Mark Salzwedel of Strategic Space games just twitter-linked to this article on torontoist.com.

The article is about a new Toronto cafe and boardgame lending library called Snakes & Lattes that “will emphatically not have free Wi-Fi,” as they choose instead to focus on the social and interactive aspects of sitting down with a game and spending real time with friends or other cafe-goers.

I find that I have mixed feelings about this cafe. While I really appreciate the idea — I am personally taking on the challenge of not pulling out my iphone every few minutes to look at something (twitter, time, email, etc., etc., ad nauseum) — I have recently had the experience of going to a cafe that normally has wifi and people with their laptops, but it turned out that Friday and Saturday evenings they have a “No Laptops” rule. And since my friend and I had specifically been planning to do some work together, we left.

I get that since it’s a cafe + chocolate + wine + dinner, they’re trying to attract a little bit more of a date night crowd on the weekends, but that feels like a double-standard to me. I suppose since there’s a hard line drawn at Snakes & Lattes, it’s reasonable. They are clearly setting the stage for what they want their shop to be and not to be.

I guess it’s time to go to Toronto and investigate the environment for myself!

Last night I did most of the recording of the first podcast. This brief experience has taught me several things, mostly about audio editing (what a pain that can be) and radio personality (it’s not easy, and I say “um” a lot). I’ve got about 12 minutes of content after editing what I recorded, and I want to go back and do another 10 minutes on travel topics before pushing it up.

The other big things are about how important structure is for actually doing topics. I found that I didn’t have a problem when I had some items outlined to talk about, but when I just had a general topic, I got completely lost. So, two solutions: Better outlines, and notepaper to keep track of topics I think of during recording.

In more interesting topics: I stopped at ComicSwap in State College and briefly chatted with some of the folks working there. They were wonderfully amenable to chatting, and I would have happily stayed longer if my parking meter hadn’t been about to run out. While there, I picked up First Wave #1 and the first chapter collection of Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft. First Wave looks really intriguing. I’ve been itching for this to start since December when the one-shot preview came out. I’m pleased to say that I really enjoyed this book. It introduces several stories at once and hints about larger, more involved crossover stories. Locke and Key is dark. Holy cow. But the writing and artwork is frankly amazing, and I found myself paging back and forth to look for clues and hints in the artwork and to re-read sections of dialogue for anything I might have missed. It’s phenomenal and shouldn’t be missed if you want to read a dark and gritty urban fantasy story. This is definitely going on my “keep reading” list.

End of March is looking extremely busy, I’ve only managed to put together the first large push on this podcast/website with a great deal of assistance. Thanks Lisa! I didn’t make it to any gaming or comic shops on this trip to Los Angeles, due to a tight schedule and a lot of delays. But there’s a great shop in Pasadena that I discovered on a previous trip. Game Empire Pasadena runs events every day of the week, and was selling a locally produced board game called The Looney Bin. If you’re in the area, skip the downtown shopping zone as it’s the same as every other mall in California, and go right to this gaming shop for something new.

After Irvine, I flew north to SFO and went out to meet up with my friend Noble Bear. He and I have previously spent time talking cartooning art and game design. I demoed my Ghost Pirates game to him and we discussed game play and the scrawled cartoons art that I did during my first design session. I think that I’m very happy with how the game is playing, and aside from a few play-aids and rules clarifications, its ready to go out to a semi-public beta.

The next day after finishing up my work, I headed to Legends of Comics and Gaming in Cupertino. What a great shop! Thanks Jennifer for recommending the Marvel Siege one-shot to me. I read two issues on the plane home, and have enjoyed it a lot so far. I also picked up Kick-Ass on her recommendation, and the first Chew collection. Jennifer is also the first person I’ve talked to who knew something about the DC First Wave series that has apparently come out under my nose. I’ll definitely be hitting up my local shop to pick that up when I get home.