New Year, New Decade, New Beginning…

Welcome to LordDewi.com. This website is going to be my personal blog. Who am I you ask? I’m David Devaney, Jr. Well, you ask, why don’t you put your blog on your website then, www.daviddevaney.com? I honestly don’t have a good answer for that. I had reserved LordDewi.com and figured, why not devote that to my blog. Maybe I want to keep it a little separate from myself so that only people who really want to read about me can find it. I’m not really sure but that’s what it is.

Now I know your next question…Who the HEDoubleHockeySticks is Lord Dewi?!? Well I answered that in a Blog post on MySpace back on October 5, 2005. Yes, I know you don’t want to go search for that, even if you are my friend on MySpace so here is what I wrote back then to describe Lord Dewi.

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Chris Ayres, an icon in the Anime industry, also well known for his work in theater, has died at 56.

Christopher Owen Ayres, Chris to his friends, born to Patricia, Pat, and Owen Ayres on May 16th, 1965 in Richmond, Virginia has died at 56. He passed away on October 18th, 2021. His passing was announced on Facebook by his mother, Pat, brother, Greg, and on Twitter by his partner Krystal Laporte.

Chris was well known in the Anime community for all the work he did acting and directing as well as for how friendly he was with all his fans at Anime conventions. He was also well known for his Mock Combat for Cosplay panels, at those conventions, where he used his knowledge of stage combat to teach cosplayers how to perform fight scenes, so they looked real but were safe for all participants. Others have highlighted his Anime accomplishments, but few have mentioned his theater accomplishments where he influenced many young people. His Wikipedia page didn’t even include his interest in theater until I updated it after his passing.

He began his professional acting career at the age of 6 when he and his family still lived in Virginia performing in a Lollipop Soft Drinks commercial. His family then moved to Houston, Texas where he continued performing when he could. Chris eventually attended Alief Elsik High School and continued acting. Alief Elsik would continue to factor into his theater career for much of his life. He graduated High School in 1983 and then went on to study Theatre Arts at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas under Barney Hammond and Dance under Hammond’s wife Utah Ground where he learned that he could dance, and would spark his love of Choreography. After leaving Lon Morris in 1985 he moved back to Houston and eventually studied theater at the University of Houston.

While studying at UofH he joined the Theater Under the Stars, T.U.T.S, performing in numerous productions including Hello Dolly in 1993 with Keira O’Keiff Cuilty and others. While there he joined the touring production of the Peter Pan musical revival starring Cathy Rigby. Chris went on to tour the country with this production between 1989 and 1991. Eventually the tour wound up on Broadway in 1990 and opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on December 13, 1990 and ran until January 20, 1991. The tour continued across the United States and returned to the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway on November 26, 1991 and ran there until January 5, 1992. In this final production J.K. Simmons preformed the role of Captain Hook. While not listed as a fight choreographer in this production Chris definitely got his start in fight choreography while he was there. He often told the story of how he observed Ms Rigby flying through the air with her dagger pointed at her face. He spoke to those in charge and commented on how unsafe that was.

(DALLAS YEARS – More info needed.) Chris spent some time in Dallas, Texas working in regional theater as well. He worked on some original work he and others had created.

Chris was also a huge Improv fan and in addition to attending may Improv performances he also performed in troupes as well as starting some of his own.

After his tour and his work in Dallas he worked with the Pasadena Little Theatre in the Houston area as well as working at Theater Under the Stars in Houston.

In the late 1990s Chris worked as assistant director or choreographer on a number of shows at the Country Playhouse with La Jean (Lujean) Kreisner including A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity and Big River. During the 1999-2000 season of shows at the Country Playhouse he directed, and likely choreographed, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and later that season directed The All Night Strut a review of 30’s and 40’s music. In 2001 Chris went on to direct and choreograph Hair and Man of La Mancha. In 2002 he directed and choreographed Cabaret starring his brother Greg. In 2003 Chris became the Artistic Director at Country Playhouse, a position he held until 2005. While he was Artistic Director he also directed and choreographed A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To the Forum. Chris was also the fight choreographer for their production of Romeo and Juliet. In the 2004-2005 season he went on to direct and choreograph The Pirates of Penzance and then to direct Noises Off. In 2005 he moved on from here to pursue other interests.

