Brain Teasers Melbourne

November MathsJam

Come talk maths over a drink or two and maybe a meal. If you have any mathsy puzzles, games or toys, bring 'em along. There'll be a puzzle sheet to solve if you wish, but it's not competitive. No maths background necessary, all welcome. Email melbourne@mathsjam.com to join our mailing list for monthly puzzle sheets. The event is very informal so don't worry if you can't arrive exactly at 7:30pm or have forgotten to RSVP (but please do RSVP if you can!).

NuCalm - Brain Health

NuCalm is a patented, drug-free neuroscience technology designed to rapidly reduce stress, improve sleep quality, and aid recovery by shifting the body from a "fight-or-flight" state to a deeply relaxed parasympathetic state within minutes. [https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html](https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html) It uses neuroacoustic software, a biosignal processing disc, and light-blocking eye masks to guide brain waves from active beta states down to alpha/theta (relaxation/meditation) levels NuCalm uses a patented, clinically proven pitch and frequency matrix with non-linear oscillating algorithms to safely present your brain with precise signals, prompting what is known as a frequency-following response. Your brain synchronizes with the incoming NuCalm signals helping you naturally and effortlessly manage your state of mind by speeding up or slowing down your brain wave frequencies. NuCalm has mapped all of your brain wave frequency zones and created products to safely and predictably guide you to whatever mental state you desire. The amazing thing is, NuCalm is all-natural and works every time you use it within minutes. The best thing to do now is to watch the video on the website and download the NuCalm app. All you need is a headset and eye mask. This app purchase is covered with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get started today and FEEL the difference even 15 minutes can make. WATCH THE VIDEO ON THE WEBSITE. [https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html](https://stamina.xosialx.com/nucalm.html)

Tricky Tuesday @ The Peacock Inn

Welcome to the **Tricky Tuesday** Meet Up! This is a smaller event but still the same sized fun! Come join us to play and explore modern card games (especially trick-takers and climbing/shedding games)! It's a great chance to learn a new game and meet some new people. You can usually find us at the tables in the side room! * *This event is made possible (and kept free for all members) via the support of [Pretty Tricky Games](http://prettytrickygames.com.au). An Australian online store for niche and unique imported and indie board and card games. Some of these you will be able to experience at our events!* Bring some games to this event if you can. There are none available at the venue. I will always have some packed - feel free to search for the rules and prepare yourself to play! These regular suspects include: Skull King, Farm Hand, The Crew, Space Dragons, VIVO, and Inside Job. Please consider others when coming and in the lead up to the event. We want as many people there as possible. If you are unable to attend mark yourself as such as soon as you can so others can be notified and attend. There's an FAQ below but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out. Your tricky friend, Dave **FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS** **What is a trick taking game? Good question you handsome person.** * Generally speaking, a trick taking game is a card game which is played in a series of rounds known as ***tricks***. * Each trick is evaluated to determine a winner or ***taker*** of that trick and then will usually start - or ***lead*** *-* the next trick. * The goal is usually tied to either winning or losing a number of tricks. This may also come in the form of you guessing how many tricks you will win - known as a ***bid***. * Some games may have a suit that always wins - known as a ***trump***. * Most trick taking games are **competitive** needing between 3-5 players, others are **cooperative**, there are also solo and two-player trick taking games as well! * Popular trick taking/trick taking adjacent games you may have heard of: [The Crew](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/324856/the-crew-mission-deep-sea), [Skull King](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/150145/skull-king), [Cat in the Box](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/345972/cat-in-the-box-deluxe-edition), [Scout](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/291453/scout), [Fox in the Forest](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221965/the-fox-in-the-forest), the classic games of [Spades](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/592/spades) and [Hearts](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6887/hearts), **What makes a Trick Taking game fun?** * There's so much to trick taking games! They're generally quick to teach, quick to play, have interesting decision spaces, and a wide variety of novelty. Even the classics though can be played thousands of times without getting tiresome. Part of the fun is in the interaction with others, assessing their moves and countering them, and how to win (or lose) at the right times. You have to stay on your toes, adapt frequently, and keep tabs on the other players, what they have played, and what they may play next! **Do I need to know how to play/have played a trick taking game before?** * Not at all, but it is good to understand the basics and general terminology so you can pick things up a bit easier on the night. You can check out [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O7QyhKmCsk) for a bit of a general breakdown . **Is this event free?** * Yes, but please support the venue by purchasing a drink or two. **I'm on the waitlist can I still come?** * Unfortunately, no. We have limited capacity and must abide by it. **I don't have a game to bring, is that okay?** * Generally it will be okay, but it is encouraged to bring and share a game where you can! You can always bring a standard deck of cards or tarot cards and learn a card game or two as well! **Can I bring a guest?** * Unfortunately, unless they have signed up too it won't be possible. We have a strict limit on guests and the event would fill up too quickly otherwise. **How do I get to the venue?** * The 86 Tram is your best bet and has a stop pretty much right outside of the venue. * There are two train stations (Westgarth and Northcote) which are within walking distance. * Parking is available in the area but can get busy. If you don't mind a little walk there is parking down the adjacent street. **Dave, I worry you will win all the games we play. Such an intelligent and beautiful man, you must be a master of the tricks, is this true?** * Firstly - thank-you for the kind words, but secondly - no. I suck at trick taking games and lose more than I win. Yet, I enjoy them for their variety, high interaction, and quick nature regardless. You will be fine if you don't take things too seriously. It's about fun and meeting people... (but if you do beat me too often I will ban you from the group and venue...).

