunteering to be on a baking show. Most likely all purpose. Sugar (white) and salt (iodized). Butter. Maybe they usually used margarine, but Bitty would not compromise on that. Butter surely counted as a common ingredient. Shortening, too.

What about spices? Most people probably had cinnamon in their cabinets, even if it was twelve years old and devoid of flavor. Would nutmeg or allspice be too much? Maybe.

And this contestant had requested a fruit pie. If they were going for common ingredients, that would most likely mean apple. Apples were nearly always plentiful and cheap at supermarkets, so if this pie was going to use fresh fruit (and it was), it would be apple.

*

Bitty had misgivings about appearing on “So You Think You Can Bake,” the new Food Network show that pitted expert bakers against celebrities. The idea was that the expert would develop a recipe they thought was suitable for an inexperienced home cook.

Then the expert and the celebrity would both make the dish in separate kitchens while being filmed. 

The expert baker and celebrity contestant would have their creations scored anonymously. If the celebrity chef received at least eighty percent of the score of the celebrity baker, they won money for the baker to keep and the celebrity to donate to charity. Total scores counted toward the final competition at season’s end, when the three best pairs would be brought back for the final, competing for a $50,0000 prize.

There were so many things that could go wrong. Bitty could get paired with a celebrity chef with no palate, or no coordination, or even no real interest in winning. Some people could mess up a perfectly good recipe by not measuring accurately, or doing steps in the wrong order, or even mistaking the salt for the sugar. If the celebrity chef messed up, it wouldn’t just look bad for them. It would throw shade on Bitty, whose job, after all, was to explain how to bake in a way that people would understand. Relatable was his brand.

But Eileen, the PR rep who handled his books for the publishing house, thought it would be a good idea.

“This show is literally made for you,” she said. “And the exposure would be great. Think of the campaign for your next book.”

So Bitty agreed. Then he found out who his assigned celebrity was.

“A hockey player?” Bitty asked. “Whose only memorable sound bite is ‘Eat more protein’? Which did not go viral for the reasons he thinks it did. I mean, I wasn’t expecting Beyonce, or even Taylor Swift, but why not a Kacey Musgraves?”

Bitty wasn’t at all bitter that, at 24, he no longer had regular access to an ice rink. He could pay to rent ice to figure skate, but it was hard to find the motivation since he was no longer in competition, and he hadn’t yet found a men’s league hockey team where he felt comfortable.

“I know Jack Zimmermann isn’t who most people think of as a home cook,” Eileen said. “But the producers were thrilled. They think he’ll bring on a whole new demographic.”

“How’d they rope him into it anyway?” Bitty asked, scrolling through interview after interview with Jack talking saying, “We win and lose as a team,” and “We have to protect the neutral zone and get the puck down low,” and “We need to keep our feet moving and have a shoot-first mentality.”

It was like they taught him six phrases in media training and he used them over and over again, in random order.

He wasn’t hard to look at, Bitty would give him that. And the physique -- yeah, his nutrition plan was definitely protein-heavy. Why would he agree to do a baking show? 

*

“My agent said it would be a good idea,” Jack Zimmermann said when he and Bitty had their first meeting. “He said it would humanize me. Actually, he said it would be the beginning of an arc of character development I wasn’t expecting, but that’s just the way he is.”

The actual first meeting was in the green room, waiting to go on-set for the “first meeting” taping. Jack had been sitting in a chair along the wall when Bitty came in, reading an actual, honest-to-God book.

Bitty had to shove his phone in his pocket as he cleared his throat to get Jack’s attention. It seemed like Jack kept reading for a few seconds after he noticed Bitty, which was annoying, because the book would always be there, but Bitty was prepared to be gracious.

“Mr. Zimmermann? I’m Eric Bittle,” Bitty said. “We’re going to be working together. Pleased to meet you.”

“I know,” Jack said. 

Okay. 

“When we start the taping, I’m going to ask you about any experience you have baking, any favorite desserts, things you’ve always wanted to learn to make,” Bitty said. “Anything you want me to steer the conversation toward? Or stay away from?”

“Are we supposed to be doing this?” Jack said. “Talking, I mean.”