Chris was always a proponent of education and trying to inspire the next generation of people interested in theater. He would contract to direct and choreograph shows as well as teach fight choreography at local schools. Between 1994 and 2003 he directed the all choir musicals at Pearland High School. He also assisted local teachers such as Amy Ross and Lujean Kreisner, including at his Alma Mater, Alief Elsik High School. He continued doing this for many years even while pursuing his Anime career.  Chris continued directing local community theater productions but around 2005 his focus had moved to Anime. I have a feeling that I was in the last two theater productions he directed in his life back in 2005. Those included a revival of The Rocky  Show, which he’d previously directed, and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, both at Playhouse 90 in Rosenberg, Texas. The Rocky Horror Show included many actors who were, or would go on to be, famous anime actors including his brother Greg, Chris Patton, Monica Rial and Brittany Karbowski.

In 2006, due to his association with others in the Anime industry he joined Jan Scott-Frazier to create the first Voices For album to raise money for…Peace. The album was released on May 1, 2006. Chris recorded tracks for War Again, War Pigs, Fortunate Son and did backup vocals on War. He later went onto record with Voices For on their …Intolerance album adding his voice to Ich Bin Ein Auslander.

Chris was a huge fan of Doctor Who also. To the point that he cosplayed as almost every Doctor. One year, his partner, Krystal, even arranged a phone call with one of his favorite Doctors, Sylvester McCoy, while at DragonCon in 2012. Another friend of the couple had arranged a call with Colin Baker for him.

Chris was well known for his goatee, his leather jacket which generally, always covered a Hawaiian style shirt, and his big “sippy cup”. The cup, often referred to as the “Sippy Cup of Doom” was just the most gigantic re-fillable cup you could find at a local convenience store. It was always filled with generic coke or diet coke. At conventions his fans would attempt to either gift him with a larger cup they found or one up him by cosplaying as him with a much bigger cup. The largest cup Chris would use was 72 oz. A friend mentioned on Facebook… “Chris said that he had tried larger cups, but they hurt his wrist.” Ayres was a film fan in general and had a huge collection of DVDs. He’d often show up at the local Walmart on release day with a friend or two to get all the most recent releases. He was fond of Horror films, particularly those produced in Korea.

Chris is survived by his mother Patricia, Pat, and his brother Greg. His father, Owen, passed earlier this year. He also has a foster brother, Dale Peterson along with his wife Carolynn and their children Zach and Sam. He has two foster sisters, Kimberly Peterson and her children Savanna and Reese, and Linda. His extended family includes aunts and uncles Donald, Brenda and Bobby. He is also survived by his partner of 9 years, Krystal Laporte.

Ayres has had at least 678 Tributes on Facebook from people he’s worked with as well as fans of his. His influence is widespread. I imagine that there were twice as many people who commented on posts from others that had posted. Chris has influenced thousands of people.

His last post on Facebook was a completely unselfish one, not caring about his own health, only 5 days before his death, but of that of a friend who needed help finding work

“Asking for a person I know do any of my friends in DFW know of any video productions companies that are hiring at all or need a video editor

Love and Laughter Always

-Chris-“

He always ended every communication with his signature “Love and Laughter Always”. If you know how technology works this was not a big deal with an email signature but on Facebook he would have to actually take the time to type this every time. This is who he was, this is what his friends and colleagues remember him for.

Love and Laughter Always Chris.

Twitter Icon lauren ashley bishop has just qualified for her 5th free Pizza from Dominos

Twitter icon, comedy writer, comedy performer, and mother of all dogs lauren ashley bishop  has just qualified for her 5th free Pizza from Dominos. We assume it took many years of trying, lots of training and practice but lauren ashley bishop was unavailable at the time of publication for comment. 

Based on our research lauren ashley bishop has been buying pizzas from Dominos for years but not often enough to get the free one. She would often find that the last free pizza deal expired just when she was going to order a new one. After much effort, and nagging from her son, Señor Dirty Harry, a Part mexican, hairless, all wild, man dog, she was finally able to achieve her goal. After months of training, trials and tribulation she got one free pizza after another, just getting in under the wire on the last one before it’s expiration.

We would like to congratulate lauren ashley bishop on her accomplishment and we look forward to interviewing her when she has qualified for free pizza number ten.

You can find lauren ashley bishop on Twitter – @sbellelauren

Her brain is on Twitter too – @deeppawghts

Her son, Señor Dirty Harry is on Instagram – @senordirtyharry

 

 

Byline – Lord Dewi 06/21/2021

GPS for HanDBase Plugin – Capture GPS Coordinates in your HanDBase for Android Database

Using the GPS for HanDBase plugin to Easily Capture GPS Coordinates in your HanDBase Database on Android

I know that quite a few HanDBase users who have the app on their Android device have been looking for a way to get GPS data into the HanDBase app. While DDH Software is still working on Plugins to make this happen I’ve come up with a fairly simple way to make this work. I created this solution using the app Tasker for Android. Tasker allows you to use scripts to automate tasks on your Android device in a variety of ways. Originally I thought that users would have to install Tasker to get this to work but the developer has an App Creator tool. Once I figured out how to make that work I was able to create a Standalone version of this Plugin so that users can now just install that. I was able to use Tasker to create this app and allow HanDBase users to grab the GPS Coordinates and store them in a field in HanDBase for Android.