Fine Art Portrait Lab — Fine Art Portrait & Figure Creative Session

This creative session is designed for photographers and photography enthusiasts interested in exploring fine art collaborative photography and creating distinctive artistic images for their personal portfolio and photography profile. **What the Session Includes** • Professional studio environment • Experienced fine art figure models • Selected creative lighting setups, with photographers also encouraged to bring their own suitable lighting equipment or modifiers • A range of fine art concepts, mood references and broad visual directions provided prior to the session • Initial guidance around lighting, posing and the overall direction of each setup • General posing and creative guidance where required • Opportunities for photographers to communicate and work directly with the models • Freedom to explore individual composition, framing, lighting and photographic style, within each model’s agreed boundaries and the tasteful fine art direction of the session Broad creative direction and an overall visual concept will be prepared for each setup. However, the session is primarily collaborative and photographer-led, allowing both the photographer and model to contribute creatively to the final images. **Creative Collaboration** The focus of the session is on the collaborative outcome — bringing together the photographer’s visual interpretation, the model’s posing and expression, studio lighting, styling and the surrounding creative environment. Photographers are encouraged to communicate with the models, experiment with different approaches and develop their own interpretation of each concept rather than simply reproducing a predetermined image. The resulting photographs can contribute to both the photographer’s portfolio and profile and the model’s creative portfolio, creating work that reflects the artistic contribution of everyone involved. This is a creative photography session rather than a heavily structured photography class. Participants should therefore have a basic understanding of their own camera and be comfortable working collaboratively with a model in a studio environment. **Important** This session may include artistic figure and nude posing as part of selected fine art concepts. The exact level and style of posing will always remain within each model’s agreed boundaries and the overall fine art direction of the session. All participants are expected to maintain a professional, respectful and collaborative approach throughout the session. Images may be used for personal photography portfolios, photography profiles and social media, subject to the agreed model image-usage conditions. **Expression of Interest** Places will be limited to maintain comfortable photographer-to-model ratios. If you are interested in joining the session, please register below. Further session details, including the final shared cost per photographer, will be provided once arrangements are confirmed.

Calling All Smarty Pants! Trivia Night at a popular venue in BRIGHTON! 🦊🦊🦊

Welcome to the next 2026 AWS Melbourne Well-Architected User Group Meetup!

Hi Architects **(NB; this month's Meetup is on a Tuesday)**, Welcome to our next AWS Melbourne Well-Architected User Group Meetup for 2026, including more exceptional speakers and topics! :-D At each meetup we covered off various pillars in detail, best-practices and insights from industry leaders that specialise in the Well-Architected Framework. And giving away drones, of course. Lots of drones. **Please also note that AWS Security now requests a company name and company email where it is available. If you are a student, please list your institution and your student email address at that institution 👍** We'll be announcing more speakers on [https://well-architected.me](https://well-architected.me/) and previewing presentations during the coming weeks - our speakers and details this month include: * **Nitin Yadav, Principal AWS Architect, Nuvrix** **Ensuring Business Value through Well-Architected AI Projects** Nitin has been unpicking the importance of business value, financial metric tracking and ROI etc associated with AI projects and the importance thereof. * **Mystery Speaker** **AWS Well-Architected Agent Review** AWS has recently released the AWS Well-Architected Agent and will soon be releasing additional agentic tools to programmatically establish alignment with best-practices - we dive deep and break it down but with more and more programs leveraging Well-Architected, it will be interesting... This month's menu will include: * Pizzas * Beer * Wine: Big and red 🤤 NB: Please check in up the stairs from the ground floor to the Mezzanine Level. So come join us at 5:30 for a 6pm start, followed by beer, wine, pizza and friendly networking after our talks :-) Tired of Linkedin’s "thought leadership”, spam and advertising? Join https://well-architected.me/ , the AWS community built for architects, developers and cloud professionals. * Connect with experienced AWS practitioners * Preview upcoming AWS Meetups and relive past content * Create and review beautiful AWS case studies in minutes * Prepare for AWS certifications with curated quizzes * Show your manager and reports you’re well-architected (Please note that by registering to attend you agree to your details being shared as and where required with Amazon Web Services and AWS Well-Architected User Group partners) in