“Um, yes?” Bitty said. “It’s not like we’re concocting a fake story. We just want the on-camera talk to go smoothly. So have you baked before?”

“No.”

“Any favorite desserts?”

“I don’t really eat sweets.”

“Well, you’re going to have to eat something sweet,” Bitty said. “Anything you want to make?”

Jack shrugged.

“Honey, don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you here?” Bitty asked.

“Uh, you can call me Jack,” Jack said, then launched into his explanation about his agent, a man with the improbable name of John Johnson.

Bitty shook his head at that, and tried to keep the conversation going.

“You’re Canadian, right?” 

“Dual citizenship,” Jack said. “But I mostly grew up in Montreal.”

“Anything special from back home?”

Then the assistant came to bring them on the set, dressed to look like a home kitchen, each of them seated at a table with mugs in front of them. The mugs just held water, but the audience wouldn’t see that; it was supposed to look like two friends talking over coffee.

Bitty decided to pick up the conversation where he left off in the green room, since it was the only thing he hadn’t struck out on already.

“So, Jack, I understand you’re from Montreal. Do have any memories of classic desserts or baked goods from your childhood?”

Jack paused and looked like he was really thinking, like he didn’t want to disappoint the producers.

“We used to have tarte au sucre at the holidays,” he finally said. “I liked that.”

“Sugar pie?” Bitty said, thankful that at least the cooking terms had stuck from his college French class. “We could do something with that.”

“But I’d like to do something that has some healthy ingredients,” Jack had said. 

“Is fruit healthy enough?” Bitty asked. “Maybe a fruit pie? You might not know this, but that’s kind of my specialty.”

Jack had offered a smile at that, and said, “Good to know. Maybe we can win this thing, eh?”

The taping didn’t last long, and soon Bitty was collecting his things from the green room.

“Wait, Jack, I forgot to ask you, any allergies? I wouldn’t want to kill you for a silly TV show.”

“If I die, I’m haunting you first,” Jack said. “But no, no food allergies. Is there anything I should practice beforehand?”

“I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you that,” Bitty said, starting to feel like maybe Jack wasn’t as wooden as he’d seemed at first. He seemed to relax once the taping ended. Maybe this would be okay after all.

*

Bitty started by making an apple pie, trying to write down the steps as precisely as he could just as he did them.

It didn’t work.

Sure, he could measure and mix the dry ingredients for the crust, and tell Jack to make sure his butter and shortening were cold, but how could he explain the twisting motion for the pastry cutter? When he had to start by explaining what a pastry cutter was? 

And how would Jack know when he was done cutting and should add the ice water? Bitty had read recipes over the years saying the mixture should look like everything from rough crumbs to small peas … which were not the same thing by a long shot. Bitty had learned what it should look like at his MooMaw’s elbow; sure, he’d tried to put it into words in his cookbooks, but there was a reason he always included photos.

Jack had said he’d never baked. He wouldn’t know what it should look like.

Bitty called the producers to ask if he could include pictures in the recipe he developed for Jack.  The answer -- hand-drawn sketches were fine, as long he drew them himself, but no photographs -- was not encouraging.

Bitty started over and this time took a photograph of the dough mixture just before he added the water. He could use that  to write a description, he decided. Then he had to think about how to explain when the dough was wet enough.

Once he had the dough made, the process for making the filling was easier. Peel and slice apples, coat with flour and a little cinnamon and sugar -- and, a last-minute brainstorm for Canadian Jack, a little maple syrup -- and set aside. He toyed with the idea of including maple sugar for the crust, but the studio pantry probably didn’t have real maple sugar. He could boil some syrup down -- but that wasn’t something Jack could (or would) do, probably. Better to just do an egg wash and sprinkle some sugar on for the sparkle.

The instructions for rolling out the dough were simple enough, provided Jack followed them. That was the hard part. Most people couldn’t seem to leave well enough alone with pie dough.

Bitty moved to his laptop and wrote at the top of the instructions:

“A general note on making pie dough. Do less than you think you need to. Don’t work it too much. If you do, it will be tough. So if you’re not sure if you should stop messing with it, stop.”

Then he did his best to put into words what it should like with all the fats cut in (“If you don’t see any powdery flour, it’s probably good”) and with the ice water added (“It should be moist, not wet”).

