More Delgadillos

After everything being quiet for a while, I got two new inquiries for the Delgadillo girls today: A second Hollywood film person after the rights to their story and Guideposts magazine.

Those are some fine looking butterflies.

Jenn and I gave this butterfly mobile to my niece Kate last Christmas.

Lost interviews

I’m apparently one of the last people still enjoying Lost. I view it as a big thick novel, of the stupidly long novel format that’s more and more common nowadays, and enjoy it for what it is.

Anyway, there’s two good new Lost-related interviews out there:

• KCRW’s The Treatment: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse
• Wired: Inside the Mind of JJ Abrams

Baby Fever 2007

The first baby of 2007 that is legally or genetically related to me was born yesterday, my new nephew Kaleb:

http://www.ellistruss.com/kelly/kaleboliver.html

this is a slapped together website with some pictures of the baby. I will add to it over time so please keep it bookmarked.

The Baby is sleeping a lot and is just perfect. He is healthy and we are all just so happy to be home and a complete family. Kasey is curious about her new brother but loves to give him kisses.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. We appreciate it all.

Kelly Nutter

Kaleb at this point is red and pointy-headed, but presumably he’ll grow out of both of those.

The No Asshole Rule

Here’s a book I think every CEO and HR person should likely read: The No Asshole Rule.

It’s just what you think it is: A breakdown of how assholes in the workplace, far from being the big rainmakers or motivators they’re sometimes perceived as being, actually hurt the bottom line.

Author Bob Sutton — a smartypants Harvard Business Review columnist, so maybe his ideas will gain some traction — is an online kind of guy, whose son plays World of Warcraft, so his blog is full of discussions of how online businesses — guilds — exemplify a lot of the stuff he’s talking about.

Everyone who’s played an MMORPG, either in a hardcore raiding guild, or simply knowing people who are in one, knows all about the yelling, demeaning, nasty raid leader. Not surprisingly, most of these outfits fall apart the moment the members feel like there’s another viable alternative out there. But so many members are so indoctrinated that they think that sort of thing is necessary to success in the raiding game that they just find another dysfunctional outfit and repeat the process until they finally quit the game in exhaustion.

(In my EverQuest guild, and to a lesser extent in my WoW guild, I myself was known for barking orders a bit, but I tried to make sure to keep it targeted on issues, not personalities, and to be generous — and specific — with praise when it was appropriate.)

If anyone in the newspaper industry who ever has or feels like they’re likely to hire me at some point would like a free copy of this book, just e-mail me. It’ll be money well spent.

You can listen to the interview or read the full transcript of the Marketplace interview with Bob Sutton here.