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

Every once in a while, I get to meet someone who just knocks me over. Someone doing something inspiring and risky and ambitious and epic. Someone who’s doing something incredible. And last night, I met three ladies who are traveling America in an RV, doing good deeds and inspiring others to chase big dreams. I (…)

This was originally published over at the RJI blog. But I really liked what I’d written. So I’m republishing it here: ❡❡❡ This is not a motivational blog post. I am not writing this to inspire you. I do not want you to read this and quit your job. Is that clear? Are you sure? (…)

I went to see NBC News’ David Gregory speak tonight in a little auditorium on Nantucket Island. He spoke for an hour, mostly about the failures of our political system and our economy and our media, and then he closed by reminding everyone that we were on a little island 30 miles off the coast (…)

I remember that I didn’t like music all that much. I’d spent my childhood listening to sports talk radio — to 570, and then to 980 when it moved up the radio dial. I’d come home from school, and I’d catch the last hour of Tony Kornheiser’s show. I’d start my homework, and Andy Pollin (…)

Since April, I’ve been working on an experiment for my Twitter feed: I start each day with a bit of #AMinspiration, and I close each day with a #closingthought. A few weeks back, I expanded the latter, and started running #closingthought weeks. I had one inspired by Beatles songs. Another one featured overly-existential 90s pop (…)

Jorge Chávez International Airport is not a fun place to be, especially after midnight when you’re leaving Peru but your flight back to Houston has been delayed yet again. But my delay at Lima’s airport gave me a few minutes to reflect on my recent trip abroad, and especially on a few things that I (…)

Today is my birthday, and my annual reminder of how much I dislike the concept of time. Truth is, time is unfair. When I see someone wearing a watch, I don’t see someone with punctuality in mind. I see someone slowly counting down the seconds until the grave. What is a day, after all? It’s (…)

What follows is a brief thought about the nature of God. It is not a serious thought. I hope you do not find it blasphemous. — Dan I have recently begun to consider the idea that if there a God, he is probably not very good at multitasking. I’ll direct you to this recent study, (…)

Soon, I found myself keeping score. About to graduate, aimless, preparing for joblessness and possessing a degree worth about as much as the paper it was printed on, I realized — belatedly — that I wasn’t exactly a modern guarantee of potential. I started searching for something tangible, something worthwhile to get me through my (…)

There is a very good chance that my generation is totally screwed. Certain jobs are disappearing, and that’s a shame. It’s a shame that copy editors at newspapers are being fired. It’s a shame that accountants are being replaced by inexpensive computer software. It’s a shame that elevator operators are out of jobs (and have (…)