CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. Someone bought me a hardcover edition of the latest James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver. It was a Christmas present and I was glad to get it because I make a practice of reading all the Bond books and seeing all the Bond movies. I crawled under a fence at a drive-in theater to see my first Bond film. This was in the 1960's and I was a kid, but it was massively cool to see Goldfinger on the big screen. Probably not a great thing to see the gold-painted lady when you are that young, but I have been a James Bond fan for life. Of course, any time I read one of the novels, I picture Bond as Sean Connery, as most people do. I feel he will always be the best Bond, although Daniel Craig is excellent.     I love the writings of Ian Fleming and his Bond books are the best. He had a background in the spy game and he knew it well. He loved booze, ladies and the tropics, which made him AOK in my book. But I digress from my review.    ...

    Hey, everyone. The Australian Open mens' final was historic. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic slugged it out for around six hours. Some had felt that Nadal's best plan would be to extend the match due to Djokovic's  supposed physical problems. So much for that thinking. During the last set, I watched Rafa sitting during a break and his hand was trembling as he drank juice and ate a banana. His face was drawn and it is hard to imagine the desire that makes a man dominate the physical body with his iron will, as these guys do. I would have loved to have been there. I am a Nadal fan, but if I had flown thousands of miles to watch him lose, I would still have felt honored to have been present.       On ESPN they showed a stat, Rafael Nadal was actually hitting his volleys with more speed and power in the 5th set than he was during the first set. I hope that these guys don't have to go the hospital after the match.     I felt l...

     Hey, everyone. I wish you a good morning. It is frosty and cool here at the green retreat. Speaking of weather.. A year or so ago, I mentioned the fact that we had different types of trees that seemed to be dying out. Dogwoods, pin oaks, sourwoods etc. I said that I thought that entire climate zones were sliding north and I wondered how long it would be before the pines that are prevalent in middle and southern Georgia would be the dominate trees in the current hardwood country. Last night I was reading an article on the Washington Post that mentioned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reshaped its map for planting vegetation and now shows marked slides of zones to the north in most spots. When you become intimate with the environment, as we have here, you notice more readily the things that are going on with Mother Nature. They are gradual, sure, but I have noticed these things over the last ten years.      On a less serious level,...

    Hey, everyone. It's a pretty day here at the green retreat. It is about 50 degrees and sunny. We have had a huge amount of rain this week so the sunshine is welcome indeed.     I have been playing a few new games and I thought I'd give you my take on some of them. 1) Red Gun - This is a western game. You play as Red Gun (Hence the title), a guy who has a lot of enemies. The game is a very reasonable 99 cents. That is a plus and so is the fact that you get to shoot other gunmen. What I don't like about this game is the fact that you shoot your enemies by tapping on them with your finger, instead of the normal deal where you move your finger on a virtual pad to aim and then you fire. For some reason this detracts from the experience for me and makes it feel more like a kid's game. You may say to me, "Dude, games are for kids." Hey, they are also for big people and even the ...ahem, elderly. The recipe for this game is this: you hide behind barrels or w...

    Hey, everyone. It's a great week for gamers. There seems to be more going on than there has been for over a month. To start with, there are new levels out for Rage. They are titled as Kraken and Aqueduct . They are available as an in-app purchase for 99 cents, when you get the new update. The graphics are movie quality and the action is a blisteringly fast blur of violent confrontations with mutants in creepy underground places. The levels are fairly short but very much worth the modest price.      Interestingly enough, I saw no word of this update on any of the gaming sites so I suspect it took everyone by surprise. I played the Kraken level just now and it is a Mutant Bash episode with a similar theme to the first levels, as your game show host in a future Earth sends you through dangerous mazes haunted by murderous mutants. I love J.J.Stokes' wise cracks like "You're my favorite contestant, I'll be sad when they kill you". (I suspect that he...

    Hey, everyone. When I say 'game' I don't mean a video game. I am referring to a con game that is being perpetrated on the American consumer. Since roughly a third of my readers are outside of the U.S., I will expound a bit.      Like most goods these days, manufacturers of light bulbs have started to make light bulbs to last for less and less time. It started with a deal where they decided that global warming would be reduced by using certain types of light bulbs. I am all for slowing global warming. I believe that global warming exists and I appreciate Albert Gore's and others' initiative on this matter. Supposedly there was a new type of bulbs that would last for a year and some of them lasted very well. Of course they were expensive. Maybe a couple of dollars each. The older type of bulbs went up in price, then became hard to find. Well, now the normal bulbs last about a week. I kid you not. I had a day last week when I had to change 3 light bu...

