CE Wills

Hey, everyone. About 17 months ago, I started a blog here. I have enjoyed it but now it is time to call a halt to this enterprise. The amount of work involved is huge and there is really no reward, other than some fun. So this will be my last post. There have been over 300 posts published and I feel like they were good. People in 71 different nations have read them, which is very cool. I tried to watch what I said, knowing that I had a diverse crowd of folks to address. The internet is that great bridge across the chasm of our environments. Where one geek can tell another geek about a cool game or an animal that made him laugh. Where we can even blow off a little steam if we don't get carried away. With my increase in available time, I hope to finish writing a few more books before I go to that great mystery reserved for each of us. Since many of my visitors only come around every few weeks, I plan on leaving this last post on the page for a while. I don't want people to

Hey, everyone. For the last 8 years, we have had very dry years in 7 of the 8. I believe that this is a part of global warming. I think that the future holds some troubling times in a lot of areas but I'd like to talk about water. My creek has been dried up for months. Species of trees are dying around me. An entire temperate zone has shifted north. I believe that there is going to be a shift in population to areas that are served by major rivers. Rivers that have never run dry. I believe that land values in those areas will go up and land values in areas without major rivers will decrease drastically. When I speak of areas with major rivers, I mean areas where you can get water piped to your home from a public system that takes their source water from a major river. Wells in our area are going bad at a record pace. Some of this is from dry seasons and some is from pollution and overuse. I hope to goodness that the oil companies don't buy into water systems or we may be

    Hey, everyone. We have a hummingbird that hangs around. He is a cute little guy and quite harmless. Imagine our irritation when we were walking across the back yard, two days ago, and found his dead body. He was a mess and I won't show you the picture we took of his remains out of decorum. The question is, what happened?     We have had many odd things happen here. Several years ago, when we fed birds on a big feeder, we found a decapitated bird on the feeder. After a lengthy CSI investigation we concluded that an evil cat had killed the bird and left his corpse there to vex us. I find it strange that the perpetrator did not eat the bird in either case. In the recent case of the hummingbird, I proposed that the bird had merely flown into something and killed itself. This happens fairly often as they try to fly  through a window or a set of glass doors. It is sad, but so are many things in life. My wife pointed out that the hummingbird was 20 feet away from any object that he c

    Hey, everyone. As promised, I am back to talk a bit about the more recent puzzle games for I-Pad. My faithful puzzle consultant has went to sleep so we have to make a deal. I will tell you about games that may be good and free but I will make fun of them because they are in fact for people who don't like to shoot aliens and zombies. So, if you made one of these games, don't send me any hate mails.      It seems that there are mini-trends for games. For instance, right now it is fashionable to come out with so called retro games or arcade style games. In many cases this just seems to mean the graphics are bad. Sometimes there seems to be mostly Role Playing games coming out, or shooters. But there are always a few puzzle games visible as you look down that long megabyte highway. Whether it be Physics puzzlers or word puzzlers or hidden object games, there is a loyal following awaiting these apps. Here's a few of the newer ones that my wife, the puzzle guru, is trying ou

    Hey, everyone. After a brutal week of overtime and late hours and aggravation, it is time to talk about games. 1) Sprinkle. This is an Angry Birds type game. You are a firefighter and must spray water on fires which are in crevices, on hills and generally obstructed. If you don't put out the fires before the houses burn, you lose. This game has 26 levels for a buck. It's highly rated and even an old puzzle hater like myself can enjoy it. There are some people on the app store who are mad because you only get 26 levels, then they want to sell you another pack of levels for another 99 cents. One other thing, the name of this game is really long and just 'Sprinkle' won't get you to it. I think the full name is Sprinkle, Water Spraying, Firefighting Fun. The graphics are exceptional. It is worth a dollar, no doubt. 2) If you like war games, this is a good weekend to buy Modern Combat 2, Black Pegasus. It is normally $6.99 but you can grab it now for a ridiculous

    Hey, everyone. Many years ago I was working at a weather station and we had a very interesting visitor. He was a member of the Hurricane Hunters and he was on a recruiting trip. He hoped to find some crazy people to voluntarily fly through the walls of hurricanes for the purpose of taking readings. I raised my hand because A. I loved the weather career field.             B. I was young and adventurous.             C. I thought it would be cool.       The guy looked at the wedding band on my raised hand and shook his head. "Sorry, son. We don't take any married guys, for obvious reasons."       Well, that was okay because then, as now, my wife is more fun than flying through the wall of a hurricane and at times she is as peaceful as the 'eye'. It may get really stormy around her in the morning, when she reads this.     When hurricane season rolls around I still like to get the coordinates of these storms from The National Hurricane Center in Miami and p

