Black Friends

Ciao a tutt\*! Let's meet Monday at 6.30pm at the **Columbus Public Library (Northside Branch)** in **Meeting Room 3** to speak in Italian for 1 hour. \*Note the change in location this week due to no space the Upper Arlington library.\* Keeping Monday for consistency but we can discuss if there are better days/times/locations! Perhaps we can do two times a week as well. TBD.

**Photography 101: Discover The Photographer Within** **Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your camera? Then this beginning photography course is perfect for you!** This beginner-friendly photography class is your gateway to unlocking the power of your camera and developing a confident artistic vision. This course offers an engaging and practical approach to essential techniques and creative principles for impactful photography. We will explore the use of camera settings, composition, and light to tell a story that evokes emotion in the viewer. **Through hands-on exercises and insightful lessons, you will learn to:** * **Master Your Camera:** Learn fundamental camera functions, including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, so you can confidently control exposure and creative effects in any lighting situation. * **Compose Captivating Images:** Explore and apply classic composition principles like the rule of thirds, leading lines, and framing to create visually appealing and impactful photographs. * **Harness the Power of Light:** Understand how different light sources (natural and artificial) affect your images and learn to manipulate them to create mood, texture, and enhance the overall quality of your photos. * **Control Focus and Depth of Field:** Discover how to effectively utilize depth of field to isolate your subject and achieve captivating background blur (bokeh) or ensure sharpness throughout your landscape shots. * **Work with Lenses and Filters:** Explore the impact of various lens types and focal lengths on photographs and learn how filters can add creative control and protection. **This class provides the foundation needed to confidently create high-quality images and begin a photographic journey, regardless of the camera used.** **Prerequisites:** * A camera (film, DSLR, or mirrorless) that has manual controls is required. Hands-on exercises make having the camera in class highly beneficial. You will need at least one lens to evaluate the results of control exercises. * You may attend this class in one of two ways: 1. With a class voucher provided by your retail camera store 2. Purchasing a seat in the class

✨ **Wicks & Sips: A Candle-Making Experience** ✨ Join us for an afternoon of creativity, connection, and calm. **Wicks & Sips** offers a beautifully curated candle-making experience designed for every woman who deserves a moment to unwind. 🕯️ **Two Experiences. One Elegant Vibe.** **Creative Experience** Create a custom, single-wick fragrant candle while enjoying light appetizers and cocktail-inspired mocktails in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. **Elevated Experience** *(limited availability)* Step into a more refined experience featuring designer-inspired decorative candle vessels, premium colors and fragrances, and guided instruction to bring your candle vision to life. Enjoy curated appetizers, desserts, cocktails, and cosmopolitan-inspired sips—plus a keepsake takeaway bag to remember the moment. [Purchase Tickets](https://www.thepastry-boutique.com/event-details/wicks-and-sips-a-candle-making-event-1)

⚠️ **IMPORTANT: You must sign up and buy a ticket here to attend:** [https://groupvibe.com/](https://groupvibe.com/) **Join the Columbus City Brunch Club and make new friends!** Each meetup brings together 4–6 people for casual conversations over brunch. We use the Groupvibe platform to facilitate the meetup and ensure everyone’s a good fit. 👉 **To attend, you’ll need to complete registration via this link:** [https://groupvibe.com/](https://groupvibe.com/) We’ll share the exact location of the upcoming meetup the night before only if you have bought a ticket or membership plan. **Why this works:** \* Smaller groups make real conversations easier. \* Discover new restaurants in your city, together. \* Curated lunch venues with good food and vibe. \* If you hit it off with your group, there’s plenty of time to hang out afterwards. **Note:** RSVPs on Meetup don’t reflect total attendance. Many attendees register directly via our website. The event on [Meetup.com](http://meetup.com/) is only a placeholder. This meetup is organized by Groupvibe, a small team passionate about helping people form meaningful friendships offline.

Welcome to Casual Boardgames, where we enjoy classic tabletop games and social deduction games while bonding over good food, drinks, and great conversations. 
We started this group to meet new people and make new friends, and bonding over games in a relaxed atmosphere is a great way to do that. We currently meet near route 23 and Polaris Parkway, and this is close to areas like Powell, Lewis Center, Worthington, and parts of Westerville and Columbus. 
Feel free to bring your own games or play one of the many games our members bring. If you are inexperienced, we will help you learn. 
Here are just a few examples of the kind of games we play. 
Tabletop/board games: Splendor, Catan, Azul, Dominion, 7 Wonders… 
Social deduction games: Code Names, Chameleon, Werewords… 
IMPORTANT: 
1. While we love playing a variety of games and competing, we are not just about the games. We interact and talk while playing, and this leads to a lot of laughter and fun. If you just want to compete and focus solely on the game, then this is probably not the group you are looking for. 
2. Many people join groups like this and never (or rarely) show up after weeks or months. If you join and never really come, we will eventually remove you from the group as a courtesy to our members. Why? Because limiting group conversations (on the app) to regular members makes communication and planning much easier. Also, while it may be rare, it protects members from people who join because they are interested in following a person instead of having a real interest in our group. If you get removed, it is just because you haven’t come, and we follow this protocol as a courtesy to our regular game players.

