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It has been nice to post some more personal stuff the last few days, as family is important to me and I like sharing some of the moments we have. A lot of social media content is around branding and some kind of personal advertising, which seems mostly driven by an assumption about what the audience values or expects. This is of course similar on Hive and perhaps somewhat amplified since there is some kind of financial potential involved, but I find it less strange here because of that reason - whereas people on the other platforms are doing it just to fit in with some kind of warped sense of society where the opinions of strangers seem to matter more than those of friends and family.

I don't mind too much what people think of me in general and probably far less when on the internet. I know that some get angry and frustrated by what others think of them online and end up tapping aggressively away at their keyboard at every perceived slight. If it was possible to rate, I wonder what people's "mood" would be when using various social platforms - is there a difference between Facebook and Twitter for example? I wonder if key press pressure could be evaluated, would that indicate a difference too? It is kind of strange how angry people get over stranger's opinions. 

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## Quite a pretty cake, isn't it?

![OI000577.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/77tuUnFf-OI000577.jpg)

My wife goes out of her way to make sure that Smallsteps has something good to eat on her birthday and so far hasn't failed to impress our daughter - though not much of this would win any culinary awards. This chocolate cake was actually very good considering it was gluten and lactose free and was missing several other normal cake-type things. Smallsteps really enjoyed it. A lot. 

![OI000565.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/J4OYD2AV-OI000565.jpg)

My big disappointment for the day was that I (my wife) have misplaced the battery charger, which meant I had no flash to use inside where I wanted to take the birthday photos. The staircase is the only real place for this, but with the sun already on the other side of the house, it was far too dark to get a decent shot, especially since I am unfamiliar with the camera settings at this point. 

Not only that, Small seems to be getting a bit ill and was quite unhappy before the guests arrived. I feel bad for her that she gets ill so often, but she is a trooper at this point and for a four year old, deals with it all remarkably well. But if it is draining on us, it must have an effect on her too. 

In the next shot, I don't know what my wife thought I was going to do to the cake, but whatever I was doing - *I stopped immediately.*

![OI000570.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/WWFxOKtb-OI000570.jpg)

The traditional pavlova that I make made an appearance as normal. It is only the second that I have made this year, which is weird, as it is my favorite dessert most of the time and we have had a lot of strawberries around the house through the summer. 

![OI000575.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/MMraxh6S-OI000575.jpg)

And, I still think this is cool - a cherry pie and a rhubarb pie - with the cherries and rhubarb coming out of our garden. I took a couple of slices of leftover cherry pie and some vanilla custard to the neighbors and they gave me a handful of tomatoes from their greenhouse. Not a bad trade :)

![OI000576.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/38bNzMGe-OI000576.jpg)

This was the first real cake Smallsteps has had for her birthday with the last couple being cupcakes that were pretty bad (she liked them) as they had almost nothing in them. She was pretty excited to blow out the candles, but we didn't do any wishing. I think you can see that she is a bit tired, and this was at the start of the party. 

![OI000580.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/5WdPCPQj-OI000580.jpg)

My sister-in-law and the neighbors have kids a few years older than Smallsteps, so what we ask them to do for gifts is to recycle old toys - she loves books and jigsaw puzzles - but she asked for some toy cars to play with - she got some beat up old ones and she is over the moon. After every one left, we played for a while before she had to go to bed - she is a lot of fun to play with and the stories she makes up are gold. 

![OI000591.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/2Nuqnj4M-OI000591.jpg)

![OI000573.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/hgmFixaM-OI000573.jpg)

I don't know why, but I like this photo a lot - I think it is the tone of it and there is some kind of weird balance considering the eclectic range of what is happening. I am glad my wife is wearing the necklace I got her for our anniversary - did I mention *she didn't get me anything* again this year? =)

![OI000569.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/znfFXzIo-OI000569.jpg)

It is nice to have these things for our daughter, but they are pretty tiring considering we did keep it pretty simple. A few balloons in the garden and the cooking, but with so many things going on, it seemed like it was more work than it actually was. Smallsteps enjoyed the day though and was happy to have people here for her, though she gets a bit embarrassed when people sing happy birthday to her - much like her father. 

It is a funny contradiction for many perhaps - we like attention, but don't like getting attention. I have never been one to grab the mic or look for the spotlight and from observing my daughter, she is much the same. I sometimes wonder what happens to people like us in a future where attention seeking behavior is heavily incentivized - oh, we are there now.

However, I think it has a lot to do with the path of getting attention, where some people will do anything for any kind of attention in a, "all publicity is good publicity" approach, while others will get attention indirectly by just doing what they do well. It is much like making money I figure - some people make money the end goal, while others just do what they do well and money is the byproduct. I think one is a process of continual chasing riches without necessarily enjoying the journey, the other a process of enjoying the journey, even if it doesn't necessarily lead to riches.

What I like about paying attention to friends and family is, gold is never scarce - there is always value to be given.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]


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