CE Wills

   Hey, everyone. I have found that you can not put nature in a box, she'll break free every time. I know that sounds like Jurassic Park but it's true.     I have this mockingbird that hangs around here. I have written about him before. You may remember my post called Mockingbird Torments Squirrels . This weird bird would imitate the cry of a hawk and scare the dickens out of these squirrels. Remarkable as that may sound, I have a new one for you. Most of us have probably seen a hawk glide on the thermal currents and envied them their freedom and power. Did you think another bird might feel that way?     Today I was walking down my driveway and I saw a mockingbird turn sideways to the wind and let it sweep him to the east, just like a hawk. I've never seen a mockingbird do that. Of course he was very low compared to a hawk and his wings didn't do as efficient a job but he was giving it the old college try. If he had tried to catch a thermal and ...

    Hey, everyone. I was just thumbing through the current issue of Rolling Stone . One of the regular features in the magazine is called "Ask Dr. Ozzy". Here's the recipe. Readers write in with questions for Ozzy Osbourne. Yes, that rocker person. I am truly amazed how good his advice is to some rather freaky questions. I can not share any of them on the blog but the questions cover the entire compass, believe me. In a way it makes good sense for Ozzy to know a lot about unconventional problems because his life has pretty much ran a gauntlet of strangeness. Also, the dude doesn't judge any one for their quirks and he is very funny.     Which reminds me. I have really been enjoying Baggage with Jerry Springer. The stuff that these people own up to as baggage is mind-boggling. I think that I would make a good host for the show on those nights when Jerry was indisposed. The show's producers still haven't called me, failing utterly to recognize my talent. Sigh....

    Hey, everyone. First off, I'd like to thank kPg for his kind comment on my review for Source Code. I went over to his blog and read several entries. I enjoyed his posts. If you want, try his blog at Life From Head to Foot. He has a nice style of writing.     While I'm at it, I'd like to thank my friends at Rage.com for sending people to my blog. What a terrific game they have produced.      The picture at the top is a honeysuckle. They bloom this time of year, here in the Southern U.S. They grow wild all over and smell great. There is a perfume that is sold these days that smells like this flower.     The second picture is a moth. These are very colorful. I don't know what they are called so I'll just call them the Madonna moth. If one of them were to start dancing like the singer, I'd freak out. There were 13 of them on my back door this morning. They seem very feminine. I love the long blond hair. We have an amazi...

    I count myself fortunate because my family and I are safe. A tornado passed within a mile or so of where two of my grandchildren were sleeping. Thank God for their safety. Many others were less fortunate. Within an hour's drive of me there were 20 or so folks who were killed. The city of Ringgold is shut off from the outside world by felled trees, gas leaks and looters. That's what I heard, anyway. There are many areas where rescue workers can't reach trapped people because of hundreds of downed trees.     I was out in the mess until almost daylight, dealing with recalcitrant pumps, power outages and failed communication equipment. Here at the green retreat there were some tree limbs lying around, heavy rain and standing water but no tornado. Ten miles south of the house a tornado was on the ground for a distance of 6 miles and killed several people. One area I was in last night looked like a war zone. A major state highway with a small army of guys sl...

    On rare occasions a younger person will ask me, "What movies were considered cool, back in the day?"     That would be a long list, but one I often mention is a Charles Bronson thriller called Death Wish . Sometimes a movie transcends entertainment and lays bare a social mindset that has gripped society. When this happens, art is born. I can hear the laughter now. "A Bronson movie is art?"     This movie came out in 1974. It told a riveting story, but more than that it gave lie to the mentality that good people should expect to be victims. That self-defense is somehow ugly or evil or common or vulgar. Or let's just say, who doesn't like a good revenge tale?     Paul Kersey is a New Yorker, an architect. He is highly paid, respected and comfortable. He had been a conscientious objector during the Korean War and served in the Army as a medic. His Dad had been killed in a hunting accident when Kersey was a youth and this ac...

