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johnsoj2.bsky.social
Retired school principal. Now I coach school admins who want to be effective leaders without burning themselves out - it’s possible! I love kind people, animals, reading, travel, & good vegetarian food. Dislike cruelty, coffee, and hearing people whistle.
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My May @thestorygraph.com reading summary

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

NEW: US weather forecasting is in worse shape than previously known, with 30 NWS forecast offices missing meteorologists-in-charge and about a dozen offices at risk of no longer serving their communities 24/7. www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/w...

submitted 58 days ago • 90 comments

My April @thestorygraph.com I read a couple of dense books this month, so my pace was a little slower than it has been. But good stuff, nevertheless.

submitted 58 days ago • 0 comments

My epiphany was when I realized what my job was: 1) ensure a safe campus, so learning can occur; 2) manage the budget so my school has the resources it needs; 3) coach, mentor, support, & develop my staff, who are the ones doing “the work”. That’s it. www.the-breakthrough-coach.com/when-hands-o...

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

This is a very good thread

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

My March @thestorygraph.com - two good memoirs this month!

submitted 88 days ago • 0 comments

School leaders, you can’t do it all. You’re not SUPPOSED to do it all. So stop trying. Do the work that is yours to do - coaching, mentoring, supporting, guiding, and providing resources to your staff. #edusky #schoolprincipal #leadership www.instagram.com/reel/DG0zxPc...

submitted 113 days ago • 0 comments

Another SpaceX oopsy seems like a good occasion to share this @propublica.org piece from a few weeks back

submitted 114 days ago • 32 comments

open.substack.com/pub/noahpini... It’s been evident for some time to anyone paying attention that Trump is a gangster turning the US into a gangster state. The ambush in the White House on Friday morning should make even conservatives sit up and take notice Noah Smith argues

submitted 119 days ago • 24 comments

My February StoryGraph. Expanded repertoire this month thx to @thestorygraph rdg challenges. Some of it has been great- read a terrific nonfiction book about modern art I’d usually never have read- & some of it not so great (currently reading a book that may actually become my 1st DNF book in yrs)

submitted 120 days ago • 0 comments

By going after the most popular government programs, they are thinking long-term, planning for a world where no one defends government agencies because these agencies don’t do anything that we value.

submitted 132 days ago • 18 comments

60 MINUTES: “Utter nonsense. The most accountable aid agency in the world is USAID… DOGE fired their top 58 officials within an hour of arriving…” This was never about efficiency. Full: www.instagram.com/reel/DGLXa9r...

submitted 132 days ago • 332 comments

So many years consumed building the barricades, fortifying the battlements, mastering deflection and evasion, stockpiling armories of words and wiles - All to be disarmed by a gentle smile #vss365 #disarm

submitted 141 days ago • 0 comments

This is the perspective shift that changed my view of my role as a #schoolprincipal, and that shift then radically altered what I spent my time doing at work. I was happier & more effective. I wish all school leaders could experience the shift. #EduSky 5.workingdemosite.com/breakthrough...

submitted 144 days ago • 0 comments

My January @thestorygraph.com stats 🥰🤓📚

submitted 148 days ago • 0 comments

I’d been fascinated by them for years, had #conjured up a sense of kinship with them. I knew that meeting one, touching it, would be magical. But now, facing one for real, I acknowledged how foolish that dream had been. I wanted to pet it. It wanted to eat me. We were not the same. #vss365 #hbp94

submitted 151 days ago • 1 comment

He was the sort of man I instinctively recoiled from: #unctuous and fawning, arrogance oozing from him. His artificially blinding smile tried to lure you into believing he was friendly, harmless, but my gut told me what he really was: a predator in search of prey. And my gut was never wrong. #vss365

submitted 154 days ago • 0 comments

You waste your time in #silence, worried and wondering, too afraid to move, uncertain and immobilized While minor mistakes laugh from the rafters and fearless ghosts dance in your living room. #vss365

submitted 166 days ago • 0 comments

Sky and Sea craft a mosaic of possibilities and pipe dreams I could soar to the heavens Like a wave driving against #ice I could sink to the deep Like a stone dropping through water I could But I won’t Instead I’ll feel black sand tether me to Earth and picture what might have been #vss365

submitted 166 days ago • 0 comments

“You need to leave. Go back. You’re an angel who doesn’t belong in this hell.” “Oh, really? Then which hell *do* I belong in, exactly?” I was so angry at him, I could feel heat rising off me. I #dusted the ash off me and stood up. “I’m staying. Deal with it. So, what do we do next?” #vss365 #hbp77

submitted 168 days ago • 2 comments

Their life together was a fragile ecosystem, preserved by his refusal to speak truth & her refusal to #quit barren land. The air crackled with anxiety, yet the system persisted through fire & drought. When an invasive species entered and collapsed it all, it was a kindness, not a curse. #vss365

submitted 169 days ago • 0 comments

The music is warm Rays of the sun echo rhythmically The wine soothes my skin Your embrace is satisfyingly #sweet Everything is topsy-turvy and yet everything is exactly right #vss365

submitted 171 days ago • 0 comments

This was no ordinary irritation, no garden-variety anger. This was fury. She was stuck in a #guessing game when what she needed was clarity. Pieces she'd tried so hard to make fit lay worthless at her feet. Even simple things looked out of place, mocking her impotence & ire. Goddamn IKEA. #vss365

submitted 172 days ago • 1 comment

This is Maisy. She gets an additional party hat for each birthday, and she just turned nine. 13/10 may this tradition go on forever

submitted 172 days ago • 422 comments

silence of snowfall song of screech owl for its mate — forest vespers ring #vss365 #vespers

submitted 173 days ago • 0 comments