    Hey, everyone. Most people who are avid readers spend a portion of their lives in search of good authors and good books. I just finished a rather good book I'd like to tell you about. It's entitled Lethal People and it was written by John Locke. Not the one from the TV show Lost. Ha, ha.     This book is the tale of a modern day assassin named Donovan Creed. Mr. Creed has spent many years killing people for the United States Government. He also does a little killing on the side for a minimum of $50,000 a hit. His bosses at the CIA, Homeland Security and NSA turn a blind eye to Mr. Creed's 'hobby' as he is a valuable asset in the war on terror.     In this first novel in the series, Donovan has his plate full. His ex-wife is about to marry a wife-beating sicko. A mobster is trying to kill Creed because he is investigating a suspicious fire which has disfigured a precious little girl. He is also contacted by a crippled midget who needs a number of people kill

    Hey, everyone. I'm having a great morning, here at the green retreat. I got up early. It was cloudy and the rumble of thunder was all around. We desperately need rain and received a good storm. After the storm some fog rolled through, which is typical for the mountains.     I really enjoy a rainy day. It's a good excuse to be lazy and read, watch TV or play video games. It seems nice and cozy to be inside while the rain beats on the roof and the trees sway.     I'll tell you what I'd really like to be doing. I'd like to be in Germany at Gamescom 2011. This is a huge convention for gamers. I was just over on Kotaku.com, a gamers site, and I was checking out some cool photos from the convention. I loved the people running around in costumes. Cosplay (Dressing up in costumes) is huge in Japan and evidently in Europe. People come from all over the world to attend this show and go to see the newest game demos. Some people pay thousands of dollars to make their cost

    Hey, everyone. Am I having fun today? I guess. As you know, my favorite picture is this goofy deer which I caught on camera. The flash made him go cross-eyed. Well, I like it. The first thing I do with any new photo app is try it on this picture.      Real Cover is a great app. It works great and it's fun for older kids like myself. What you do is this. You pick a magazine cover out of several dozen. Then you pick a photo from your library, or elsewhere, to go on the front, like my friend above. Then you can put a headline on the cover, such as "Cross-eyed deer caught eating CE Wills' corn last night!" You have the ability to make the font larger or smaller and change the text color. You can also add the pics to Facebook and other places, including email, from within the app.      So this app was on sale this morning for free, which is a great sale. There is a lite version, which is always free, by the way.      Guess what? I put my wife's picture on the c

    Hey, everyone. On Wednesday I took a day of vacation. Four of us went to a wilderness area where there are thousands of acres of pine forest with no homes for many miles. This area has a few logging roads on it. You need to take a gun for safety because there are some mean people here and there, as well as the odd dangerous critter. Our purpose for the trip was to look for tracks and we found plenty of them.      This particular area has quite a bit of sandy soil. It's not all sand but really a mix of sand and loam. It's ideal for tracking. The problem is that we have had almost no rain for the last month and the tracks we saw were ones that were weeks old, in all likelihood. They set like cement in this stuff.     We found many ditches filled with sand as well as one huge mudhole, capable of swallowing several trucks the size of ours. We had taken my truck because it is a 4-wheel drive and the roads have huge ruts, as well as big rocks.     My favorite tracks which we f

     The other day I was thinking about a time when my boys were young. We had signed them up for Karate and they had been in the sport for a while. I never got involved other than to watch them or drive them back and forth. My wife took them more often than not. There were several things I really enjoyed about it. I liked to go to the tournaments and I liked to see demonstrations. To see the things that even the smaller kids could do was a treat.      I remember one day that I went to a demonstration which I found particularly fascinating. Our kids' Sensei was a 3rd degree Black Belt and his Sensei came to town. This guy did some stuff that I remember to this day. First, I saw him make a fist and allow a car to drive over it. Wow. I was so glad that he didn't ask me to drive the car. Secondly, I saw him chop the top off a coke bottle with his bare hand, without knocking the bottle over. I was impressed, you bet.     I admire the dedication of people who accomplish mighty thi

    Hey, everyone. Check out this weird moth. He is made to look like a piece of bark, I guess. Maybe this is a defense mechanism or maybe he's just odd. He is kind of pretty. Even with those hairy legs. Maybe he should wax? He also has a pronounced hump, like a camel. We certainly have some odd insects, here at the green retreat.     I've been cutting fire wood today. It has been much cooler and felt like fall this morning. I'll try to post a full size post later, as this is more a 'tweet' size. Back to work for me. I'm CE Wills.