    Hey, everyone. I was driving the other day when I passed a house that had about an acre of ground, fenced in. In the field were four horses. The horses were struggling with one another to get to a tree. The ones that were able to get close enough were chewing on the tree and aggressively eating the bark. The bark was gone from the tree, all the way around, up to a height of 5 or 6 feet. Something about it bothered me as I drove along.     I pride myself in keeping my nose out of other peoples' business but I wonder if the horses had enough to eat. Perhaps the owner had neglected to provide enough hay. Perhaps the horses merely felt the need for some roughage in their diet. Perhaps the tree had made them mad by failing to provide shade. Perhaps the horses were demented and thought they were beavers.The tree was a white oak, I think. I was about 100 feet away and driving at about 50 MPH. Sometimes I worry about stupid things but I've always liked horses....

     Hey, everyone. Puzzle people need love, just like everyone else. Although I love the shooter games, I play a bit of the Match 3 games as well. I just recently started on a new one called Crazy Caps HD . It is a fun game and I think you might like it. Moreover, it is free and as far as I can tell, has no in-app con games going on.     As I said, it is a match three. There is a board laid out with bottle caps of different colors and designs. You move a cap so that it will line up three of like color which causes them to flip over and fall off the board. As you progress through the matches, a meter, which resembles a tube of acid, proceeds to fill up on your right. When it is full you proceed to another board. Soon you have cool additions, such as a cap with a rocket on it. When you tap that one it zooms off the board, taking all the caps with it in the direction the rocket is pointing. This racks up some points on filling the acid tube, believe me....

    Hey, everyone. I was over on I-Tunes and downloaded a free song by First Aid Kit , a group with which I was not familiar. The name of it was Emmylou and I really liked it a lot so I bought some of their other stuff. These two young ladies definitely have a Bob Dylan type of style, I thought as I listened to the first song. Then I saw that they had done a song called Universal Soldier which Donavan did, back in the 60's, I think. Donavan was a Dylan kind of guy, by the way. I like the acoustic guitar and the sense that there is an inner poet mixed with the song writer. Well done. From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

     Hey, gamers. I decided to buy an in-app purchase for the new game called Halfbreed . I bought it on my I-Pad 2 and it wouldn't download. It downloaded on my I-Pad 1 and on my wife's I-Pad 1. The problem with this is merely that I cannot abide my wife having more super powers than I do. Which reminds me. Wouldn't it be a drag for those Justice League heroes like Batman? I mean, he hangs out with Superman, who has so many powers, while Batman has zero super powers. I bet that secretly, Batman hates Superman's guts. The Bat-Dude is probably thinking stuff like, "Yeah, Green Lantern has that cool ring, Flash has super speed, Wonder Woman has very neat abilities, while I have a black outfit without cheerful colors. I can only fly with a rope. I have to build my own car, too. I should just join the villains!"     Sorry, I became distracted. If the folks who built Halfbreed are reading, please fix the game where stuff will download to the I-Pad 2. Thank...

    Hey, everyone. As the weekend approaches, many of you are thinking about partying. Those of you who don't indulge, may want to try a new game or two. Here are a couple which I haven't played enough to review, really, but since they are free, why not check them out?       Halfbreed - This is an interesting title. In the old days, folks who were half white and half Indian were called this name in a derogatory manner. (I am part Indian) In the case of this game, the person is, I believe, half earthling and half alien. The hero  awakens and is confronted by an alien. He thrusts out his hand in self-defense and bolts of electricity shoot out of his fingers and render the alien ...dead, I guess. The dude has no memory of the events that led him to this state so he sets out to find the answers to his questions. He finds himself in a strange land, with big green aliens who want to kill him. So, he starts blasting the monsters with electricity. He finds that th...

    I stood on a rocky hillside in a country thousands of miles from my home. I had a sniper's rifle nestled in the crook of my arm. A few feet away stood Corporal Washington. He was my lone companion at the moment.     It was a bitterly cold night, several degrees below zero, with a stiff wind out of the north. We wore the latest and best arctic gear and were relatively comfortable. At least physically. Mentally, I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was about to kill a variety of strangers. Young men who had never harmed me or my loved ones directly but were part of a war effort directed against my country. Through no fault of their own, they would die by my hand in a few minutes.    I blocked the thoughts from my mind, knowing that they could cause me to fail in my ruthless task at the worst possible time, causing my own death and the deaths of my comrades. Then I took a rest position across the top of the boulder and waited for Was...

