Wicked, weird, and wonderful

Apr 20th, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 4 min read

I hate the question “What kind of music are you into?” More specifically, I hate being expected to sum it up into one succinct answer of a couple broad genres or a few key artists. I can’t pin it down to just one area, and if I do, I feel it’s selling my varied taste pretty short. In no way do I think of myself…

Epic Ode to Zelda

Mar 13th, 2011 Personal, Product Janna Bastow 2 min read

This Geekologie post recently exposed me to one of the most gorgeous odes to a video game I’ve ever seen: Seeing this and slowly scrolling past each detailed character makes me so, so nostalgic… my heart is tugging to be 13 again, spending hour after hour exploring the depths of Ocarina of Time. Epic, indeed. The guy who made this also put together a fantastic…

Parting clouds in London

The cloud has parted
I am clear, utterly conscious.
Today I see further, think faster, plan better.

Come on world, take your best shot.

I am ready now.

Tough times, passed

Feb 18th, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 1 min read

Listening to: Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap In the wake of a breakup some time ago, this unbelievably beautiful song moved me.  It resonated with my pain, and the raw lyrics reflected my own raw emotions. Take this excerpt, for example: Mm, what’d you say? That you only meant well, …well of course you did. Mm, what’d you say? That it’s all for the…

I love my News FeedListen for the ping,
Glorious updates and links.
Refresh, just once more…

You can't stop me
I’ve just pulled an all-nighter.  I haven’t done this since college, not all the way through, I don’t think.

I’ve got a full day ahead of me, too, but I’m confident I can make it to the end of the day without a full crash.  I wouldn’t do this if I thought it were a detriment to the rest of the day.  That would just be silly.

Why though? To squeeze the most out of my time, really.  I had a rare evening off and, when the choice to go to bed at a reasonable hour came up, I snubbed it in favour of handling the rest of what I had on my plate. With everything that’s been going on, between getting everything at BraveNewTalent in order, organising the next ProductCamp, socialising myself, and life in general, I’ve barely had time to feed myself, let alone manage my overflowing inbox.
A few things I’ve handled:

  • I’m hiring over at BraveNewTalent! More will come on this, but I’ve spent some time dealing with job specs and lining up a row of emails to be sent off at a more reasonable hour.
  • I landed another sponsorship for ProductCamp at about 3 am. The sponsor was out in NY, so wasn’t as crazy as me for handling such business at such an hour. Things like this will just about make the upcoming PCamp possible!
  • I'm all over GoMockingbird.com like a fat kid on a SmartieI made some ‘interesting’ wireframes around the upcoming Employer Administration Panel we’re building at BraveNewTalent.  I’ll have a look in the daylight to see if what I created in my most ‘creative’ hours makes sense and can be used.  In the moment, though, I was, well… in the moment!  Here’s a quick snap of what’s (possibly) to come:
  • Emails!  I’m down to a handful of items that will require a little more thought in each of my inboxes.  Not #inboxzero, as I might have over-confidently hoped, but enough.
  • Random article reading: I often get emails stuffed full of ideas and good intentions, but which invariably requires me to look through a couple of the referring articles.  I caught up on a couple of these over a 4:30am tea break.

I’m taking this last break now to prop myself up with some music, and I thought this quote (from a song I haven’t pulled into the queue since my teens!) to be particularly appropriate.  However much those lyrics resonate with me right now, it’s these beats that are keeping me going right now:

It’s of note that I’ve done this without coffee in my system.  Bonus!  I’m now jetting off to the gym to give my body a bit of a kick (just a swim to keep me going, I think), and then straight to work.

Good day, all!

Madrid and I

Jan 24th, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 4 min read

I discovered last year that I love travelling alone.  Not to be anti-social, but I find it gives me the chance to really gather my thoughts, and (with the inherent lack of mobile data while abroad) force myself to be “off the grid”.  Previously, travel, to me, was a thing you did with family, some friends, or a partner.  I had to rip myself from…

My Happy Song

Jan 21st, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 1 min read

Listening to: Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel As of yesterday, this is the song that wakes me up in the morning, now set as my alarm.  This makes me happy indeed, as this song’s always brought a smile to my face. Cheesy, I know. But I’m up with a little more bounce in my step this morning (and a whole hour earlier), so who’s complaining?…

To the New Year!

Jan 3rd, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 4 min read

2010 was, unequivocally, the most interesting, exciting year of my life.  It was my first full year living in London, and I was just getting the swing of it at the beginning of the year, having spent the latter half of the year before getting my bearings on these haphazard London streets and accepting the loss of my oh-so-loved modern conveniences only found in North American…