Peter Flaschner

Note: this is cross posted to the Sequentia blog.
Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday the web changed. At their F8 developer conference in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg and a few colleagues from Facebook got up on stage and announced a number of changes and features that promise to overhaul the very fabric of the world wide web. [...]

Trying something new here. I’ve started to use the voice recorder app on my iPhone to, well, record my voice. To my great surprise, some of the stuff I talk about doesn’t suck.
This 6 minute unedited recording contains a couple of interesting thoughts:

Controlling our evolution
The appearance of free will
The genetic imperative, masquerading as intention
Striving [...]

Mmmmm… Scotch…
I grew up in a scotch drinking house. My earliest memories were of the fine, peaty taste of single malt whiskey. Well, no. My early memories of scotch go something like “EWWW! WTF! WHY WOULD YOU DRINK THAT? IT’S LIKE LICKING A FRESHLY PAVED ROAD WITH A DASH OF ASHTRAY”.
Like all good things [...]

I’ve started a new Tumblr site to post things I make when inspiration strikes. It’s called Little Flashes, and you can find it here.

I felt like making something. So I made this poster. Just because. (And then I updated it with another poster)

At the suggestion of @digibomb I made a follow up: Why not?

Recently, I looked deep into my crystal ball and came up with a few predictions about the future of blogging. Bottom line: I believe the future of blogging is in aggregating outside content and weaving it together into a cohesive story. Details below:
Blogs in 2009
View more slides from Peter Flaschner.

I’ve just uploaded a quick and dirty professional portfolio. Have a look.
I’ve struggled for a long time over how to describe what I do. Art director? Strategist? Front-end developer? Speaker? Consultant? Full-time employee (hint, hint)? In semi-frustration I decided on “Interactive. Booyah!”. My intention is simply to create enough interest that a potential employer (hint, [...]

Earlier today, along with my super-awesome biz partner Lucia I gave a talk at WordCamp Toronto titled Making a living with WordPress in 2009. Slides are below:
Making a living with WordPress in 2009
View more presentations from Peter Flaschner.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected lately. Life knocked me off my centre, and I lost my balance. Previously, I had been living in a mostly conscious state, so it’s been uncomfortable and disquieting to find myself reacting, rather than acting.
I’m wise enough at this point to know that what [...]

The fine folks from RedWire asked me to deliver the Passion FTW! talk at their monthly gathering of entrepreneurs. I was very stoked to do so, not least because I got to share a stage with the inimitable Saul Colt and David Crow.
This presentation is a bit different from the previous version. It’s been [...]

I was very honoured to be asked to present a talk tonight for the sixth Refresh Event.
The slides are available as a PDF for download (20.6MB), or you can view them in slideshare format below – note that slideshare changed the font used on the slides, which messes up the layout slightly. For best experience, download [...]

The primary project I’m working on at SiG@MaRS over the next few months is a week-long event in Toronto in early June. Together with some amazing partners, we’ll be bringing together the web/tech/agency/communication community with people working to create social change.
The goal of the week is to create opportunities for people in these two different [...]

What the hell is the passion economy? Does it exist? Does it matter?
A few months ago, my friend Sean Howard and I got very drunk on expensive white wine and strong Quebec beer (oy, the hangover!). We discovered that we share a passion for, um, passion. Over the following weeks, we met a couple of [...]

I think I’m happiest when I’m terrified.
I seem to lack sufficient respect for doing things the easy way. What can I say? I like to make things, and I live to follow my passions. Still, it’s with more than a twinge of trepidation that I announce today that I’m stepping down from my day to [...]

David Seah absolutely floored me with the following observation:
I’ve said before that “personal productivity” is a state of mind; when we feel productive, we are productive.
This ties in with story I’ve been repeating to myself most mornings. I don’t if this is an urban myth or not, but it doesn’t really matter. The story goes [...]

So, if you’ve been following along, you know life has been difficult for me in the past six weeks. Between my dad dropping dead (literally), friends getting really sick, and clients “forgetting” to pay their bills, my stress chart would look something like this:

There are a couple of problems with having one’s stress set to [...]

I had a break between picking up and dropping off my kids at birthday parties today. I grabbed my camera and headed to the closest park. The Sumac is just turning a fluorescent shade of red. Against the grey light, it looks unnatural.

My dad died suddenly and unexpectedly this past Thursday. This is the eulogy I delivered yesterday.
I always knew that I if I lived long enough, the day would come that I’d stand up here to give my father’s eulogy. When I was younger, this thought scared me deeply, and would literally keep me up at [...]