Trivia at Kaiju Beer and Pizza, Huntingdale

### Trivia & Pizza at Kaiju Beer Last time I attended, we came third. If you're in the area, and you've never tried pub trivia or gone to a meetup event, come along and try it! Meet new people, try something new, have a bit of fun. Keep RSVPs up to date! ***\*\*\* Needs at least four to go ahead \*\*\**** **Thursdays** 7:00pm We’ve got Quiz Meisters trivia on Thursdays in February, and we’re not lying when we say it’s pub trivia like no other. Crazy questions, strange segments and all around unique quizzing action that you are sure to love. Best part? It’s completely free! $10 schooners, $12 Spritzs' & $20 select pizzas. Book now to secure your table.

Archie Bros Moorabbin $19 unlimited activities

**The Deal** I have done this before and basically we can bowl (for as long as we want so long as no one else needs the lane), play (timed) arcade games and do a mini golf round. It's exceptionally good value in my opinion. You don't have to show up at 5.30pm if it's too early - you can come later. ***\*\* Needs at least four of us to go ahead \*\**** **Parking** \- you can park on the surrounding streets after 5pm with no time limit **Bowling Lanes** \- you can't book lanes ahead of time with this deal\. We need to create the lanes when we show up and give our names to the attendants at that time\.\.\. What I mean is, if you plan on showing up later, you should comment and then possibly coordinate with others who are also showing up later so you can book a lane with your names at that time **T&Cs from Archie Bros** ***-*** *Walk in only, from 5pm. Unlimited Play offer applies to Time Play cards only, not redeemable on ticket or prize machines.* ***-*** *Offers not valid on public holidays or public holiday eves. Not redeemable with any other offer, promotion, or party package. Subject to availability. Not all activities or games may apply.* *(When I asked about availability this last time, they said if no one else comes in to bowl, we can keep bowling).*

Thoughtstorm® Session Topic: Companions, Yarraville

Would you like to enhance your creativity, confidence and increase your awareness? We’d love you to join us to Thoughtstorm® the topic Companions in the warm, friendly environment of the Yarraville Community Centre. How Thoughtstorm came about Thoughtstorm is a technique developed from a seed of speculation: are there more effective (rational, cooperative, compassionate) ways of thinking? Methods whose long-term consequences will not lead to oblivion. This is the genesis of Thoughtstorm. What is it? For anyone with an interest in leadership, deeper conversations or creative problem solving, something much more than a group discussion occurs. What is experienced in Thoughtstorm is a forgotten sensory ability - mind-linking. An evolution in human thinking and learning. The direction moves from a narrow range of possibility into discovering corecepts, when individual minds merge into a much more powerful collective awareness and experience a deeper, more compassionate comprehension of reality. Corecepts trigger intuitive recognition and agreement by the group, a ‘Why, of course!’ reaction. New insights guaranteed! Because this process taps into abilities already present in the human mind and into aggregates of consciousness straining to express themselves, very little practice is required. Would you like to see and understand things in a way that is new for all of us? Would you like to develop your consciousness and your creative intelligence? Would you like to be inspired to create positive change? Then come and join us to Thoughtstorm together. If it’s your first time to Thoughtstorm, please RSVP early to give plenty of time to arrange a brief prep call on Zoom to go over the Thoughtstorm procedures so we can all get started on time together. **Agenda:** 4pm - Arrive, meet and greet, read over Thoughtstorm instructions 4.15pm - Begin the Thoughtstorm 5.15pm - Finish When you RSVP we will be in touch with the details. We look forward to seeing you there! Thoughtstorm® is a registered trademark of Star's Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.

