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Good Morning!

    Hey, everyone. It is a big week in Geekdom. Tomorrow, John Carter comes to a big screen near you. Yesterday, the new I-Pad was announced. Spring has sprung, also. Plus, any day without snow and ice is a pretty darn good day at the green retreat.
    I'm a little bummed out that Siri didn't make it onto the new Padster. Guess Apple figured that a better camera, an upgrade in speed and graphics power, faster network compatibility and all that, was sufficient for a new piece of gear. With my legendary, steely resolve I kept my word about not buying the new model. Remember the other day when I said that because of the trends in games, about making them too hard, as well as all the problems on the app store, that I would not buy the new I-Pad? Well, I was resolute for a day, at least, before I went on the Apple Store and pre-ordered the new model. I don't know what happened. I was just sitting there updating IOS 5.whatever and I started thinking. What if I wait a few weeks and everyone says this device is awesome? Then I will have to wait months before supplies catch up with demand. I will be like that poor kid who watches all his friends go for ice cream while he looks through the window. Sniff, sniff.
     Then I started thinking about Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Mars series becoming a movie at last. I read the first book of this series almost 50 years ago. Now, possibly tomorrow, an elderly guy will walk into a cineplex and plunk down a few shekels to see John Carter battle the green men and the white apes of Mars. The skinny, 12 year old is gone and a grey-haired dude has mysteriously taken his place. I can remember ordering these books through the mail from Ace and Ballantyne, many moons ago. I remember that many of my ideals of how to treat women, honor, all that outdated stuff, I obtained from Burroughs' books. Funny that this huge talent was called a 'writer of impossible trash'. He was confined to the pulps for some time before gaining the recognition he deserved. Can you imagine how thrilled his descendants are to see this film come out? To have created whole civilizations, unique worlds and characters that have thrilled hundreds of millions of people in books, magazines, movies and television must be a source of enduring pleasure to Mr. Burroughs' spirit, and to his heirs.
    Carley bought a game today that she seems to be enjoying. It is called The Lost Inca Prophecy and it involves both Match 3 and Hidden Object game-play. There is a free version which she played, and then she bought the full version for $4.99. I have several new games, myself, but I will have to wait until later to go through them with you, because I am sleepy. I will say that I broke down and finally bought Batman.
   From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
  

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