     Hey, everyone. I am a close observer of gaming apps on the store. The crooks and marketers are ruining this gaming platform. I was reading a review of a game this morning on the store and saw one guy that mentioned that he was going to start playing games on a different platform due to in-app purchases. This reminds me of the furniture industry. Years ago, they started to advertise dining room furniture for a certain price, then the customer would discover that he had to buy the chairs separately from the table. The same was true for bedroom stuff. Buy the bed, you get a frame. Then buy the mattress, box spring, night stand, etc. Well, some of the greedy folks who have been driven away from selling used cars and satellite dishes are now hip-deep in the app store.      You buy a game that is often hyped up by reviewers, then you play it a bit. You find that you can't progress without buying a weapon or armor with more cash. Then you get an up...

    Hey, everyone. I just watched the San Francisco 49's beat New Orleans in a terrific football game. I feel so happy for Alex Smith, who has persevered through a lot of tough years and some abuse from fans and the media. The #1 draft pick played well and threw a clutch pass to Vernon Davis for the win. The pass was absolutely where it had to be. It hit Davis in the numbers, on the goal line, with no wiggle room in the tight coverage. Awesome throw, awesome catch.      Even so, in my opinion, the big defensive lineman, Justin Smith, was the MVP of this game. To beat the Saints you have to put pressure on Drew Brees and boy, did  Mr. Smith bruise the all-pro quarterback today. Seldom have I seen a lineman dominate a game like Smith did today. He was fierce, fast and intense. Nobody could block him. His will to win was inspirational. I get so tired of seeing people who freeze up when presented with a big opportunity. Smith played like a guy with v...

    Hey, everyone. It's a cold morning here at the green retreat. The temperature went down to around 17 degrees F this morning with a couple of inches of snow. Carley and I took a stroll in the woods just now and took a few pics. Funny how a place can seem so alive when the leaves are out and a bit dismal in the winter. Now I am drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows, and blogging while my toes thaw out. Wish I were at the beach.     The tree pictured above has been abused by a pileated woodpecker. We have a few beaver around the creek but this doesn't appear to be their work. The woodpeckers can send chunks of wood flying.      As you can see, our creek did not freeze overnight. I think that most of the animals had taken the day off. They have better sense than humans and stay at home when the weather is bad. We did find some rabbit tracks, however.     We had 40 MPH winds last night and a big limb fell on the edge of the roof. No...

    Hey, everyone. Sometimes, as gamers, we fail to give a game adequate time to stir us and make us enjoy it. We fail to look past the initial minute or two. This is really a bit unfair and I have deleted a lot of games without giving them an adequate try-out.     Tonight I played a game for several hours which I have had on my I-Pad for a month. I am having a good time with it. The title of the game is Bullet Time HD and it is a good one. Here's the recipe. You control  a guy by the name of John Irish and he is a mutant-killing, gun-shooting dude. He is evidently a denizen of some future Earth which we wouldn't want to be a part of. He starts in a shanty town, which is all that is left of a city. It is inhabited by mutants and they really have no decorating taste. Trust me on that. They have bridges made of sheet metal and they have gates that raise and lower by small generators. Like anyone would want to come and steal their crappy stuff. You have...

   Hey, everyone. One of my favorite movies is Blast From the Past. You know how it is. Some movies just seem to be made for you. Or perhaps, they just had a perfect storm of acting, directing and writing that made the endeavor almost perfect.     Brendan Fraser stars as Adam Webber. He has spent the first 35 years of his life living in a bomb shelter. His nearly crazy father, a genius, played by Christopher Walken, mistakenly believed that nuclear war had broken out. Mr. Webber, a paranoid scientist, has built a bomb shelter because of the Cuban missile crisis, an event I remember quite well from the early 1960's. In reality, a small plane has crashed in his back yard but Mr. Webber has sealed the shelter for 35 years because he feels that the zombies will have mellowed out by that time. His long-suffering wife, played by Sissy Spacek, is pregnant and Adam is born underground.      When the time locks open, Mr. Webber goes to the surface ...

    Thanks for your comment on To Kill A Lobster (Shadowgun). I've changed my thinking on the lobster a little bit. If you get behind one of those blast shields and crouch there, the missiles just fly over your head. While you're covered you can move the crosshairs for your gun to a spot on the green ball above the monster's head. When the crosshairs turn red, jump up and blast him. He will track back and forth  to the same area. You can shoot a few rounds into him between missiles and put him in the dirt. It sure feels satisfying to see him fold like a big steel noodle. Good luck and good hunting. Like I said, it will take about 15 or 20 rounds to put him down.     CE Wills.