    Wow! This is going to be a tough review. This movie has an identity crisis. It wants to be a western. It wants to be science fiction. At times it is well directed and at times it seems to fall a bit short. At times visually stunning and at times unpredictable. For a few minutes you are saying, hey this is pretty good and at times you are thinking maybe it's not so good.     Let's start by saying that this movie has some stars. Harrison Ford plays Woodrow Dolarhyde, who owns the town of Absolution. He is a cantankerous old coot with a decent side hidden in there somewhere.      Daniel Craig, Mr. Bond to you, is tasked with playing the part of a gun-slinger and robber named Jake Lonergan. Jake awakes in the desert with amnesia. He has a funny looking bracelet on his left wrist, which he can't remove. He has no boots and few clothes. He fixes that problem when three hardcases try to mess with him. He kills all three of them and takes their stuff, including a badly needed

    Hey, everyone. I've had a nice weekend and I hope that you have too. The temperatures have moderated a bit here in the south but without the anticipated rainfall. We are really dry. My creek has been dry for several months.     I tried to watch one of the preseason NFL games this weekend and that didn't work out well. There were commercials superimposed on the screen during game-play so I watched less than 5 minutes of the telecast and turned it off. Thus far the NFL has been quite strict about this during regular season games and I hope they continue to do so. I'm at a point where I could do without Football in a heartbeat. I enjoy it, but my patience with sports and marketing and greed and arrogance is rocking on the edge. Whatever.      I'm really enjoying a game for the Padster called Real Golf 2011 . I've mentioned it before but I wanted to tell you about something odd, or cool that happened to me. I had been playing in a couple of tournaments, which adds

    As mentioned earlier, I planned on writing another chapter to Tale Of The Black Mushroom. Here it is. If you missed Chapter 1, go to the July archives to your right and read it; or download it, for free, from Smashwords via the link to your right.                     Chapter 2     Breeze sat on the top step of the cabin porch, deep in the woods of southern Kentucky. Her mind was on the young man whom she had met on the cliff, Jeremy. She was mentally kicking herself in the butt for falling for a stranger. She was especially mortified that she had been so brazen as to kiss him. Plus, she had been weeping when she ran away. He must have thought her a silly little girl, much different from his 'prom queen'. At thought of this other girl she burned within. It was her first experience with the green monster of jealousy and she decided that it was an unpleasant companion.     "How arrogant she must be to set a quest for a guy to perform as a key to her favor!" Sh

    Hey, everyone. I saw a good movie tonight on HBO. It was a show that I saw at the theater about 100 years ago, when I was just a lad. In reality, it was probably 1997. The title is Excess Baggage , not to be confused with Jerry Springer's Baggage TV show.     This movie stars Alicia Silverstone as a poor little rich girl. She tries to get her Dad's attention, and love, by faking her own kidnapping. Unfortunately, when she binds herself with tape and puts herself in the trunk of her car, the car is stolen before the police get there. This is incredibly bad luck for an unfortunate car thief played by Benicio Del Toro. Vincent is the thief's name and he soon finds out that he has unwittingly kidnapped a bit of a plague in the person of  Emily, the heiress. Before long, she has burned down his warehouse full of beautiful cars and cost him a satchel full of money. In addition to that she has insured that Vincent is on the run from the cops, the FBI, the mob and Emily's

    Hey, everyone. This week I've been playing a lot of the game called 9MM by Gameloft. I believe that this may be the best game on the app store. Although I previously did a review of it, I'd like to talk a bit more about it.     When I play a game I like to insert myself into the lead character, almost like role playing. It adds to the fun. In this game it is like you have just joined the cast of a Clint Eastwood cop show or a Lethal Weapon flick. Just this week, after many battles, I arrested a bad guy called El Diablo. (I doubt that was his given name) After I put him in the slammer, he broke out and incited a riot of freed prisoners, right there in the jail. The riot police were called in but they were fighting these guys in the parking lot. That left me, John (Loose) Kannon, to deal with the mess on the inside. I had to go from room to room and shoot it out with drug dealers and murderers. I regret to say that I had to put a few of them down. (89, to be exact)      By

