CE Wills

    Neon Shadow is a new game for I-Pad that I have been enjoying. It is a space game in which you are sent to a ship and are searching it. You find that there are no human inhabitants. This in itself is not a bad thing for a hermit like myself but the AI for the ship keeps talking to me. He also threatens me on a routine basis which leads me to macho, Mano-e-mano feelings toward him. In other words, I want to punch his face. This is awkward considering the fact that he is without a body.       One of the first things I noticed as I was strolling around with my gun was "Dog Doors". They aren't really dog doors because there are no dogs on the vessel. But I knew that they had been made for something short and I was not left in the dark for long. Sure enough, robotic creatures began to emerge from these openings and they attacked me with malice aforethought. I shot them and I really enjoyed the explosions that resulted. The gameplay is fun and uncomplicated.     I fo

    Hey, everyone. Doubtless, you gamers think that I have deserted you. I say unto thee, nay. I want to talk in depth about Gameloft's game called Thor, The Dark World . I have a love/hate relationship with this game.     I have played the darn thing for about 100 hours or more. I find it to be complex, addicting, (a word overused by gamers) and fun. To play it very far you will probably have to buy some in-apps unless you are a far better gamer than I, which wouldn't take much of a stretch. At the present time, though, I believe the game is free, which is a good price. Ha, ha.      Also, there are some glitches in this game. As I mentioned on a previous post, I bought an in-app that I didn't receive. Then there were times when I didn't receive rewards that I had earned in-game. Furthermore, I got a message from them that stated they were loading an on-line profile ********* blah blah. When I clicked yes, it loaded an old save point which cost me some in-game coin.

    Hey, everyone. Carley and I went to the theater the other night and saw the latest Keanu Reeves flick entitled 47 Ronin . We both liked it and I'd recommend it as an action film or a romance.    I have always loved Japanese movies and have been fascinated by that culture since Shogun . I liked Last Samauri as well.     The story takes place several hundred years ago and involves a halfbreed guy who is not a samurai and is therefore treated about as well as navel lint by the ruling class. He has had the misfortune(?) to fall in love with the local princess, Mika (Ko Shibasaki). Her dad runs the province of Ako as a Daimyo, under the rule of the  Shogun.     One of the interesting aspects of the movie is the fantasy side of it. I don't mean like a Britney Spears/Miley Cyrus fantasy, but rather a magic, sword and sorcery thing. For instance, there is a fox that appears as a sort of bad omen. It is white and has one eye that is purple and the other eye is amber. (Don't

     Hey, everyone. Tonight we watched an entertaining film on TV called Feds. It stars Mary Gross as Janis Zuckerman, an F.B.I. trainee who befriends Ellie Dewitt (Played by Rebecca DeMornay). The two women have the temerity to enter the agency's tough training course and have to endure all the sexist B.S. associated with male-dominated trades.     The two ladies are light-years apart in personalities and skills, which helps them cope with life in the fast lane of law enforcement. Jane is a book nerd, brilliant and reserved. Her roomie is Ellie, an ex-Marine with spunk, attitude, street smarts and guts. Together they can manage to do more than survive at the academy; they flourish.      Ellie must help her pardner with things like weapons training, P.T. and cuffing criminals. Janis must help the book- challenged Ellie with her studies. As the ranks of their particular class are decimated by a 75% washout rate, the two females manage to impress their tough supervisor, played by

   Hey, everyone. So, what's up? Today is a pretty day with sunshine and a temperature in the forties. I was thinking about raking and burning leaves. I wasn't thinking about it very seriously, just thinking about it. Ha, ha.      I had a cool burger last night. If you ever get a chance to try this one you should consider it. It was a huge rascal, so big that even my mouth had difficulty wrapping around it. It was a bacon and egg burger with all the trimmings. I must say that it was perhaps the best burger I ever ate. The leaky egg made it so moist and tasty. Of course, I like eggs with steak for breakfast on rare occasion and I really like beer with that dish as well, or champagne.     Hey, did you see where they are getting on the James Bond character for his boozing? Yeah. They already made it socially unacceptable for him to smoke. Next will be his womanizing, no doubt. Soon, all literature, games, movies, T.V. and print media will have all of us walking stiffly aroun

   Hey, everyone, snuggled in your beds in some far-away land. Even now you are perhaps beginning your day. Some will go out and herd cattle in the Outback of Australia, others will be going to a factory in the U.S.A. Whatever your routine, I'm glad you stopped by the Green Retreat for a few moments.    Here at my place it is cold, 23 degrees at 5 A.M. I woke at 4 A.M. and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I lay and thought about my books. I thought in particular about my Western Series concerning the great gunman, Cedric Gant. My mind wandered peacefully over his life and career. I thought about the things he'd done, the fights he'd been in. How he had gained a wife, and notoriety as a gunslinger. I thought about his failures as a person and their tragic aftermath. I thought about his courage and the good he'd done for many. How he was willing to take the part of the weak and downtrodden.     So the thoughts came and went, there in the darkness of the bedroom, my

   Hey, everyone. For the last few weeks I have been investigating the high-stakes, live on the razor's edge world of gaming. It happened on this wise.     I have been just a tad aggravated with I-Pad gaming for reasons that I have talked about at length on these pages. So, I borrowed an X-Box 360 for the purpose of ascertaining if it would be a feasible source of amusement for a guy with 60 plus years under his belt. I had tried it once before but the controls seemed difficult compared to my Padster. In fact, the tech seemed, dare I say it?) shrouded in the mists of the past compared to touch screen controls on my I-Pad Air.     This time around, I was determined to give it a fair try and play it for a few days or weeks until I decided whether or not to invest in a PS4, a PS3, an X-Box One or an X-Box 360. True to form, I exhaustively read reviews and sought counseling about the matter. My gaming mentor, the doughty Trevor, said that he preferred the PS3 controls ove

