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

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 (…)

The chart above is from Steve Rubel’s blog, and I think it’s a monumentally important step in terms of defining the scope of all this new media. (1) I’ll let Mr. Rubel explain what the chart means in terms of his blog: How would you feel about a structure like this where I theme the (…)

I’d like to take just a minute to discuss a word that, too often, gets misused and misapplied in the English language. I’m talking, of course, about the word ‘dedication.’ It’s a word that gets associated with athletes and scholars and really anyone for whom hard work is a core value. But I’d like to (…)

I had a very strange feeling of sensory overload this afternoon, and it nearly ended with me driving to the grocery store for the sole purpose of buying clam chowder. Now I feel compelled to explain why. Of course, I’ll understand if you’re not interested; this story doesn’t exactly fit with this blog’s two main (…)

I’ve started commuting for the first time in my life. It’s 25 or 30 minutes round trip on the highway, and for a while, listening to music was enough. Then I started to feel like I was wasting time. If I was going to spend a full 10 hours each month in my car driving (…)

Ignoring the contradictions and laziness in general sentence structure for just a moment, I’d like to suggest that context is everything. (1) When I was a kid, a 45 minute drive to Baltimore was an interminable exercise. Maybe it was just childhood antsyness (2); maybe it was just that at that point in my life, (…)

In April, I wrote a blog post in which I suggested that “we, as Americans, are quickly becoming less interesting. Naturally, I would like to blame Twitter for this decline.” The diagnosis was simple: as Twitter allows us entry into the lives of friends and loved ones, we’re seeing thoughts both mundane and profound in (…)

There is a force in San Antonio that is often discussed but rarely experienced. I’m talking, of course, about the weather 1.). It is hot here; that should not come as a surprise to you. But what is a surprise is how little time people spend outside in San Antonio. It’s so hot that humans (…)