We are going to celebrate the lift of the mask mandates on Saturday, February 19, at 6 PM.

I'll make fresh lemonade. See you soon!

Post scriptum:

• Ten of us started with two rounds of organized game, which was supposed to be as sad as a therapeutic session, but we had mostly fun, besides a couple of truly traumatic events during adolescence. After that, everyone dived into conversations and we never returned to the cards. A new guest concluded that my introduction tour failed :)
• To celebrate peace and in hope that invasion is a bluff, we tasted Ukrainian beer 1715 made in Lviv, Ukrane. “Lvivske 1715” is made by 300-year old recipes, it is a light pasteurized beer with clear malty aroma. I was able to forget the news images of unnecessary evacuation of children from Donbas. I hope provocations won't work.
• Some of us got sex-ed in modern terminology that helps to describe partner's needs, were you position yourself on several axis of your preferences desires and qualities: sexual - asexual (like reproduction terms), monosexual - bisexual - pansexual, monogamy - polyamory, BDSM in terms of submissiveness (I leaned that being in the middle is not that easy, and I was labeled as "switch" and "brad", even though I disagred with such placement), straight - gay axis, romance, emotional attachment, and mental stimulation, etc.
• We talked about jealousy and attempts to eliminate or turn it into a pleasant feeling vie mental models - with me doubting it in a long run for deep enough attractions and passions.
• We discussed basic emotions from neuroscientific prospective, and the connections between the corresponding brain areas - we concentrated on fear, anger, disgust, and status (hierarchy, prefrontal cortex). The indirect communication between memory systems was most interesting for me, I looked it up, and will read more about is. For example, amygdala and hippocampus:

  These brain structures are activated following an emotional event and cross-talk with each other in the process of consolidation. This dual activation of the amygdala and the hippocampus and the dynamics between them may be what gives emotionally based memories their uniqueness. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11414274/

• We talked about reasons to end a female friendship, and whether an unwillingness of one person to educate herself or go to therapy together with insisting on an unwelcome sexual advise is surely a one.
• We discussed robotics, ways to program it, differences with AI, future of deep fakes, etc.
• In a small circle, we talked about my visual organizational system and its principles.
• In another one, we discussed how artwork is used for tax evasion and to park capital, how pieces are bought to inflate their value for future donations, etc. I wanted an opinion on my current project, Masks of Irony.
• We listened to a 1990-s playlist with lots of hard rock and heavy metal, as well as Japanese Babymetal. Metallica had suggested answers to the existential questions. One of my answers was in a song by Animals.

• Goals: fun, conversation, play
• Properties: private, informal, recurrent
• What: please bring games and ideas, and make sure you have a drink you like and maybe snacks (more below)
• Why: we only have 5 games, so it would be nice to have more choices
• Who: friends, people who we like, a person who you would like to accompany you
• Place: Oceanside, California, Airport neighborhood, North of 76 and Benet or Foussat, on a hill behind a small river, the house is on the right, at the round end of the short destination street
• Parking: there is a big street light on the right side of the house, caution: in the garden, step only on the white stones
• Organizing: by invitation only, sent via text (SMS) or email, please tell me whether you are coming, and whether you want to bring someone, within 3 days, so I have a chance to invite other people in case of "no", who may live further away or are less familiar with the crowd, and please send me a note if you would like to attend and I have not messaged you for some reason
• Dress Code: smart casual, dressy casual, creative outfit
• Setup: inside, one large room, leave your shoes on, hard floor, open windows for air circulation, big table with 12 soft chairs, coffee table with 8 soft armchairs (neck support), guest bathroom in front of the main entry diagonally to the left (North), the first door in the opposite to the kitchen direction
• Food and Drinks: please bring drinks and snacks you would enjoy, easy to handle and share, we will have simple refreshments
• Food Arrangement: Swedish style, pick and pour your drink, select your food yourself, take as much as you like, take your drink and plate to your seat
• Dishes: open kitchen near the big table - please find what you need, all silverware is in a big drawer to the right of the refrigerator, all glasses and plates are in a glass shelf by the bigger kitchen window, to the right - drinking glasses, standard wine (24), highball (12), tea (9) and smaller coffee (9) glass cups, to the left - white porcelain plates and small bowls, bigger glass bowls (4), serving plates (5)