Then he thought about the top. Normally, people thought of lattices as being hard to do. But if the baker was methodical and followed directions, it wasn’t so bad. And it would be easier to put strips on top of the pie than to pick up the whole top crust and put it on intact. It didn’t really matter if the bottom was a mess; this wasn’t the Great British Bake-Off with Mary Berry and her hatred of soggy bottoms. The pie would be served from the dish, and no one would know if the bottom crust was torn and mended as long it still tasted good.

So, a nice, tightly woven lattice for the top. Bitty set to drawing a detailed diagram.

*

Bitty printed the recipe he developed -- all ten pages -- to bring with him and hand to Jack. He’d already supplied it to the producers to make sure they agreed all the ingredients were things a home cook would have in their pantry, or at least have ready access to.

“Real maple syrup?” the production assistant had asked. “What about something like Pillsbury pancake syrup? That’s what most people use.”

“My baker is Canadian,” Bitty argued. “He’d have the real stuff.”

“Fine, I guess.”

Bitty was dressed for TV in dark skinny jeans, a light T-shirt and a Samwell red button-down over it with red Chuck Taylors. The provided apron, he knew, would be beige with a dark red logo.

Jack came in dressed in charcoal gray tailored slacks and a light blue shirt, almost exactly the same color as his eyes. Yeah, he was good-looking. Bitty wasn’t sure if he would bring in the sports-loving young men the producers were hoping for, but it wouldn’t matter. The women would love him. And the gay boys like him. But no one ever counted them as their own demographic.

When the got into the studio, Bitty handed over the recipe.

Jack’s eyes widened when he saw how long it was.

“Does this take all day?” he asked.

“I can do it in about two hours,” Bitty said. “Counting chilling and baking time.”

“You’ll have three hours to complete the challenge,” the host said. “As long as you finish in that time, any differential in how long it takes won’t count against you.

Jack nodded, a determined set to his jaw. Bitty was almost glad they would be separated so he didn’t have to worry about cutting himself on that jawline.

Then Bitty was escorted to his studio kitchen, where he proceeded to make a pie, narrating each step, just like he was making a vlog post.

He made sure to turn the top of the bowl to the camera when he was done cutting the fats in, and again when he added the water. 

“You see those streaks of butter and shortening?” he said, when he gathered the dough into disks to chill. “You want those to make flaky crust.”

He made sure to slice the apples evenly, and mix them gently with the flour and flavorings, then he rolled his dough out.

He clucked at himself -- but didn’t say anything -- when he realized he’d forgotten to tell Jack to make sure he had the thinnest possible layer of fat on his work surface before he scattered flour over it.

Then, once the pie was done, he actually slapped himself upside the head.

“I never said anything about covering the edges with foil at the beginning,” he said. “Poor guy is definitely gonna have burnt edges. Oh well.”

Bitty’s pie came out of the oven at the two-hour mark, and he donned oven mitts to be filmed carrying it into the judging room.

“You’ve got some time if you want to head to the green room relax,” the production assistant said. “Someone will come get you before Jack is ready to bring his pie in.”

Bitty flung himself onto the couch and groaned. He could have used the $5,000 prize from this stage of the competition to get ahead on his rent for a couple of months … and maybe even rent an ice rink for a couple of hours to clear his mind. He didn’t regret his choice of career -- writing cookbooks, running his vlog, making appearances like this -- but the money tended to come in fits and starts.

He realized he’d never even asked Jack what his charity was. The show must have asked him at some point, so Bitty was sure he’d find out eventually. He hoped Jack would donate to his chosen charity regardless. He could certainly afford it. The only real advantage for the charity to having Jack appear on the show was publicity. Well, and convincing people that straight, athletic young men could bake and enjoy it.

But Bitty forgot to tell him to use foil to guard the edges, so they probably wouldn’t advance, and it would all be Bitty’s fault. Jack -- he had to be competitive, right? -- well, it didn’t matter if hated Bitty. They hardly knew one another. 

*

“Eric? Jack’s pie is done. Time to go to the judging room.”

Bitty roused himself from the sofa, resigned to his fate. If nothing else, he’d learned a lesson.

He took his place behind his pie and waited for Jack and his pie with its inevitable burnt edges.