    Not long after I bought my first I-Pad, I predicted the demise of gaming consoles. Over a year later there are other writers doing the same. Today there are a group of Nintendo's investors that are applying pressure to the company brass to begin selling their games on the app store. Yes. Mario Brothers could be on your I-Pad.      If you haven't read it, try my post titled I-Pad, The Entertainment Monster , dated October 6th. 2010. You can find it in the blog archives to your right. Especially note the final few paragraphs about the gaming companies. I also did a few other comments on this subject of the console's suicide pact but I don't remember where they are.     Here's an excerpt. In the boardroom of a video game corporation several years ago they held a meeting. The CEO asked a question, "How can we destroy our billion dollar cash cow?" One little guy timidly raises a hand.      "Sir, we should charge $50 for games when we are already ge

    Hey, everyone. There are certain types of movies that bother me. I'll give you a prime example of one. I was watching a movie tonight called Donnie Brasco. It's a movie in which a young Johnny Depp plays an FBI agent who is tasked with infiltrating the Mafia.    He gets on the inside of the mob by making friends with a 'made man'. This guy is one of those dudes who has killed in the service of his 'family'. This mob guy is played by Al Pacino. What bothers me about this movie is someone pretending to be someone's friend so that they can do grievous harm to them.     Yes, I know that it's just a movie. Yes, I know that Mafia guys are bad guys. Yes, I'm aware of all the crimes that have been done. That doesn't change the fact that deceit and betrayal damages your soul. There's a corny old saying that two wrongs don't make a right. I don't know if it applies here or not.     Like police ladies who dress up as prostitutes so that

    Here I sat, at the start point of an illegal street race in Tokyo, a city with more bright lights than Vegas. My spotter's sexy voice was in my ear plug. "Get ready," she said.     Then we were off, with me being the last car in the pack of 6, blistering the street between skyscrapers on a beautiful summer night. My windows were down and I heard screaming engines and tortured tires echoing in the canyons of this metropolis. In front of me, #5 drifted too far to the right and clipped three small trees in front of an office building but drifted back into the street and sped on. He had slowed enough to allow me to blast past him and I tossed him a casual salute with one finger as my Maserati slid by. Then I was on #4 so fast that it felt like an explosion of lights coming at my eyes. I nudged the wheel slightly left and passed between #4 and an oncoming taxi. I heard my spotter, Angie, shout. "I'm glad I'm not in that car!"     I was now gradually o

    Hey, everyone. I was sitting on the deck this afternoon, getting a tan and listening to music. I heard Steamroller Blues by the dude from Memphis (Mr. Presley). I thought in amusement about another of my favorite singers, James Taylor, who also sang this song. James is a crooner and terrific at what he does. He does mellow stuff as well as anybody but some songs are meant for certain people.     What I mean is this. When James sang this song, ladies in the audience chuckled. When Elvis did it, the ladies laughed nervously and broke out in a sweat. Give it a listen and see what you think. Sometimes I've wondered why someone like Neil Diamond would write a song and turn it over to the Monkees or some one to make a hit out of it. ( I'm A Believer). Steamroller Blues is a prime example.     It's kind of like action movie stars. Some of them are good actors but when you watch Steven Seagal, you think, "This dude would kill me. I can see it in his eyes". I was jus

    Hey, everyone. Liam Neeson is one of my favorite actors. so when I saw a Netflix title with him as the star and the talented Julianne Moore as co-star, I decided to try it. Liam plays David, a college professor who likes to flirt with young women, much to the chagrin of his attractive wife, Catherine. Catherine is a middle-aged Doctor. May I say right here to any producer that may be reading the blog, guys have zero interest in watching any sort of medical exam, okay? Anyway, Catherine is tired of David's wandering eye and decides to test him. She does this by hiring an attractive young escort to flirt with the poor, unsuspecting David and see if he is indeed a philanderer or a philanthropist. Ha, ha.      Well, gee, you knew that things were going to go south, and they do. What you didn't know is just how far south they would go. There are a few surprises and a few "oh, wow" moments. The escort takes things a bit too far and has aspirations to be a narrator of s