    Hey, everyone. It's a nice Saturday here in the green retreat, with partly cloudy skies and a temperature around 70 degrees. My wife and I have prowled around in the woods today and found some signs of a bobcat. It seems to be an active season for animal life and I suspect this is due to the fact that we are finally having a normal year for rainfall. If there is a lack of water animals tend to move on.     Last night I bought a couple of new games that are on sale this weekend. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 and NBA Jam. I haven't played either one of them enough to give a review but I got them for 99 cents each, which is a cool price. I got a free sample of both and played them and liked them enough to spring for the paid version. I was up during the wee hours last night and played the golf game a while. I started out playing at Pebble Beach out on the west coast and I have to say that the virtual scenery is enough to make you want to go to California again...

    Sometimes in life you get a little turned around and need a helping hand. When my wife and I went to the creek today we saw a turtle that had flipped over. I flipped him back upright and we went on our way. These guys were not nearly as large as my buddy Walter, the lonesome turtle. In the first one I could see his orange eye with the black center, here on the big screen. I doubt you guys can make it out on the blog.      I found this picture of a turtle track that I got a few weeks ago. I just inserted it and blogger put it above the turtle pictures. It's not terribly clear.     By the way, "play the flip side" is a term from a bygone day referring to playing records.      For the information of my I-Pad readers, EA Games is running another huge sale this weekend. They have a bunch of their more expensive games on sale for 99 cents, including Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Hot Pursuit, Scrabble and many others. Some o...

    Hey, everyone. I'm the victim of a new ailment, peculiar to the 'Tablet Decade'. I have dubbed it "I-Pad Finger". When I hold my I-Pad, I hold it with my left hand and use my right index finger to shoot mutants or fling angry birds at arrogant pigs. In moments of peril the taps are fierce and puts a lot of backward pressure on my left index finger. After an evening with the Rage game, for example, the finger is very stiff and quite sore for a little bit. It returns to normal if I abstain for a while.     Lately my finger has been rather stiff and there are times when I can barely touch it to my hand. I suspect that I-Pad gaming is at least partly to blame.     That said, this I-Pad deal is the way to play games. Holding the big screen in your hands as opposed to watching a TV screen and using a controller in your hands, that's a world of difference. For instance, during Real Racing 2, it's easy to project yourself into the scene before ...

    Hey, everyone. Hope you are having a good week. I was looking through some pictures from my trip to Wyoming and Colorado. I came across this pic of an iron sculpture of a buffalo that is on a hill, just off I-40 in Texas.     When I saw it, I got a kick out of it. I think it's great that someone would go to the trouble. Then I started thinking about the real buffalo that almost covered The Great Plains until the 1860's. Yes, that's correct. I was a young boy at that time. Ha, ha.     As you know, the Indians lived off the buffalo and only killed what they needed. There were millions of the great shaggy beasts and sometimes you might have to wait for several days for a herd to pass. Then there was suddenly a market for buffalo robes and the slaughter began. People killed them and skinned them and shipped their hides back east to sell. Many of them were sent to Europe. Sort of a novelty, I suppose, but they were certainly warm. The great ...

    Hey, everyone. I just went for a walk in the woods. My wife is at work so I was alone. Yesterday when I walked I saw just a glimpse of a tawny hide vanish into a patch of laurel. I suspected that it was a mountain lion, returned to his birthplace at the green retreat. They are so ghost-like that it is hard to be sure if they are indeed around until you are facing one with a stick in your hand.     So I was naturally cautious as I left the house today. I saw nothing but I heard faint rustlings from the same thicket and I  was tense. When I got to the creek I smelled a scent post where a lion had sprayed to mark his territory. It is a foul odor and very powerful. It will burn your lungs and put a foul taste in your mouth. Today I had a mint in my mouth at the time and the combination was not a pleasant flavor. You can bet that I was looking in all directions, up in trees and all that. I finished my walk and came home none the worse for wear. Midway ...