He was sitting there when Jack came in, carrying his beautiful golden brown pie aloft. Jack set it on the empty cooling rack next to Bitty’s and stepped back.

It was beautiful. The lattice was maybe not quite as straight, not quite as even as Bitty’s, but it was close.

Bitty couldn’t help a pleased grin, first at the pie, then at Jack, who had finished with fifteen minutes to spare.

“Okay, you two. We’re going to break for lunch while Jack’s pie cools,” the production assistant said. “We need you back in an hour in the same clothes, so don’t mess them up.”

Bitty was about to head out when Jack said, “Want to grab a sandwich? There’s a place down the block.”

“Sure,” Bitty said. “I have some questions for you.”

“And me for you,” Jack said.

Once they had their food and settled at a table, Bitty said, “How did you keep the edges from burning?”

“I made foil collars,” Jack said.

“But I’ve never told you that before,” Bitty said.

“You always do it on your YouTube channel,” Jack said.

“Wait … you’ve seen … but you said you’d never baked,” Bitty said. 

“I hadn’t,” Jack said. “That doesn’t mean I’ve never watched anyone else bake on YouTube. When Johnson said you were doing this, it seemed like a good opportunity to meet you.”

“To meet me?” Bitty really had to start thinking of some of his own words instead of just repeating Jack’s.

“Well, yeah,” Jack said. “Someone showed me your videos when you were at Samwell, and I was intrigued by a hockey player who baked. Made me wonder what it would have been like to be on a college team, or whether I’d develop any other interests.”

“Someone?”

Jack actually blushed. “My mother. She went to Samwell.”

It was almost a physical effort for Bitty to push that out of his head. Jack’s mother was … nope. Not going there.

“So you wanted to make pie because you’d see me make it before?” 

“A lot,” Jack said. “But the instructions were really helpful.”

“I thought we’d lost it when I realized I’d never said anything about the foil,” Bitty admitted.

“But I figured you could make a donation to your charity anyway.”

Jack nodded.

“I plan on adding to it even if we win,” he said. “What do you want to do with the money? Bitty was not going to tell Jack Zimmermann that he needed money to pay his rent. Not this unexpected Jack Zimmermann, who for some reason had been interested in Bitty for years. Despite, Bitty reminded himself, being straight. Almost certainly.

“Some of it will buy ice time,” he said. “I miss skating, you know? I used to figure skate before I played hockey.”

“I’m not sure what I’d do if I couldn’t skate every day,” Jack said. “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t say that. Don’t want to make you jealous.”

“Oh honey, I’d never be jealous of you,” Bitty said. ”I have the job I want. I just want to be able to skate for fun. Like you want to bake for fun, I guess.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jack said. “It was pretty stressful. I kept wanting to make it perfect, but you said not to overwork it. But maybe it would be more fun if it wasn’t being recorded for TV.”

“Maybe we could bake together sometime?” Bitty said. 

“Then skate?” Jack suggested. “On our practice ice.”

“That would be really great,” Bitty said. “Ready to go back? By the way, you never said what your charity is.”

“You Can Play,” Jack said. “I’m thinking of coming out next year.”

#omg check please #omgcheckplease #pre-zimbits #my fic #prompt fill

[myentertainmentthoughts]

My Little Pony - I watched all 9 seasons (and you should too)

Back in college I went from watching a YouTube video joking about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to actually watching the show for myself and realizing that it’s unironically fantastic. I can’t pinpoint an exact year for this, but I imagine it be roughly around 2012? Well, now that it’s 2021, I can finally write down my final thoughts on the show having finished it last year. I picked up where I had left off many years ago, and it’s definitely a come-full-circle feeling.

When people think of the MLP brand, especially as it regards MLP: Friendship is Magic, there’s usually only 2 associations that will pop into someone’s mind. Either its target audience of little girls, or worse - the internet phenomenon that was brony culture. Adult men in their 20s and 30s who tuned into the show and used the jokes within the writing & animation on 4chan and other internet boards. Of course there’s definitely more to the brony aspect of the fandom than meets the eye, and any negative stereotypes arising from this association are just that. Stereotypes.