If you would like to participate in a fun gift exchange please bring a wrapped $5 sweet treat 😋

Join us for a vibrant gathering that honors the heart and hustle of local entrepreneurs. It Takes a Village is more than an event it’s a movement to uplift and spotlight small business owners who pour passion into their craft and creativity into our community. From authors and bakers to jewelry makers, t-shirt designers, candle crafters, and beyond. This is your chance to meet the makers, support their work and celebrate the spirit of collaboration. **_Expect_** * Local vendors showcasing handmade goods * Live demos and storytelling from featured creators * Food, music, and community vibes * Opportunities to shop, connect and be inspired * Celebrate the power of small businesses and we all rise

As you may or may not know--I didn't until late last year--Aristotle wrote extensively on "friendship" in the Nicomachean Ethics. After 69 years the concept of friendship still creates questions and uncertainty. I had close friends in high school and for a few years after high school but our interests diverged and people moved all over the country so it was hard to maintain connections. * So if I/you haven't talked with a friend for several years, are you still friends? Are we friends who meet at Drunken Philosophy or Omnipresent Atheists? * Can you be friends with someone with whom you have virulently divergent political views? Sartre and Camus could not. * Aristotle regarded friendship as essential to a good life, not merely an added "bonus." Do you agree? * In the Nicomachean Ethics (Books VIII and IX), he claims that wealth and power are meaningless without friends. Trump has wealth and power but seems to have no real friends, but wealth and power seem meaningful to him in perverted ways. Can you have meaning in your life without friends? * Do men and women view and maintain friendships in different ways? * Aristotle categorizes friendship into three types, based on what forms the bond: * **Utility**: Based on mutual benefit, but this type is fragile and ends when the usefulness ceases. * **Pleasure**: Based on shared enjoyment (e.g., humor, hobbies). Common among youth but fades as interests change. * **Virtue (The "Complete" Friendship)**: Based on mutual respect for each other's character and goodness. You wish good for the other for their sake, not yours. * **Key Principles of "True" (Virtuous) Friendship:** * **Permanence**: Virtuous friendships last a lifetime whereas those based on utility and pleasure are fleeting. * **Reciprocity**: Requires mutual goodwill; secret or unreciprocated affection does not qualify. * **The "Second Self"**: A true friend is "another self"—their virtue helps you understand and improve yourself. * **Time and Intimacy**: Deep ("complete") friendships are few, built on time and shared experiences. * **Self-Love and Friendship:** * Good friendship starts with being a friend to yourself. * They distinguish shallow egoism (chasing honors) from real self-love (pursuing virtue). * A virtuous person’s pleasant self-company allows them to be a stable, good friend to others. * Aristotle argues that one's social circle ultimately reflects one's character—a view with striking relevance today. Well--the Drunken Philosophy social circle certainly reflects good character!

We’re heading to Tupelo Honey in Upper Arlington for our next group dinner, and this one’s all about comfort food, good vibes, and even better conversation. Think Southern-inspired dishes, cocktails that actually hit, and a space perfect for settling in and catching up. Whether you’re coming hungry, curious, or just in the mood to connect with good people, this is the kind of night where conversations flow easy and nobody’s rushing out the door. Come ready to eat well, laugh a little, and enjoy the company. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Join us for a CMG Discount Tuesday event to see the hilarious, action-packed and absolutely-bonkers-looking sci-fi-action-comedy, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE! The film follows a man from the future who recruits diners at an LA restaurant to help combat rogue AI. Here’s a description, trailer and our plan for this event: GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE: A man from the future arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence. The film is directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean series) and stars Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, and Juno Temple. TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFW7BZyqkI EARLY BUZZ AND REVIEWS: Early reviews have been stellar with the film earning a 94% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes! “It offers laughs, thrills, and it’s a thinker; you will not be disappointed.” It’s a “laugh-filled yet incredibly dark and poignant fever dream that pleads for a safer AI tomorrow” and director Gore Verbinski's “command over utter chaos is nothing short of marvelous!” PLAN: Please purchase your ticket for the 6:20pm showing and meet in the bar area between 5:45 and 6:00pm! A smaller theater so advance ticket purchase as soon as possible is advised! (If we fill it up, we can sometimes persuade them to move it to a larger theater.) One you have yours, please list your seat number in the Comments below. Should be a fun one, Dan