I've been given a new project at work.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll be the "development lead" for the project, which, though a somewhat short-term project, will be a pretty cool opportunity.

I'll be putting together an application that will help track and manage talent for the LDS Church's AudioVisual department.  The major user of this application will be the LDS Motion Picture Studio.  They're currently ramping up to film a huge project depicting scenes from the New Testament.

I'll likely come back to the General Conference project when my new project ends.

Disclaimer - The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My older son is required to read some hundreds of pages each semester for his English class this year.  He as asked me for help in finding books that he might enjoy.  He is a bit of a "reluctant" reader, so it's going to take more than just a little thought.

Of course, I turned to the source of all Internet knowledge:  Google!  After a short search, I found something that seemed promising:  The Young Adult Library Services Association "2010 Best Books for Young Adults" list.  At least, it seemed promising until I started reading the descriptions of some of these books:

• Lia is haunted by her best friend's death from bulimia, as she struggles with her own eating disorder.
• In an attempt to distance himself from the rest of the students in the school's therapy group known as the Madman Underground, Karl launches his senior year with “Operation Be <expletive> Normal.”
• Anke watches her siblings and mother suffer at the hands of her abusive father until she finds enough strength, through involvement in volleyball, to demonstrate her needs.
• Essie, 16, sews all day for pennies at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to help feed her fatherless family and now to forget her little sister's death. Then the fire happens.
• Soccer star Devon never admitted to herself that she was pregnant. Now she’s in detention, facing charges of attempted murder after delivering a baby and dumping it in the trash.
• After her estranged mother dies, Shawna Gallagher refuses to accept her dysfunctional home life and attempts to make peace with her mother’s lesbian lover.
• Ellie is pregnant after looking for love in the wrong places with one too many boys. Corrine, Caleb and Josh all deal with the emotions, consequences and difficult decisions ahead.

Really???

No wonder I'm having a hard time finding decent reading material for my son.  I understand that writers are trying to find current topics that teens are dealing with, but I usually read a work of fiction to escape some of the crap that real life throws at me.  Sometimes, it's fun to just read something that is fun or scary or just different.  When a book starts to moralize or preach at me, regardless of whether or not I agree with the message, I stop reading.  There's too much good writing out there to waste time with crap.

If you have any suggestions of good books or good authors for a 16-year-old young man, let me know!

Orthodontia sucks.

I understand that, with my younger son's mouth, letting nature take its course would have resulted in complete disarray and dysfunction.  His teeth came in in rows instead of having the permanent teeth push his baby teeth out.  The words that the Orthodontist used when describing the panoramic x-rays that he took were "train wreck."  Cosmetics aside, there is no way that leaving such things alone would have resulted in my son being able to even eat normally.

This poor kid had to have all but 3 or 4 of his baby teeth extracted at the dentist's office, because they weren't coming out on their own.  When his first permanent molars come in, they immediately put braces on them and on his front eight teeth so that they could put springs in and push everything forward and outward, hoping to make enough room for the rest of his permanent teeth.  He's been wearing braces for years already.

Yesterday, they put on a full set of braces.  He did very well while in the Orthodontist's chair as they removed some of the existing brackets to re-position them.  He sat there, fists clenched, as they put on the rest of the brackets and finally (and a little painfully) put wires through all of the brackets.  As we drove home (via Jamba Juice), I watched the tears run down his face--it's how he relieves stress.

Most of the day yesterday, he wouldn't talk because braces hurt.  He didn't want to move his mouth at all.  I heard him get up a couple of times during the night to take ibuprofen.

Today is his first day of school, and he'll spend the day in pain again.

It's hard for me to watch him hurt.  Even when I know that, in the long run, he'll be glad he went through all of this, it's still heart-wrenching.

I hate it.

A good lesson can be learned from the fable of the Camel's Nose:

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

And to quote Boo Hewerdine (I've quoted him before...):

And you think by now I'd know
What a mess you make of me
You think by now that I would see
I'm a slow learner

And we always seem to start
At the beginning of the end
Some things are hard for me to understand
I'm a slow learner

Everybody knows
Everybody sees
I guess everybody's just smarter than me
Some things you just can't teach
A slow learner

And you think by now I'd try
To learn from my mistakes
My heart bends it just won't seem to break
I'm a slow learner

Everybody knows
Everybody sees
I guess everybody's just smarter than me
Some things you just can't teach
A slow learner

Ever feel that way?  Sometimes I do.