   Hey, everyone. It's been a long night for me. I went to Smashwords and published my short story called Tale of the Black Mushroom . You may remember that I wrote it up and posted it here on the blog about a month ago. I actually have written a second chapter for it but that is not on Smashwords. The reason for that is as follows. When I finished the second chapter of this short story I saw that the story really calls for a novelette or a full novel. I may well take this one all the way to book form. I like the characters and the situation. I find teen love affairs somewhat endearing as I am a bit of a romantic. This tale, for those of you who have not read it, is strictly 'G' rated. If you would like to read it or download it as a PDf or whatever version you desire, I will put a hyperlink below. I hope it works, though I have had problems with those in the past. If the link fails to work just hit the link to your right which will take you to my author page at Smashwords

    Hey, everyone. Several years ago, I visited Chattanooga, Tennessee's  Hunter Art Museum. It's situated on a cliff overlooking the Tennessee River and the area is quite picturesque. The main thing I remember from the museum was a sculpture that was on loan from the Smithsonian. It was huge and stood in the main lobby. I wish I could remember its name or the sculptor's name, but I cannot. The thing was done in polished white marble. It depicted a woman in a ball gown which was flared out and very full. The note on the stand indicated that the sculptor had carved it as a tribute to his dead wife and  the statue depicted her. It was the single most exquisite thing I've ever seen.     I have always enjoyed sculpture. It's truly amazing that a man or woman could do such fine work. Some are so minutely detailed that you expect them to come to life and walk away. Perhaps that is just what the creator of the one in Chattanooga had hoped for. On this particular day, I wa

    Hey, everyone. I've had a bit of sleep and should be able to write a bit more coherently today. Fridays are a little crazy for the Padster fanatics. The new games come out on Thursday and by Friday all the bloggers have churned out their opinions.  I will read stuff from Pulse and Flipboard and go over to the store and download a bunch of free games. Then I will vege out for a while, seeking those illusive 'keepers' that tempt me to buy them or to write about them. When it's going well, I doubt if I would hear you knocking on the door.      Typically, if I can't find something good to say about a freebie, I won't say anything. I find that habit reprehensible. But let me give you a list of some new games that are free, so you can decide whether or not they are for you. 1. Terrables . An odd little game. You have to tap the screen to kill all these figures that race toward you. It is likely to cause severe pleasure for the obsessive compulsive among you. Th

   Hey, everyone. The weekend approaches and if you feel the need to read, I'll make a suggestion. Try the Lee Child novel called Trip Wire. It's the third novel in the Jack Reacher series. Plain and simple, the book rocks. Here's the recipe.     Jack Reacher is an ex-army dude. He had been a investigator for the U.S. Army and retired as a Major. He slows down a bit in his wandering life by staying in Key West for a few months. One day he learns there is a man searching around town for him. When the guy finds him, Reacher denies that he even knows of a Jack Reacher.  Jack is a guy who dodges commitments and entanglements. Then, later that night Jack finds the guy's dead body.      This sudden demise leaves Jack to wonder what the guy had wanted so he sets out to find the gentleman's home. He trails the guy to New York City and begins turning over rocks that had  best been left covered up. He bumps into an old love interest. That's good but there are complicati

    Hey, everyone. Don't have time for a full post but I wanted to mention a free game for your I-Pad called Pumpkins vs. Monsters. It's only free for today so strike while the iron is hot. It looks like fun. It is a combo of a match three and a tower defense. It is similar to Plants vs. Zombies; but then again, it's not. Hey, free and fun are the only two words we need to hear. Bye.    CE Wills.

    Hey, everyone. Janis Joplin once said that she was feeling 'near as faded as her jeans'. Nice imagery, for sure. This 30 year old piece of coral from the Bahamas is faded worse than my jeans. It's a souvenir from a very enjoyable trip and not terribly significant, I suppose.     I understand that it is now illegal to bring things of this nature home with you, which I can certainly understand. Scientists have taught us that ocean reefs are: 1.Living 2. Hugely important to the world ecology. 3. Something to be treasured, rather than being a curio.      I noticed that 'my' coral has developed some interesting red dots on it. I hope it isn't some alien life form come to take its vengeance for my absconding with a piece of the reef. For that matter, I wonder about the coral itself. I even share a bit of empathy for these tiny creatures.        I would bet that thirty years ago, this chunk of sea life was going about its business in the wonderful, warm, clea