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Tutorial Update – Enhanced AutoHotKey Scripts when Remotely Syncing HanDBase Database for Android with Desktop PC via Dropbox or Google Drive

Set-up the AutoHotKey Macro App for Remote, Automatic Syncing
Before you proceed, make sure you have installed the AutoHotKey Macro App on your computer.

After some additional testing I figured out a way in AutoHotKey to automatically select the HanDBase Conduit Partnership, rather than requiring it to be the first Partnership in the list. I have also added instructions for syncing these files between your Android device and Dropbox or Google Drive to make initiating the sync easier, with fewer steps.

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Tutorial – Remotely Sync HanDBase Database for Android with Desktop PC via Cloud. Using Dropbox or Google Drive

Tutorial

Remotely Sync HanDBase for Android with Desktop PC via Cloud. Using Dropbox or Google Drive

Using the following steps I have been able to successfully synchronize HanDBase for Android with my Windows Computer remotely using Dropbox and Google Drive. This set-up enables a record level sync, as opposed to a file level sync using just Dropbox or Google Drive and FolderSync, or some other sync solution. This allows you to edit or add individual records on your Android device and on your desktop or laptop computer simultaneously. This should also work with most other Cloud Storage apps for Android, assuming there is a way to Synchronize folders to their cloud storage but YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Please test this first on your end before implementing this on a regular basis, especially if you use a Cloud Storage system other than Dropbox or Google Drive.

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1910 Working Hamilton Pocket Watch – Railroad Grade 990L – For Sale

UPDATE: This watch has since been sold but I wanted to leave up this post to show the beauty of the watch and it’s’ movement.

I recently found this “Antique” Hamilton Pocket Watch in my watch collection. I don’t have any recollection of where it came from so I’m interested in selling it. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the details of this watch, which you will find below. From the research I’ve done a watch like this could be worth as much as $400 to $500. Similar watches of this Grade, 990L, are going for that or higher on ebay. This is considered a Railroad Grade watch, meaning it was so accurate that Railroad workers could use them. Hamilton also put a lot of work into it’s movements and they are well known for their artistic damaskeening on the movement which turns this watch into more than just something to tell time by but also into a piece of art.

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Beast’s Castle Sculpture from the Walt Disney Classics Collection Enchanted Places Series for Sale on ebay

This item has since been sold but I’m leaving this post up for reference purposes.

I am slowly going through my collection of Disneyana and deciding what things I no longer need. I am currently selling my sculpture of the Beast’s Castle from the Walt Disney Classics Collection. This was part of the Enchanted Places series. I purchased this back in 1996, the first year it was in production, as evidenced by the Donald Duck Hat imprint on the bottom. They produced this for 3 more years and it was finally retired in 2001.

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Surfside Soliliquies – Poetry about Surfside Beach, TX – Kindle eBook

My father, David Devaney, is a poet. He has been writing poetry for years, as long as I can remember in fact. You can find a lot of his poetry on his website, An Occasional Verse. At times he will create collections of his Poetry, usually based on a place he has lived or visited. One of these places is Surfside Beach, TX.

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A Personal Night…the Beginning

Well, I tried to take a personal night last night but it didn’t quite work out. So tonight is the night. No working so far, YAY!!

As part of this personal night I wanted to use up my Audible.com credits so I could cancel my membership, and save a little more money each month. While Audible.com is a GREAT deal when it comes to audiobooks I can’t really afford the extra money right now. I tried to do this back in November but couldn’t find 6 books to “purchase”. I’d actually forgotten that I had found 3 back then, which I never downloaded, whoops. Back in November I got the following books, which I’m in the process of downloading now.

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Do Macs really make you good looking?

I didn’t mention when I started this blog that this would also be a place for me to rant about things that frustrate me or that I just find inane. This is one of those posts.

Unfortunately we’ve been subjected to the Windows 7 ads on TV proclaiming Windows 7 was their idea. What I don’t understand is why when they have their “ideas” they are suddenly so much better looking. We all know, by now, that if you are hip and good looking you are a Mac, not a PC. But for some reason in these ads at the point they have their “idea”, which is generally something that’s been doable on a Mac for awhile, they are suddenly good looking.

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