Sometime after 2 a.m. this morning, I woke up to the nauseating stench of a skunk.  The odor was overwhelming.  I got up and closed my bedroom window and tried to go back to sleep.  The reek of skunk musk doesn't quickly dissipate.

I went upstairs to see if I also needed to shut the windows in my boys' bedrooms and interestingly enough, I couldn't really smell anything up in their bedrooms.  It seems that skunk stink stays close to the ground.

I couldn't get to sleep for a couple of hours, and even then, when I fell back asleep, I dreamed of skunks.  They were climbing up a ladder to get into the second floor window of my home.  I awoke again to the same unpleasant aroma, but it seemed to be getting fainter.

If we have a repeat performance any time soon, I'm going to have to have a little discussion with my HOA president about the families in my neighborhood who are keeping chickens.  Chickens attract skunks.  Apparently, they just cannot resist fresh eggs and fresh chicken meat.  Chickens are prohibited by the HOA's CC&Rs, though my HOA doesn't seem to have the gumption to actually ENFORCE their CC&Rs.  Maybe a constant ill wind from these little black-and-white weasels would give them the intestinal fortitude that they need to enforce the rules.  That, however is a blog entry for a different day.

The position of Scoutmaster is a volunteer position.  In most troops, an adult is selected by a troop committee, or in the case of a troop that is being newly-formed, a steering committee.  They look to members of the community who can be responsible for training and guiding youth leaders in the operation of a scout troop and for managing, training, and supporting his assistant Scoutmasters in their role.  In troops that are chartered by congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Scoutmaster and his assistant Scoutmasters are chosen by a Bishop who prayerfully considers who would serve well as a Scoutmaster.  After receiving spiritual approval, the Bishop (or one of his counselors) extends the “calling” of Scoutmaster to the person they have chosen.

A Scoutmaster serves voluntarily and receives no monetary remuneration for his service.  He spends  much of his volunteer time training and guiding the youth leaders in the troop, helping them to successfully conduct troop meetings and “outdoor experiences,” also known as “camp-outs.”  In my experience, he often ends up spending not only many hours of his time, but also some of his own money in fulfilling the responsibilities associated with being a Scoutmaster for his troop.

As Scoutmaster of Troop 770, I have watched young men—usually only thirteen years old—step into leadership positions and learn how to lead.  I have watched several boys take their first tentative steps into leadership.  They don’t always succeed, especially at first.  I have watched Senior Patrol Leaders that have blinked back tears of frustration as things didn’t go as well as they had envisioned.  Then it is the Scoutmaster’s job to offer encouragement, pointing out what DID go well, helping them figure out how to make it go better the next time.  I have watched timid and inexperienced leaders slowly grow to fill the shoes of the great leaders who came before them.  As they grow, their confidence grows and they begin to take pride in the accomplishments of their troop.  As they grow, the quiet confidence of leadership replaces the timid countenance that they had in the beginning.

A good Scoutmaster works in the background, giving the boys the opportunity to lead and learn leadership and gain confidence.  This is something I'm working on, slowly getting better and better at letting the boys lead the troop.

The best leader is one that the people are barely aware of.
The next best is one who is loved and praised by the people.
Next comes one who is feared.
Worst is one who is despised.
If the leader does not have enough faith in his people,
They will not have faith in him.
The best leader puts great value in words and says little
So that when his work is finished
The people all say, “We did it ourselves!”
--Lao Tzu from the Tao Te Ching

Despite the volunteer service, there is a “pay” from being a Scoutmaster that is, in my estimation, unequaled in other volunteer service.  My “pay” as Scoutmaster comes through the feelings I have as I watch inexperienced boys grow into young men who understand leadership because they have become leaders.

Last week at scout camp, I received a lot of this “pay” that makes my time and effort as Scoutmaster really pay off.