    Hey, everyone. The NFL Playoffs start today. This is one of the few reasons that I still have a TV.      I am excited about the playoffs this year. Firstly, the Falcons are playing, tomorrow at 1 PM. They play the Giants in New York. It should be a good game.     Cincinnati returns to the playoffs, for the first time in several years, I think. I like to see different teams make it. They play Houston, in Texas. This is the first playoff appearance for the young Houston franchise, though the old Houston team, the Oilers, made it . I liked that old Oiler team; Luv Ya Blue, Bum Phillips and all that. It was a good time. Earl Campbell, what are you doing these days? One of the interesting facets of this game is that both sides have a rookie quarterback. How weird is that? Kids start playing ball when they're five years old and by the time they come out of college, they are more polished than they used to be. Unfortunately, I'm afraid a ...

    Hey, everyone. What's up? I've been playing the original N.O.V.A. again. As I said the other night, it is easier to make progress on but with lesser graphics than NOVA 2. I just finished another level after getting down and dirty with a bunch of Xenos. Xenos are alien bad guys who like to say "Muk Ungamdi" a lot while they try to kill you. I think that term means "Your butt is mine" in Xeno language.     Although I get killed now and again, I am making decent progress, which equals fun, on this $4.99 game. This game must have been released prior to some change was made to Webster's dictionary concerning the word easy. Now, evidently, the folks at Gameloft think easy means inch by bloody inch. @#^!**. That makes me angry.     So, I have made it to another level of NOVA. There is some dude named Prometheus who calls me up on my Com Link and gives me a few titillating details about the spaceship that was destroyed. I don't know him, nor do...

     Hey, everyone, out there in etherland. I've been playing some new songs this morning on my keyboard. You may remember a Buddy Holly tune called It's So Easy . I hadn't matched the title to the song before today so I was delighted when I saw that it was the one that goes like this: "It's so easy to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love." It rocks pretty good. A later version of it, after amps and guitars had improved, really rocked. It seems like Joan Jett may have done a version. Anyway, I was playing this song and I thought about a fun thing I like to do. Sometimes I'll start to play a song and tell Carley, or the grandkids, whoever may be there, a silly story about it.      For instance, I would say that once upon a time Buddy Holly came to me and said, "CE, I need a hit, my man. The kids need shoes. I want to go on American bandstand, you know what I'm saying?"     "Yeah, Buddy, I hear you. But the thing is, I think ...

    Hey, everyone. My wife bought me the Steve Jobs biography for Christmas. I thought I'd give you some early impressions of Walter Isaacson's work even though I am not at the half-way point.     To begin with, I almost never read biographies or autobiographies. On the rare occasions that I do, they typically bore me to tears. For this reason I determined just to open to a page here and there and read parts that I found interesting. Much to my surprise, about one flip did it. I just read and read about this fascinating man.      Let me say that I have the utmost respect for the fact that Steve and his wife told their friends and others who were involved in this book to be absolutely honest with the writer during his research. This is so unusual for a biography and makes it informative and interesting. The book scarcely flatters Mr. Jobs, in most cases. It shows a brilliant, flawed, passionate individual. Except for his brilliance, goo...

    Hey, everyone. I've probably had the game Avatar since last Christmas. I bought it on sale for 99 cents and I have enjoyed it.  I haven't finished it yet. It has the most beautiful colors on the app store. It seems to be poorly thought of on app store reviews but I can't really agree with most of those folks in this instance.      Avatar is a mixture of puzzle and action game. It has a distinct zen type feel to it. It is like a progression toward a spiritual manhood. I found it to be entertaining. Here's the recipe.     Avatar is the brainchild of Director James Cameron. It is, of course, adapted from the movie. You are placed into the body of an Avatar by human scientists and are expected to bind yourself to the indigenous population on a strange planet. You are to be sort of a low-life spy. Instead, you become involved in a spiritual quest. The experience is so Zen-like that I caught myself expecting Yoda to pop up and say,...

    Hey, everyone. A year or so ago, there was a discussion on Madison Avenue. People in expensive clothes sat around a sumptuously appointed board room and discussed their fears of the future. One elderly man looked at his fellows.    "What should we do about the e-book menace?" A young man, a leader because of his cold, calculating business sense, stood. "First of all, we have to embrace the new technology. It is, quite obviously, the way of the future. But we have to do a better job of handling this than the music industry did. I, for one, don't want to give up my condo in Vail. So, we have to manipulate things to enhance our position. We have all the famous, popular authors on a string. We pay them a pittance for their hard work. We tell them what to write and when to write it. They have put up with our abuse and they are wealthy. If their readers want their books they have to come through us. Any contracts rendered from henceforth must include a clause t...