Join me at 1812 to see an Agatha Christie play, a Murder of course

Hong Kong Mahjong at Marché Board Game Cafe

**TABLE ALLOCATIONS AND SCORING FOR QUARTERLY EVENT** As per below we are running a quarterly competition. The top 3 individuals who accumulate the most points over 6 of the maximum 12 sessions in the quarter will receive a prize according to how they place in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. The prize will be as follows: 1st Place - $100 Marche Voucher sponsored by the cafe 2nd Place - $50 Marche Voucher sponsored by the cafe 3rd Place - $30 Marche Voucher sponsored by the cafe Furthermore, in order to balance out both the competition aspect of the group with welcoming beginners to the group, tables will be allocated weekly according to the level of players, their reliability on turning up weekly in addition to their ability to stay for a full 4 rounds. Here is a link to the spreadsheet showing the scores and standings in addition to the table allocations for the current week. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pp2KeKOIi51dUsGDd_fez7LuPmIOpfsw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113173138207568160139&rtpof=true&sd=true **NEW COMPETITION FOR HONG KONG MAHJONG GROUP** We have a new exciting competition and prizes for regular attendees to the Hong Kong Mahjong Group which will be run quarterly. Marche Board Game cafe has been generous enough to sponsor the prizes. The first competition session has concluded and the top players for the quarter can be seen in the Q1 Results of the spreadsheet above. October 7th begins our second competition session which will run all the way till the end of the year concluding in late December 2026. Given that there will be less sessions this quarter, your top 5 results across the span of the quarter will be used to determine your ranking score cumulatively. **SYSTEM OF PLAY AND SCORING** As you play each week with others you will need to take note of your scores and provide me with the overall outcome for the table. Hopefully you will be able to complete 4 rounds during the course of each session on your table, however if this is not the case, then that is all fine. In order to score on the table we will utilise the Mahjong Camera app which is available on IOS. When you set up a game you will need to make the settings at Number of Rounds (4), Minimum Fan (3), Maximum Fan (10), and set the scoring to Half Spicy x 1. Utilising this scoring method it makes it more lucrative for a player to score higher Fan hands as you are rewarded exponentially more points. For example a 10 fan (point) hand where someone throws out to you will reward you with the maximum 128 points as opposed to a 3 fan (point) hand which will only give you 8 points. **POINT CALCULATION FOR QUARTER** Your best 5 sessions across the 12 sessions will be counted towards your score for this quarter. This allows for you to have a bad week or two and also provides you room to still be in the competition even if you cannot attend every week. **TALLY OF SCORES** Once the first session has been concluded I will provide a link here in the meet up to a google spreadsheet showing your weekly and overall scores so you can keep track. **THE PRIZES** The top 3 members for the quarter will receive prizes. First Prize - $100 Marche voucher Second Prize - $50 Marche voucher Third Prize - $30 Marche voucher **ABOUT THE MEET UP** Players of all skill levels are welcome to join us at Marché Board Games Cafe in the CBD for a casual night of mahjong - Right in the CBD. We'll start around 6:00pm till we all need to go home :) Our typical session concludes usually around 10:00pm. Please change your RSVP to not going if you're no longer able to attend, 24 hours prior the event. For those that have a record of non attendance without communicating, you will be moved to the waiting list for future events and be contacted directly to confirm that you indeed intend to turn up, at which you will be allotted a spot subject to availability. For more details on the rules of the game, please refer to: http://mahjongtime.com/hong-kong-mahjong-rules.html Marche has been kind enough to offer us a deal to play in their cafe. **⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆ Cost ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆** Attendees who have registered for the event on Meetup can play at discounted rates, with the following payments to be made: * \*\*$6 in total per session” to cover cafe costs. Payment of $6 should be made to Marche at the front counter upon notification to the staff member that you are here for the scheduled meetup. There is now no minimum spend on items at the cafe as there were before. The cafes menu can be found here https://mbgcafe.com.au/menu.pdf .

Royal Botanic Gardens Walk, Coffee, Connection & Bocce on the lawns

Join me for a relaxed afternoon walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens, with time to enjoy nature, share conversations, and connect with others outdoors. The gardens are home to more than 8,500 species of plants, with winding paths, lakes, groves, and open lawns to explore together at an easy pace. We’ll stop at the Terrace Café for takeaway drinks, enjoy a casual game of bocce or conversation together on the lawns, then continue on to the Shrine of Remembrance for views across the city. Whether you come to meet new people, enjoy meaningful conversation, learn and grow through connection with others, or simply spend time in nature you are warmly welcome. **Agenda:** 2:00pm – Meet at the circular sculpture near the Observatory & Visitors Centre, 100 Birdwood Avenue (map and photo below) 2:10pm – Depart 3:00pm – Terrace Café stop, bocce and time on the lawns 5:00pm – Finish at the Shrine of Remembrance This walk is rated easy, with a slow to moderate pace and opportunities to pause along the way. The route is mostly flat, with alternative pathways available near stairs. Please RSVP by clicking “Attend,” and I’ll be in touch with any additional details. This is a rain-or-shine event, and any updates will be posted in the Event Comments on the day.