I watched a scout stress and fret as he committed to memory a closing flag ceremony in only a few short hours.  My pay was found in the pride that I felt as he stepped forward and brought a hush to the assembled camp, his commanding and confident voice calling hundreds of youth and adults to attention in respect of the flag of the United States of America.

I watched my own Senior Patrol Leader son struggle to find his role as a leader.  As the week wore on, I could sense the extra burden he felt in leading his troop.  I asked him to do things that he had never done before.  He stepped forward time and time again, calling his troop to order and asking them to perform, and they performed according to his instructions.  Each time, he stepped forward with a little more confidence than the last.  By the end of the week, he was confident enough to lead his patrol in a cheer that won his troop their second “cheer award” at opening flag ceremony.  There were times I wanted to step in and lift this burden from his shoulders, especially a couple of times when things weren’t going well.  But by holding back and watching him struggle, I saw him learn and grow.  At the end of the week, I talked with him about his experience and he beamed at me as he realized that he did it himself.

The feelings I had as I saw the confidence he gained and the satisfaction that he was obviously feeling—that is the Scoutmaster’s pay.

Congratulations to Giggles for posting the 500th comment to my blog.  I have more than 400 posts, so my posts, for the most part, don't really generate much discussion.

As a prize to Giggles for the 500th comment, I'm offering her all of the tap water that comes out of her kitchen sink and she can breathe as much air in her vicinity as she likes, free of charge!

Because that's just the kind of guy I am.

(Maybe I'll have a REAL prize for the 1000th comment.)

I survived another year of scout camp.

The scouts THRIVED.

Here is my quick report of Troop 770's experience at Bartlett Scout Camp near Montpelier, ID:

• There were about 45 troops at camp.  My scouts won half of the prizes for best cheer.
• My scouts conducted the best flag ceremony at camp--even better than the camp staff.
• My scouts earned 54 merit badges and a handful of rank advancements.
• My scouts--13 of them--spent a week at camp and there wasn't a single serious discipline issue.
• My scouts worked extra hard and earned the "Honor Troop" award.
• My scouts learned a practical lesson on the power of prayer.
• My scouts all came home with all limbs and digits fully intact--not a single stitch!
• My troop's scoutmasters all made it to the final round of the shotgun shooting competition for leaders, and my assistant scoutmaster took third place.
• My scouts actually took showers at camp and only had a couple of layers of dirt on them when we returned home.
• I lost neither my marbles nor my mind.

It was a great week, and I couldn't be more proud of the young men that attended.

Now I'll take a couple of months off of thinking about scout camp.  I'll get to start the whole process over again in October.

You have probably noticed this disclaimer a couple of times now:

Disclaimer - The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My employer requires that when I mention that I am employed by the LDS Church, that this disclaimer is added to my blog entry.

It's a small price to pay for such a great job and such a great work environment.

A lot of people have had questions for me about my current employment, and I have noticed that a lot of people have the same questions, so I thought I would answer your questions here:

Q:  Who is your employer?

A:  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. the LDS Church, or more informally, the Mormon church) has two corporations, one of which is called the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  If I were a regular, full-time employee, I would be employed by this corporation, however, the LDS Church currently has a hiring freeze in place, so I am employed by Employer Solutions Group as a contract employee.  I'm hoping that this hiring freeze thaws and I will be hired on as a full-time employee of the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop.

Q:  Do you have to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to work where you do?

A:  Yes.  I have to be a member in good standing.  Were I to somehow become disillusioned with the LDS Church, I would not only be leaving the Church, but I would also be leaving Church employment.  Were I to do something stupid that would cause me to no longer be in good standing (we're talking stupid as in pretty serious sinful behavior like, say, adultery), I wouldn't automatically lose my job, but my employer would discuss my standing with my local ecclesiastical leaders, and based on the path I was taking (Am I working towards getting myself back in good standing with the Lord?) I could be allowed to continue my employment with the Church.

Q:  But wait...  Isn't requiring membership in the LDS Church for employment against some sort of governmental Equal Employment Opportunity something-or-other?

