The Opening Ceremony: You had to be there

Jul 30th, 2012 Personal, Society Janna Bastow 3 min read

I’m thankful to have lived in London for the last 3 years. Otherwise, like the rest of the world, I probably wouldn’t have understood most of the cultural references in the Olympic opening ceremony this past week… and probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it. For outsiders, anyone who hasn’t lived in Britain, I’m not entirely sure I disagree with their negative sentiments. While Britons laughed and…

Time, ever forward

Nov 30th, 2011 Society, Technology Janna Bastow 8 min read

I’ve long held a particular theory about the world we live in, on the subject of time travel, that I’ve rehashed in my mind over the years. I’m not going to dig into the topics of parallel universes, alternate realities, or fate. But I will state this: Time travel* never will be made possible, at any time in the future**. Caveats: * Useful time travel,…

A mutual break-up with privacy

Sep 25th, 2011 Personal, Society, Technology Janna Bastow 4 min read

I used to be pretty intensely private about my life, at least when it came to sharing online. That started to change for me when I met Twitter, and slowly and tentatively started putting a little more of myself in the public eye with each tweet. I’ve been exploring the new Timeline view in Facebook, and I love it. I did, however, have a peek…

Let’s watch people be awesome.

Aug 9th, 2011 Society Janna Bastow 1 min read

These rioters are getting me down. For absolutely no reason (I’m of the belief that these crowds care nothing about Mark Duggan, and more about getting their hands on free stuff), people are tearing down the city, looting shops, and generally causing mayhem. The media is going nuts over this, the cops are all over the streets (was just out in Tottenham Court Road area),…