dan oshinsky dot com: A blog about stories, the work... and my mother.

My little brother is — and I say this with all the love that I can muster — the laziest little shit I know. I just got off the phone with my mother. She told me that ever since he got back from college, he’s been sleeping in until 2 p.m. every day. She wants (…)

Today is my birthday. I haven’t wished for something on my birthday in a long time, but hell, I’m 25, and I’m feeling old. So here’s my wish. This wish is for you. Today, I wish that you’ll read this and do something that scares you. You’ll say something out loud that you’ve been afraid (…)

…Build it. (This is the first in a series of writings called #napkinwisdom. You can read more about it here.)

Earlier this year, I launched VeryQuotatious, a site where I find awesome quotes from really smart people and post them for your inspiration. Quotes like: You get a limited number of chances in life to do something really, really big. Take them. — @dharmesh #veryquotatious — Dan Oshinsky (@danoshinsky) May 9, 2012 VeryQuotatious will continue (…)

This is not a ground-breaking statement, but I’ll say it anyway: Life is confusing. We have so many questions and so few answers. And it’s tough to know who our role models should be. There are so many great leaders and thinkers and builders in our world. Who to model a life after? Gandhi? Lincoln? (…)

I had a Twitter back-and-forth with Therese Schwenkler last week. She’d just written an awesome post about Derek Zoolander and finding yourself. And I joked: “Zoolander” is a classic, but I think my lifestyle (and Stry.us) is more based on “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Except I wasn’t really kidding. There’s a whole lot of Ferris in (…)

So it’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m in an almost empty TV studio in the middle of Springfield. I am sitting next to Leigh Moody, news anchor at the local ABC station. I am the guest for the 4 p.m. news “Close-Up” interview. The countdown goes “4.. 3… 2…,” and then Leigh turns to me and (…)

I remember seeing the band Phoenix in Austin three years ago. It was at the Austin City Limits Festival. It was just an afternoon slot on a Friday — not quite primetime –but a massive crowd showed up. Even the band’s lead singer admitted that day that it was the biggest crowd they’d ever played (…)

Some mornings you wake up, and -You can’t find your keys. -The gym’s closed. -The highway’s blocked.(1) -Oh, and it’s raining, and you accidentally left your couch cushions outside on the porch to dry. That was the last 45 minutes for me. And I know from experience: I can let this drag on as long (…)

The year was 1996. OJ went on trial in California. Michael Johnson ran away from everyone at the Atlanta Games. Garry Kasparov lost to an IBM computer in chess. And, probably most notable of all: The Bethesda Magic recreational basketball team was formed. I was one of the original Magic. There are many things I (…)