But I think as cringey as the most extreme aspects of what I will refer to as “bronydom” are, I think that these 2 vastly different demographics really does touch on what makes MLP: Friendship is Magic so special. This show that was clearly geared for kids touches on so many universal themes (and does so shockingly well), that anyone can find appreciation for it. And the show deserves nothing less than that - the art style is appealing as all heck, the characters are extraordinarily charming, and the storylines are compelling. 

Of course, I will take the time to lay out that the show is at its strongest when looking at the personalities of the core cast of characters - or as they’re best known - The Mane Six. (Yes - that’s mane - not main, haha)

The main protagonist of the show is the unicorn Twilight Sparkle, who excels in academics and is exceptionally talented in magic. But she lacks socialization with her peers, and is sent by her mentor Princess Celestia to the town of Ponyville to make some friends. While there, she meets the rest of the gang -

Rainbow Dash, a brash and athletic pegasus who dreams to join Equestria’s most elite flyers - the Wonderbolts.

Applejack - a hardworking and steadfast earth pony who helps run her family’s farm - Sweet Apple Acres.

Rarity - a beautiful and fashion forward unicorn who runs her business, Carousel Boutique in Ponyville.

Fluttershy - the sweet and bashful pegasus who has a special talent for caring and connecting to all creatures big and small.

And Pinkie Pie - a spirited and party loving earth pony, whose biggest passion is to make those around her smile and laugh.

These are classic character archetypes, and while MLP: Friendship is Magic boasts solid writing, it cannot boast innovation on that front. But each of the characters do have enough individuality and depth that there are plenty of instances where they veer from their archetype qualities.

Most notably, these characters’ personalities are all flawed - something that is hugely relatable to everyone - children and adults alike.  Our flaws define us as much as our strengths. And accordingly, our flaws lead us into conflict. The show is surprisingly realistic about how much that plays into friendships and laying out the lessons to learn from that. While these lessons may be newer to the youngsters that the show is meant to target, they are lessons that should speak strongly to adults as well. After all, we never stop running into conflicts in our relationships, even as we grow older. It’s an achingly human quality that follows us throughout our life. So is it really that surprising when you see the adult demographic that enjoys this “little girls show”?

Furthermore, throughout the 9 year run time of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, these conflicts are explored from the show’s beginning to its end thoroughly, and while the cast still consistently must resolve conflicts in each episode, the core cast of characters do not remain the same. They each grow significantly and evolve into mentor and leadership roles. They all take steps to achieving their goals and dreams - together.

It’s the perfect formula to a long lasting IP. And while certain jokes and gags did get old in the later seasons of the show, and sometimes the writers were a little overzealous in creating character decisions made for arbitrary conflict - fundamentally the writing holds up to the very end. I believe that is specifically due to the poignant quality of the show’s theme: Friendship is not always the easiest to uphold, but the best friendships do make life so much richer and wonderful. Good friendships are worth the work of keeping strong and alive. We are better together than alone.

So as an adult, is it worth checking out this show, beyond the internet culture aspect to it? I would say that anyone who gives the show a legitimate chance will be shocked at how much there is to latch onto and get value out of. There are 9 seasons worth of pop culture references and homages, a gaggle of great side characters (in addition to the core cast), and surprisingly epic moments that had me comparing fight sequences in My Little Pony to fight sequences in shonen anime arcs, and the MCU. (I’m not kidding about that either - this show has insane lore and I recommend this YouTube video series on it: The Complete My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Timeline (2020) if you want to see the history of Equestria in chronological order. In addition to any epic story arcs, the world building in this show is actually quite massive.)

Now admittedly, the show did go through a couple of unnecessary overhaul arcs to keep it alive for longer (as all long running TV shows can be guilty of). But MLP is less egregious in its quality dip than a LOT of other TV content that I’ve consumed. The ending does wrap everything into a neat little bow that as a fan, I was pretty happy with, and I think newcomers into the franchise will be pleased as well.