    The vast majority of y'all ( southern term for all-inclusive) won't remember Bob Seger and the Silver Bullett Band. You will doubtless relate this band to a Coor's Lite commercial and see in your mind's eye a train with frost rolling off it. This is, however, a terrific band from my era.     I was excited to hear that Bob was doing a tour this summer. Then I read that it was actually a Spring tour and this tends to irritate me because now I'm not prepared. When I was younger I loved spontaneity but now it is even hard to spell. I checked on Stub Hub, the ticket place, and Bob is in Nashville tomorrow night which is Thursday. Then he is in Greensboro, North Carolina on Saturday night. Either of these is within a long day's drive for me. Due to one thing and another I don't think I can make it. Seems like anymore, I'm always running against the wind.    This is the title of my favorite tune by this band. Well really, it's hard to say what my f...

    It's been an interesting day. I had an outside water hydrant that I worked on. It had split back during the winter during a really cold spell. It only leaked if you opened the valve and then it leaked back under the floor. I could hear the water and not see it so I crawled under the house to get at it. Sure enough there was a split about an inch long. It was unpleasant under there but I persevered.      Speaking of things that have persevered, I watched The Wizard Of Oz last night. I believe I enjoyed it more than I ever have. This film has been around since 1942. I can remember when I was a kid, they'd show it on regular TV once a year, in January. The whole family would watch it and we all loved it. When I was really small the flying monkeys really scared me and I had a few nightmares about them. Truth be told, the monkeys still scare me a little. As for the wicked witch of the west, she scared the tar out of me. In retrospect, I think she remi...

    I was just over on the app store, looking at the comments for Rage.  How any one could give this game less than a 5 star rating is beyond me. I gave it a 5 star rating on the app store just now and I wish I could have given it a 6 star.     Its been a cloudy, cool day with temperatures in the 40's and a 15 MPH wind. To while away the hours I played a bunch of the Rage game and was engrossed. It is like someone has dropped you down in one of those Lethal Weapon movies and it is a fight to the finish. Someone calls, you don't hear the phone. Your wife says something, you don't hear her. Finally you beat a level and lay the Padster down and start to flex your stiff fingers. You feel drained and a bit cocky from all the mutants you have ushered into the great mystery that is death. You swagger just a bit as you grab a beer from the fridge and walk outside. What? There's no one here to ask for an autograph? After shooting and moves like I just put on,...

     Hey, everyone. I have been on a Cormac McCarthy run lately and have read several of his books. He has such an odd style! In The Road , which I reviewed, he didn't give any of the characters a name. In No Country For Old Men, he doesn't use any quotation marks. As picky as editors are it is a miracle that his novels even were accorded a passing glance, yet the dude has won a Pulitzer Prize. Anyway, he is a terrific writer.    This book closely follows the excellent movie by the same name so you are probably thinking, "Why should I read this?" That's what I thought, although I've seen plenty of movies that did not follow the book at all closely. Well, I liked the movie and I enjoyed the book. Here's the recipe.       A guy named Moss, who lives in Texas, is out hunting on the plains and sees a group of vehicles in the distance. When he goes down to investigate he finds a drug deal gone bad. There are numerous dead guys, guns an...

    I just published my 200th post here on the blog. Some of them are pretty good and I thought that I'd write down a list of my favorites in case any of the newcomers would like to read them. You can reach them by scrolling down the right side until you reach the appropriate month and then clicking on the post. 1.Walking In The Rain (May, 2010) 2.The White Chicken Mystery ( February 2011) 3. Snakes That Fly (May, 2010) 4. Things That Rattle Me (June, 2010) 5. Learning His Craft ( May, 2010) 6. The Garden Of The Octopus ( September, 2010) 7. A Plug For Bears ( November 2010) 8. The White Sign ( June 2010) 9. Footsteps On The Roof ( May, 2010) 10. The Meditating Squirrel ( January, 2011)     It's a rainy day here at the green retreat and thank goodness for that because I had a ton of chores to do. Now I am 'forced' to stay indoors and goof off.     I have an update on the game I bought called Dead Space . I have severe buyer's remorse over t...

