November 2009 Tai Chi in Billings Montana

Wow. It's been nearly a year since I posted to the blog. We have been very busy getting our toes wet in Billings.

Lisa has been very successful in getting Taoist Tai Chi established in Billings Montana. I got certified as a beginning instructor a little over a year ago at the Portland Grand Opening and am teaching two classes now (with Lisa's help). Of course I am helping her teach her classes too. We are currently teaching at two different churches, an assisted living facility, a yoga studio, an insurance company and the Billings Senior Center.

We attended the Annual General Meeting of the Western Region this summer and were happy to report on our success. I am currently working on getting the membership database for TTCS Australia and TTCS USA running smoothly. I have also taken on another pro-bono database project setting up the membership database for the Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society.

Enough for now.

Blogging Infrequently, but now from Billings Montana

We moved to Billings Montana in late June 2008 to help my aging parents.  We have been fortunate to find we love the place and have been successful in starting a new location for the International Taoist Tai Chi Society here. The closest until now was Portland, Or and Denver, Co.

Oh, and one more thing.  Lisa and I got married finally on December 29th in our lovely old home next to the rimrocks with close family attending.

Happy New Year

Pura Vida

Coincidences sometimes help to roll the dice of what we will be doing or where we will be next year. We went on a little vacation to Costa Rica last Fall and basically were presented with one of those offers that is difficult to refuse. As you may have guessed, I am posting this from Costa Rica where we are living now. Nothing is permanent, but this is a good thing to stretch the aging brain cells and still slow down a little from the hectic North American pace.
Learning Spanish is one of the priorities now. English is not a prevalent here as in many of the other countries that I have toured. Income production is limited to money earned providing services outside the country. Costa Rica needs more jobs and doesn't want foreigners displacing local workers. Fortunately, I still have a few clients who I can provide value to from south of the border.

Above is the 2 bedroom house we will be renting for less than half what you would expect. There is a lovely view of mountains and coffee fields. It is in a quiet little village but has a view of the big city lights at night and easy access via a few minute, fifty cent bus ride to a choice of larger communities. The cost of living is rising with the influx of folks like us, but still it makes it possible to get by on a very modest income.

I hope the slower pace will help me to find a better way to contribute to this world from which I have taken more than contributed. Stay tuned for more.

An Invconvenient Truth

You MUST see this movie! If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend "An Inconvenient Truth". It may help you improve the lives of your descendants dramatically as well as contribute to saving the lives and homes of hundreds of millions of people on this planet.

I have been seeking a way to leverage my FileMaker skills to help the most people for a few years. I think I have found the cause I was looking for after watching the movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". Now I need your help in identifying ways that FileMaker could be used to help with the Global Warming message and with steps toward a solution.

Your friend and fellow inhabitant of this earth.

Joel Bowers

Blog Continues but not here

I have consolidated my websites a bit this week and intend to continue this blog on my own website for the moment. Actually that just redirects you to the current home of my website which is http://web.mac.com/jmba/. I have found the new iWeb application in Apple's iLife software to be the most user friendly web building software and it has encouraged me to do a better job of maintaining my communication with the world.

I hope you will visit me there and enjoy helping others as much as I do.

Cheers,

Joel

First Snow

We had a hum dinger of a snowfall yesterday on the seacoast of New Hampshire. My 4 wheel drive Subaru outback barely made it up the 1000 ft driveway. Luckily it was the light fluffy stuff and even though the undercarriage left a nice trail all the way the car is safely in the garage waiting to be plowed out today.

Life moves too fast for me to post much here. Lisa and I have been to numerous Tai Chi weekend workshops and continuous weekend and evening hikes (I call anything over a couple miles a hike). My usual clients have kept me too busy to do some of the personal FileMaker development projects I am hoping to get too soon. I have picked up several new short term jobs this fall, but continue to spend more than half my time supporting my favorite client http:www.usfirst.org.

I have started working on a gaming idea to produce a programmable game in FileMaker for fun. But have been too pressed for time to progress very far with the idea.

I have joined a new organization which I am hoping will promote the connections I need to help "Save the World with FileMaker" custom database design, automation and support. N-TEN! The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. Check them out at http://www.nten.org. So far we have only attended one meeting, but are scheduled to attend another gathering next week with holiday atmosphere and the opportunity to network with others with altruistic aims.

Best wishes to all my friends and readers. Have a great holiday season.

Playing with Features of FMPro Version 8 [Saving Files with variable names and paths]

Here is a good tip from FileMaker’s Famous Andrew Lecates explaining how to save a file to a specific path.
This is one of the new features in version 8 which was previously possible only with the aid of a plug-in.

1. Set a script variable to the path as a text string.
3. Enter the variable in the path dialog to 'carry' a calculated path
there

For step 1, use a script step like this:
  Set Variable [$filePath; Value: "file:" & Get(DesktopPath) &
    customer::first & "_" & customer::last &
    ".pdf" ]

This will result in a path string that places a .pdf file on your
desktop, and names the file based on the current customer record in
the form "Fritz_Jung.pdf".

For step 2, something like:
  Save Records as PDF [Restore; "$filePath"; Automatically open;
Current record]

So in the Specify Output File dialog, you would enter "$filePath" (no
quotes) into the Output File Path List.

FWIW, when doing this with scripts, I highly recommend using local
script variables [$filePath] over global script variables [$
$filePath] unless you want to make extra work for yourself cleaning
up the global variables and testing to make sure multiple scripts
using the same $$filePath aren't clobbering (writing over) each
other's output.

Enjoy!