A:  Actually, no.  According to the EEOC web site:

Under Title VII, religious organizations are permitted to give employment preference to members of their own religion. The exception applies only to those institutions whose “purpose and character are primarily religious.” That determination is to be based on “[a]ll significant religious and secular characteristics.” Although no one factor is dispositive, significant factors to consider that would indicate whether an entity is religious include:

• Do its articles of incorporation state a religious purpose?
• Are its day-to-day operations religious (e.g., are the services the entity performs, the product it produces, or the educational curriculum it provides directed toward propagation of the religion)?
• Is it not-for-profit?
• Is it affiliated with or supported by a church or other religious organization?

Q:  Where do you work?

A:  I work in the new Riverton Office Building (ROB).  Up until late last year, a lot of the Church's technical employees worked in the North Office Building in downtown Salt Lake City.  The thought of that commute gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies.  The Riverton Office Building is about about 25 miles from my home.  The commute is about a half hour each way, and I have joined a carpool with three others in my neighborhood, so I only have to drive to work one week a month.

Q:  Don't you get tired of wearing a white shirt and tie to work every day?

A:  No, because I don't have to wear a white shirt and tie to work.  The dress standard for the ROB is business casual.  If I were to go to a meeting at the Church Office Building (COB) downtown, I would need to wear a white shirt and tie AND a suit coat.  Hopefully, I won't need to go to the COB until I lose 10 or 15 more pounds, because I don't really fit into any of my suits at this time.

Q:  Did you have to take a pretty hefty pay cut to work for the LDS Church?

A:  My pay is actually pretty competitive.  The compensation philosophy of LDS Church employment is as follows:

In addition to being a great spiritual experience, Church employment also has monetary benefits. Church compensation systems are designed to reflect comparable pay levels in the relevant labor market, while acknowledging a measure of consecration.

Q:  What are you working on?

A:  Every six months, the LDS Church holds their General Conference in which the leaders of the LDS Church speak to the Church and to the world, giving counsel, direction, and spiritual guidance that is needed in today's world.  The conference is held over two days and is comprised of five two-hour broadcasts.  These broadcasts are interpreted live in dozens of languages.  Following the broadcast, transcripts of the conference are printed in LDS Church magazines, are published to the web, and are printed in booklets that are sent to areas that could not receive the broadcast.  I am working on systems that will be used for storage, revision, translation, and publication of these conferences.  Our goal is to have the transcripts of these conferences in a publishable format within 7 days after the broadcast in all of the languages into which conference is translated.

If you have any other questions you would like to have answered, post them in a comment.

Disclaimer - The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Before you get angry at me for putting that song in your head, listen to my little story:

I'm enjoying the project I'm working on at work.  The documents that are going to be stored and retrieved from the database of documents we are maintaining need to be stored and retrieved in a wide variety of languages.  Thus, when a new document is added to our database, we need to have a way of notifying those that will be translating those documents.

I have been working on this notification mechanism, and I've created what we all affectionately called "The Spaminator" because it simulates sending emails to the more than 100 translators and interpreters that will eventually be using this system.  It is a self-spamming device at the moment, because it only sends emails to the person that initiates the notification mechanism--it's not ready to send emails to the real email addresses of translators and interpreters.

At one point, we got tired of getting more than a hundred emails each time we tested the system, so we pared it down to four notifications.  This is a very fortunate thing, because today, as I was re-working the notification process, I forgot to replace the real email addresses with my email address and The Spaminator went to work sending notification emails.

Oops!  Fortunately, only two of the email addresses in the test data are valid, so I only had to send a "sorry, but if you received an email from me a moment ago, you can ignore it" email to two people.  (Later I found out that the emails hadn't actually been sent, but that's beside the point.)

As I looked up the email addresses in my email client, I had to laugh.  Out of more than a hundred translators and interpreters throughout the world, I thought I had accidentally sent emails to two of them.  Of these two, I happen to know one of them.  When I was a missionary serving in Belgium 20 years ago, this person had fed me dinner in a small apartment over an automobile dealership.  He was one of only a few strong Priesthood leaders in the small town where I was serving.

It's a small world, but within the LDS Church, it's a really REALLY small world.

Disclaimer - The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.