    Hey everyone.  I recently tried a new game for I-Pad, I-Phone and I-Pod. The name of it is PetsWar, as you may have guessed from the title. It is available for free on the app store. The paid version is only 99 cents.     This game is a Tower Defense game. For those of us who are new to modern gaming, let me say that this means you have pieces that are defending your turf from invaders. This game is remarkably similar to Plants Vs. Zombies which is one of the top ten games on the planet, in my opinion. Although this game can not be compared to Zombies in polish, cuteness, playability or graphics, it certainly can beat Zombies in price. For a free game it is very good and fun. I would think it is a great game to sit down and play along with your young children. Heck, I enjoy it quite a bit myself. In fact I liked it enough to splurge and buy the paid version for a hard-earned dollar. Here's the recipe for the game.      Your turf i...

    Hey, everyone. Just a quick note that can't be qualified as a review. Today only you can get the game called Blaster Tank from the app store for the very reasonable price of free. It is a retro style game and has a tank which you drive. You have to shoot down planes and helicopters that are attacking you. As you progress there are better shields for your tank and heat-seeking missiles which come after you. There are kamikazie planes diving into the ground (or you) and red tracers that try to penetrate your armor. My favorite part of the game is the nuclear option . When you press this button everything on the screen is blown to kingdom come. Except for you. You build up one of these nukes every few minutes so it is good to save them for extreme situations. No wonder all these dictators want nukes!    Since I've only played it today, please don't think of this as a review because I don't really know everything about it. I just wanted you guys to have the opp...

    Hey, everyone. I had the most wonderful dream last night and I thought I'd share it with you. The dream was this: I was playing a guitar and singing along with some old song from my youth. It was true to life in that I didn't sing that great, nor was I ready for the stage as far as the guitar went, but I played quite acceptably.     As you folks know, I have always wanted to play the guitar. I have an acoustic and an electric, both covered with dust. I can barely make a few chords and it's a rare occasion when I make them sound right. My aged hands are stiff and years of using power tools have not really helped my aspirations.     When I awoke from this dream, I had such a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of peace. I truly enjoyed it. The funny thing is that when I awoke and I looked in the mirror, I had a scratch across my nose, over an inch long. It was bleeding a bit and I couldn't help but wonder if I had broken a string during ...

    Greetings from the woods. The other day I published a post in which I mentioned that my wife and I were standing underneath a large limb that the storm had snapped off. It was hanging from a small limb and could have fallen on us. Here is a better picture of it. You'll notice that the ants have totally eaten the guts from the tree, leaving just a shell. Perhaps like that person who only looks at the physical attributes of a woman, or a man. I mentioned this in my post called The Shell Game. At any rate, the ants regrettably do this much too often in this area. It appears as though they get sufficient fiber in their diet, wouldn't you say?      As for the second picture, this is the track of a doe, the female of the white-tailed deer. If it had been a buck, the male, there would be two parallel marks spaced like railroad tracks, just smaller. Ha, ha. The track on the left seems to indicate that the rear foot overstepped the track of the front foot...

    Hey, movie lovers. Different opening. Cool, huh? Well, I guess many of you are about to go out for date night and are checking various sources to get an idea what you should spend your hard earned shekels on. Perhaps I can be of help. Try a movie named Source Code.      To begin with, let me say that it is one of the freakiest movies I've ever seen. It has several jaw-dropping surprises, which I will spend the next few minutes trying not to spoil. It is rated PG 13 and there is nothing in it that would bother most young people. There is some cursing but zero nudity.     Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Colter Stevens, who awakens in the middle of a mission which he didn't know he was on. His mission, and he can't choose whether or not to accept it, is to travel back in time to stop a terrorist from bombing a train just outside of Chicago. He has 8 minutes to do so which seems a bit of pressure for anyone until one realizes that he will get...

     I was thumbing through a recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine and saw an interview with Howard Stern, the famous radio host. Most of Rolling Stone is lost on me because the modern performers are unknown to me. For instance, I read an article about Rihanna that was very interesting, though I couldn't tell you a single song that she does. Occasionally they will have an article on John Lennon or Elton John that is really interesting because it is more in my time frame.     I was familiar with Howard because I saw the movie about his life. He is an interesting guy and Neil Strauss did an excellent job on this article. The article taught me a lot about this complex and fragile person.     For instance, Howard's show would lead you to believe the worst of him. It would not make you think that he was faithful to his wife for 25 years, would it? I fear the public persona of many people differs from reality. Let's face it, who among us w...

