I Hate It When I'm Right, Sometimes

     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, Carley wanted me to pass along a quick note for the puzzlers among you. It is about a game that seems to be a new genre on the app store. The game is Globs and has been popular on PC for a while. In fact, they claim that 70 million people have played it. There is a free version which is add supported and you can pay a modest 99 cents to be add-free. There are several copy-cats out there already. Here's the recipe for game-play.
     There is a board, with several colors of globs on it. (Hence the name) You have a few globs of a single color that are joined together in their ethnicity. You gaze at the surrounding globs and determine which color has more globs which touch your own position. We'll say it is purple. So you look at the bottom of the board and choose the colored ball for purple, which changes those purple balls which are in contact with your little patch, to a like color. Let's say that your patch is red. As you repeat the process your red patch spreads across the board, similar to the way in which white people took over the United States from the Native Americans a few hundred years ago. Oops, didn't mean to get political. Ha, ha.
    Globs only allows you 25 moves to spread your globness to all the other colors on the board. There are a multitude of levels and Carley calls it 4 stars out of 5. As a non-puzzler, I call it mildly irritating, unlike global warming, which is pretty scary. Sorry, I became political again.
    From the author's green retreat, CE and Carley Wills.

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Shadowgun: Crushing The Driller On Level 4

Hey, everyone. Let's talk about the game called Shadowgun, the I-Pad game with which I have a love-hate relationship. Most of you who made it past the evil Cyber Lobster are doubtless locked in a death struggle with the Driller at the end of level 4. At this point you have been in the cave for a long time. The Driller breaks through the rock wall and chases you through the tunnel as you try to shoot out the green lights which slows the Driller down. If you are slick enough to shoot out all the lights and emerge from the cave, a rolling door crashes on the Driller and crushes his aggravating carcass. I have tried and failed to beat the Driller at least 250 times. I hate the Driller to the heights and depths my soul can reach. I hate it like a plague. I hate it with intensity of feeling. I hate it like a rich man hates taxes. Excuse me, I got carried away. We had a big dinner here at the green retreat and my friend Trevor was ...

You're Aiming the Missile Where?

Hey, everyone, out there in game-land. The number 1 game on the friendly neighborhood app store is Call of Duty: Strike Team . No wonder, because it is a terrific game. The farther I play, the cooler it gets. But before I get to that, what are all these numbers indicating on my gun? Has to be some sort of ammo indicator for the clips, I guess. either that or some of my compadres has trouble doing his math homework. Whatever. Hey. Check out the picture of me hitching a ride on an enemy truck so that my team can infiltrate a missile silo. Do you like the face mask? I bought it at a store called Fashions by Bane. Ha, ha. (Batman Reference) On this mission, my team was assisted by a Russian Spetsnaz squad. How's that for detente, comrade? These Spetsnaz guys make everything fun. What I mean is this. We shoot bunches of enemies and get into the bowels of the silo. We get to the gantry where the missile is (Pictured above) and we see that the rad...

Shadowgun: Killing The Windbreaker

Hey, everyone. I thought it might be a good time for a bit of an update on the riveting game called Shadowgun. Consider this your spoiler alert and tune out if you want to. Once you get past the dreaded Driller, things get better but you are certainly not out of the woods. You will want to make sure you keep a full clip in your gun as you stroll through the realm of the evil and crazy Dr. Simon. But hey, you're John Slade, the Shadowgun, and wherever you set your foot is the place to which your authority extends. I love the way that some of the barriers disintegrate under the impact of bullets. I didn't learn this at my mother's knee but I darn sure know it now. I have learned that there are certain places it is good to plan on using the rocket launcher. Keep your stock of those filled. There are these transporter guys who are aggressive punks. The only way they respect you is if you kill them, so that's the way I roll. As...

CE Wills

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