Ultimately, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic IS something very special. But only can be benefited from, by those who are open minded to seriously consume it. Cheers to my wrapping the show up and giving the later seasons a fair chance. Though it’s outclassed by some other animated content, I would say few to none outclass it within its own genre. And few outclass it even within the confines of animated television as a whole.  Friendship forever. :)

#my little pony #my litte pony friendship is magic #mlp friendship is magic #series review #mlp fim #twilight sparkle #fluttershy #rarity #rainbow dash #applejack #pinkie pie

[st-just]

Barely coherent rambling about nation-states, culture, the Hapsburgs, and Canada

Because why have a blog except to occasionally purge one of the essays floating around half-formed in your brain. To be clear, it’s still half-formed, just on tumblr now. 1,666 words, here’s the Deveraux essay mentioned. Book is Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs: To Rule The World

So I’ve had like, nationalism on my mind recently.

And so there’s a kind of recurring beat in left-of-centre American political discourse (like, not ‘internet rnados screaming at each other’ discourse, ‘people with doctorates or think tank positions having debates on podcasts or exchanging op eds’ discourse) where you have some people on the radical end list some of the various horrible atrocities the country is built on, the ways that all the national myths are lies, and how all the saints of the civic religion were monsters to one degree or another – this can come in a flavor of either righteous anger or, like, intellectual sport. And then on the other end you have the, well, Matt Yglesiases of the world. Who don’t really argue any of the points of fact, but do kind of roll their eyes at the whole exercise and say that sure, but Mom and Apple Pie and the American Way are still popular, and if you’re trying to win power in a democracy telling the majority of the population that their most cherished beliefs are both stupid and evil isn’t a great move.

Anyway, a couple weeks back Deveraux posted an essay for the 4th of July (which I don’t totally buy, but is an interesting read) about why the reason American nationalism is so intensely bundled up into a couple pieces of paper and maybe a dozen personalities is precisely because it isn’t a nation at all. Basically, his thesis is that in proper nation-states like England or the Netherlands or wherever, there really is a core population that is the overwhelming demographic majority and really have lived in more or less the same places since time immemorial, and that once the enthographers and mythologists finish their work, all those people really do identify with both the same nation and the same state as its expression. America, by contrast, is by virtue of being a settler nation whose citizenry was filled by waves of immigrants from all the ass ends of Eurasia in a historical eyeblink, even before you add in the native population and descendants of slaves lacks any single core ethnicity that is anywhere close to a majority, as well as any organic national traditions or claims to an ‘ancestral homeland’ that aren’t obviously absurd (and we are trying to include the descendents of slaves and the native population these days, to varying levels of success). All this to say that his point is America is a civic state, not a national one, with the identity of ‘American’ being divorced from ethnicity and instead tied to things like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the whole cult around the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and [FDR and/or Reagan depending on your politics].

Which, like I said, don’t totally buy, but interesting. (to a degree he overstates how homogenus ‘actual’ nation-states are, he makes America sound very special but if his analysis holds that it’d presumably also apply to several other former settler colonies, in the American context there’s a fairly solid case to be made that the whole ‘nation of immigrants’ story and the racial identity of whiteness were constructed to function as an erratz national ethnicity, with incredible success, etc, etc).

But anyway, if we accept that the American identity is bound up in its civic religion and the mythologized version of its political history, it’s absolutely the case that there’s several segments of the left who take incredibly joy in tearing said civic religion and national mythology apart and dragging whatever’s left through the mud. I mean, hell, I do! (reminder: any politician whose ever had a statue dedicated to them was probably a monster). And, well, call it a greater awareness of historical crimes and injustice, or the postmodern disdain for idols and systems leaking out through the increasingly college-educated populace, or the liquid acid of modernity dissolving away all unchosen identities, or a Marxist cabal undermining the national spirit to pave the way for the Revolution or whatever you like, but in whichever case, that critical discourse is certainly much more prominent and influential among left and liberal media and politics types that is was in decades past.

And, okay, so I finished Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs a few days ago. And I mentioned as I was reading it that the chapters on the 19th and 20th centuries reminded me quite a bit of courses I’d taken in school on the late Ottoman Empire and Soviet Union. Because all three are multi/non-national states (Empires, in Deveraux’s terminology, though that’s varying degrees of questionable for each, I think. Moreso for the Hapsburgs than the rest) who outlasted their own ideological legitimacy. And in all three cases it just, well, it didn’t not matter, but even as all the ceremonies got more absurd and farcical  and the politics more consumed by inertia punctuated with crises, things kept limping along just fine for decades. Even in the face of intense crisis, dissolution wasn’t inevitable. (The Ottomans are a less central example here, admittedly, precisely because of the late attempt to recenter the empire on Turkish nationalism. But even then, more Arab soldiers fought for the Sultan-Caliph than ever did for the Hashemites, and most prewar Arab nationalism was either purely cultural or imagined the Empire reformed into a binational federation, not dissolved).