    Hey, everyone. I was thinking about the new TV show with Jerry Springer called Baggage . I really enjoy it. You have a lady picking from 3 men or vice versa. Each contestant has to reveal their quirks one at a time until the largest piece of baggage is revealed and the choice for a date is made. As I sat and watched the birds on my deck I thought about a new game show called Bird Baggage. You could have the yellow bird from sesame street as the master of ceremonies. Contestant #1 could admit that he intentionally does a #2 on the humans who feed him. Contestant #2 says that he eats other birds' eggs as the crowd groans at his wickedness. Contestant #3 would divulge that he swoops down and plucks a hair out of a human's head to help line his nest. ( Tit- Mouse )     I don't feed the birds anymore. I fed them for years but did they appreciate it? NOoooooooooo! Did they make a mess? YEssssssss! Was it an expense? Yeah. Do I miss them? Yes. We had a big v...

    Hey, everyone. I wasn't planning on posting today but felt I should. The other day I mentioned an app called Pogo Games , which I said had six games on it and several of them were fun. After messing around with it a bit more I feel I should tell you that the adds are more than usually annoying and they have an in-app purchase that does not go through the app store. I recommend that you never get an in-app purchase that does not go through the app store. There's usually a reason. I read a comment on the game at the app store. This guy got the in-app purchase and it turned out the game makers wanted a monthly fee for playing their games. I want you guys to feel like my intentions are good and when I say something you can at least feel I am not out to deliberately mislead anyone. I will certainly make errors.     I plan on keeping the free version of Pogo Games on my I-Pad because I like to play Mah Jong Safari. I just wanted to let you know that I am on ...

    Hey, everyone. I wanted to tell you about a very helpful tool for all the I-Pad folks. The current issue of the magazine called iPhone Life has a huge article called a How-To Guide, 250 ways to get more out of your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. To say that it is comprehensive would be an understatement. It taught me a few things and I've had an I-Pad for a year. This is in the May-June issue and I would particularly recommend it to new owners of these devices. They sell it at most Wal-Mart stores. I actually subscribe to it. Normally I throw old issues away when I've read them but I'll keep this one around as a primer.      There were a lot of fallen tree limbs down when we arose this morning. Fortunately there was no damage here at the green retreat other than the limbs. We had 2 inches of rain and the wind was intense. As we took our walk in the woods, we were standing under a tree and chatting. Then my wife looked up and saw a big limb hanging ...

      Hey, everyone. I took a day of vacation today and really enjoyed it. We went out and bought some flowers. Flowers don't do well up here as a rule so we buy some and have a couple of big pots of assorted flowers on the deck for the summer. This year we are going to set the pots out in the yard a bit. The reason for this is the moisture and dirt in the pots seems to attract ants, scorpions and perhaps gnats. Bloody drag, what?     This weekend there seemed to be a bad odor in the house in the area of the master bedroom and the master bath. We could not isolate what the problem was. We did a number of things, including pouring vinegar and baking soda down the drains, which boils them out in rather spectacular fashion. Put a handful small amount of baking soda down them first, then pour vinegar down them. Very cool.     We finally deduced that a mouse had crawled up between the floor and sub-floor underneath the jacuzzi, after ...

    Hey, everyone. I ran across a couple of new games that you may find to be fun. I know you will find them to be free. They are Word Abacus and Zoombie Digger . It is not my intent to do a full review on either but merely to tell you about them before you have to pay for them. These games are for Apple products, of course.     Word Abacus is much like Bookworm , which is one of the best games for puzzle lovers on I-Pad. It is fun. You have to pick words out of a jumbled mass of letters and you receive points for your efforts. Sometimes you get a letter with green beads on it. They multiply your score by the number of beads shown, then are timed to disappear, so use the letter as quickly as possible. If a letter has red beads around it you have to use it before red appears in a complete circle or the game is over. Another difference from Bookworm is the fact that you can drag letters to empty spaces to make a word. Also, you can make words diagonally; a...

