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…

Leap Motion: I’m not buying it

May 21st, 2012 Product, Technology Janna Bastow 6 min read

It was only a few hours ago that the latest in motion capture devices started appearing in my feeds, along with all of the ‘Ooohs’ and ‘Ahhhs’ (or thereabouts) of my geeky, gadget-loving friends. I watched the video, and yes, initially was impressed. It’s slick, and is paired with exactly the right ambient soundtrack that you’d expect of a great prototype video like this. It’s…

Triumphant Triathlon Trial

Mar 25th, 2012 Personal Janna Bastow 6 min read

Last weekend, I took part in my first ever triathlon, urged on by my lovely (and infinitely tougher) colleague Charlie. To clarify, it was a mini triathlon: At 400m swim, 10km cycle, and a 5km run, it doesn’t even qualify as a Sprint. On top of that, it was an indoor event – we did the track in the comfort of The Third Space gym,…

Spotify finally spot on with their radio

Jan 31st, 2012 Product, Technology Janna Bastow 1 min read

There’s a only handful of SaaS products I happily shell out cash for. One of my most valued subscriptions, since 2009, has been for Spotify. I use it several times daily, across all my devices, and constantly use it to share my tastes to my friends and the world (even though it’s disappointingly not available in my homeland of Canada where a good proportion of…

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…

The last of the longest

Jun 21st, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 1 min read

With sunrise coming up at 4:43 this morning and setting at 9:21 in the evening, today marks the longest day of the year. Living at such a high latitude in London (yes, London is further north than both Toronto and Montreal, my previous bases), this day is essentially one of the longest of my life. With a critical bug swooping in by 10:30 this morning,…

BraveNewEra

May 31st, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 3 min read

I stopped by the old BraveNewTalent offices today, partly to see if I could get my hands on an Amazon order that had been accidentally delivered there a day too late… and partly, I think, to say goodbye. I stood to admire the lovely door facing Beak Street (have I mentioned I’ve got a thing for old doors?), before punching in the familiar key code…

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…

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…