But as Rady says in the book – losing WW1 crippled Germany, it dissolved Austria-Hungary. And in all three cases, as soon as they were gone, the idea of bringing them back instantly became at least a bit absurd.

And okay, to now pivot to talking about where I actually live but about whose politics I (shamefully) know significantly less than America’s. I mean, maybe it’s because most of my history education from public school was given by either pinko commies or liberals still high off ‘90s one-world universalism, or maybe it’s just a matter of social class, but I really can’t remember ever having taken the whole wannabe civic religion of Canada seriously (the only even serious attempt at sacredness I recall was for Remembrance Day). Even today, the main things I remember about our Founding Father is that he was an alcoholic who lost power in a railroad corruption scandal.

Really, in all my experience the only unifying threads of national/particular Canadian identity are a flag, a healthcare system, those Canadian Heritage Minute propaganda ads, a bill of rights from the ‘60s, and an overpowering sense of polite smugness towards the States.

And that last one (or, at least, the generally rose-colored ‘Canada is the good one’ view of history) is taking something of a beating, on account of all the mass graves really rubbing the public’s noses in the whole genocide thing. At least among big segments of the intellectual and activist classes, most of the symbols of Canadian nationhood are necessarily becoming illegitimate as Canada is, in fact, a project of genocidal settle colonialism.

But it really is just purely symbolic. Most of the municipalities who cancelled their Canada Day celebrations are going to elect Liberal MPs and help give our Natural Governing Party its majority in the next election, no one of any significance has actually challenged the authority of the civil service or the courts. And, frankly, most of the people who are loudly skeptical of all the symbols of the nations are also the ones whose political projects most heavily rely on an efficient and powerful state bureaucracy to carry out.

(This is leaving aside Quebec, which very much does have a live national identity insofar as the vigorous protection of national symbols is what wins provincial elections. If I felt like doing research and/or reaching more there’s probably something there on how pro-independence sentiment has largely simmered down at a pace with the decline of attempts to impose a national Canadian identity).

I mean, Canada does have rather more of a base for a ‘national’ population core than the US (especially if you’re generous and count the people who mark French on the census as a core population as well). At the same time, no one really expects this to continue to be the case – even back in Junior High, I remember one of the hand outs we got explaining that due to declining fertility most or all future population growth would come from immigration (I remember being confused when my mother was weirdly uncomfortable with the idea when it came up). I suppose our government gets credit for managing public opinion such that anti-immigration backlash hasn’t taken over the political conversation. Which you’d think would be a low bar but, well.

But anyway, to try and begin wrapping this rambling mess up – it does rather feel like Rady’s portrayal of the late Hapsburg empire might have a few passing similarities to the future of Canada. A multinational state whose constitution and political system and built on foundations and legitimized by history that no one actually believes in anymore, or at least no more than they have to pretend to to justify the positions they hold, but persisting because it’s convenient and it’s there and any alternatives are really only going to seem practical after a complete economic collapse or apocalyptic war. (Though our civil service is a Josephist’s dream by comparison, really.)

Or maybe I’m premature, and the dominant culture will just be incredibly effective at assimilating immigrants into that civic identity. Anecdotally, the only people I know who are at all enthusiastic about Canada as an idea are first generation immigrants. I could certainly just be projecting, really – I’ve never really been able to get all that invested in the nation-state as an idea of more moral power than ‘a convenient administrative division of humanity’, and certainly liberating ourselves form the need to defend the past would certainly rectifying certain injustices easier.  

Or maybe I’m just being incredibly optimistic. Half the economy’s resource extraction and the other half’s real estate, so decent odds the entire place just literally goes up in flames over the next few decades. BC’s already well on its way.

#politics #political theory #nationalism #in this essay I will #this is theoretically a writing blog #the hapsburgs: to rule the world