    Hey, everyone. I went to the creek today and saw a lot of tracks. Several interesting ones seemed to be made by a rather big bird. Not like the big yellow one that hangs out on sesame street but more like a hawk or an owl.     When I came home I played some songs on the keyboard. It was fun and I sang along with them. I was playing out of a songbook that contained a representative sample of Elvis's life work. As I played songs like Don't Be Cruel and Love Me Tender I was struck by what a shame it was that the young and newly crowned king of rock and roll stopped writing. His songs that he wrote were among the best he ever recorded. Did he overreact to criticism of his music and let others do the writing? If so, what great and fun music did the critics rob the world of? Maybe it would be good if critics could learn to keep their big mouths off young people?  When I was 21 I didn't know my... leg from a hole in the ground. Perhaps I should expect...

    Hey, everyone. The other day I was craving some barbecue ribs. I stopped in a place called Logan's Roadhouse. It's a chain, here in the Southeast U.S. and in most of them, the food is very good.     The place is made to give the look and feel of a 1950's style roadhouse, like on Route 66 when it was the main East-West road. Really, there were similar places in rural areas all over. To give you an idea of the ambience, there are bare wood floors, wood booths, jukebox stuffed with country rock and a lot of old beer and menu signs on the wall.     The greeter's table is actually an old coca-cola machine with the flat sliding doors on top, about waist high.     They have these tin buckets on the tables, filled with peanuts. The intention is for you to eat the peanuts and toss the shells in the floor, which I cannot do. I'm a neat person and can't stand a slob. I can't make myself throw stuff in the floor. I will say that I a...

    Hey, everyone. I was laying in bed, propped up on my pillow and my mind was active. I'll share a few thoughts with you before I try the sleep thing again.      For one thing, this e-book technology is interesting, don't you think? I find that one of the best things about it is the back-lit screen of the I-Pad. Most houses really don't have good lighting for reading and the older one gets the more important this is. I still read normal books as well as e-books and I catch myself missing the back-lit screen of the e-reader more and more. In the mornings I like to read the Pulse news feeder on the Padster, as I've mentioned before, and I love being able to double tap an article and see the font instantly blow up in size for my ease of reading. Most of the other pros and cons I've covered before and I won't bore you guys who have followed the blog by a repetition of these things. The main stumbling block of the whole affair at this time is the ridicu...

    Hey, everyone. I ventured off the mountain today, down into the haunts of men. I'll tell you about a movie I saw, then later I'll tell you about some other stuff. The movie is Unlimited . This is a story that you would have to call science fiction, but in the not so distant future you may call it reality.      Bradley Cooper plays Edward Morra. If you looked up loser in the dictionary you would see this guy's picture. He has freeloaded off his girlfriend for years. He claims to be a writer but can't seem to put words on paper. His woman leaves him; he is a scroungy, dirty dude with no future, no drive and no money. He is about to be evicted from his scummy apartment.     Then he bumps into an old friend. The friend wants him to try a new drug which comes in the form of a small, clear pill. What Edward doesn't know is that the pill is pretty awesome. The drug is designed to unlock the true potential of the human brain. We only use a...

    Hey, everyone. A while back I did a post about a squirrel that was acting rather peculiar here at the green retreat. At that time he was sitting and staring at my car for a while, not moving. In the post titled The Zen Squirrel Theories I drew some conclusions as to what could be the little guy's problems. Just lately it seems that the formerly meditative animal has fallen back into the carnality of this present world. He appears to be wearing a hairpiece although it's not as though he needs it. He has a wonderful, even bushy, head of hair. At least it seems that he maintains his healthy diet of acorns and nuts. I chose to set forth a few thoughts as to what may be the reason behind this squirrel's new 'do. 1. He is a Justin Bieber fan. 2. He lost an election bet with a squirrel from another state. 3. The chick squirrels really dig him in long hair. 4. He was getting a little thin on top and it was effecting his self-esteem. I certainly sympathize with that. 5...