    Hey, everyone. It is a cool, foggy night at the author's green retreat. Carley and I went out tonight and strolled into a theater to see The Book Thief . It is a story that is set in Germany, during World War 2. The star of the show is one Liesel, a girl played wonderfully by talented child actress Sophie Nelisse.     Liesel is on board a train at the start of the show, with her mother and brother. The brother dies and Liesel watches men cut a hole in the frozen ground with axes, in order to bury the young boy. Then the 10 or 12 year old girl is left alone because the mother either leaves her or is placed in a concentration camp. At any rate, Liesel winds up with foster parents and may I say that no orphan ever hit the jackpot for foster parents like this little lady did.     The new father is Hans, played by Geoffrey Rush in what may well be an oscar-winning performance. His wife is the dour Rosa (Emily Watson), a crabby person with a heart of gold and that rare toughness

    Hey, everyone. I watched a terrific movie tonight called, as you might expect from the title of this post, The Banger Sisters. Let me start with the fact that it was brilliantly written by Bob Dolman. I don't know when I have watched something where the writing just jumped out at me as being terrific like it did in this show.      Goldie Hawn stars as Suzette, an aging groupie whose life is floundering. She finds herself single, fired from her job at the legendary Whiskey A-Go-Go (Johnny Rivers cut an album there) in California, and broke. She decides to go see her friend Vinnie (Susan Sarandon) who lives in Phoenix. On the way she picks up a crazy writer, (aren't they all?) who has issues with cleanliness, loneliness and a morbid problem with his dad. Harry is his name and he is portrayed by Geoffrey Rush. Harry has writer's block and hasn't had sex in 10 years. Suzette stays in Harry's room and is something of a muse to the writer, among other things.    

   Hey, everyone. It is a lovely morning here at the green retreat and I have been busy. As I pause to check my stats on blog and books I thought I might tell you a cautionary tale.      As you may know, one of the most wonderful things about choosing the I-Pad as a tablet is its app store. Apple does a nice job of running it and this is not an Apple-bashing post. There are some people that are abusing their apps and the opportunities that they have. Let me be specific.      The other day I was playing one of my favorite games called Iron Man 3. There have been some problems with this game. For instance, they went back and put in ads with an update, failed to give me back my in-apps when I re-downloaded the game and other things. The most recent deal was interesting. I was playing the game and it switched me to a video ad about retirement planning. About the same time there appeared a warning on my screen that stated " Iron Man 3 is requesting permission to access your calendar

    Hey, everyone. I thought I'd tell you folks from foreign climes a bit about another odd custom we have here in the U.S.A. It involves ritual torture of eggs, among other things. We call it deviled eggs and it is a bit different than what springs to mind at the term. Sure, you picture an imp sticking a pitchfork into the quivering egg, while laughing diabolically. It is not like that and no eggs were harmed in the making of this blog.     Oh, about the title. Check out the picture of this egg, which had a navel. Cool, huh? It was an 'inny' not an 'outey'. Does this point to some genetic deformity in the egg? Perhaps. Who knows what kinkiness hides behind the hard-shelled facade of egg-dom?     What we do is boil a bunch of eggs. Then we peel the eggs, giving them a ceremonial bath; then cut them in half, pulling the yolks from the eggs. We then fill the white parts with a paste that looks suspiciously like a concoction of  egg yolk, mustard, mayonnai

    What's up? Checking out the blogs before heading to mom's for the big Thanksgiving meal? Sure, I can dig it. Preparing yourself, mentally, to get kissed by great Aunt Louise, the one who has a tiny piece of turkey stuck in her mustache?     Maybe you should think about going to see Jason Statham's latest flick tomorrow. Don't listen to the critics, this is a terrific movie. Carley really liked it too. I went over on IMDB, the definitive movie site, and saw that critics lampooned it and normal people liked it. For my part, I thought it was wonderfully acted by everyone involved, which means great direction. Here's the menu.     Statham plays Phil Broker, a former DEA undercover agent who had a bad experience in the deep south. He was undercover at a biker bar which was a front for a drug operation. When the bust went South, no pun intended, the son of the boss-biker was killed. So, the head of the Outcast clan puts a bounty on Broker's head.     Phil and

    Hey, everyone. Recently, boxed sets of ebooks have come into vogue in the on-line stores. The other day I bought 9 thriller novels in one set for 99 cents. Obviously a great deal. Part of my personality is similar to a five year old's in that if I see someone else with something, I want it too. So, I put all 9 of my westerns about the gunman Cedric Gant into one boxed set.  They total about 70,000 words so it is a lengthy read.In this series, Cedric starts out as young gunman, innocent in the ways of the world. He makes the acquaintance of Melon Brown, recently widowed and twice Cedric's age. She helps him along in his education and he falls for her.      As the series continues, Cedric learns that his skill with guns can not only save the lives of his loved ones, but destroy them as well. This series is hard to put down and if you can stand adult situations and language, you should enjoy it. The price is $2.99 and it is available on Smashwords now and will be available

    Hey, everyone. I have a channel on satellite that is called Palladia . It broadcasts old, and new, concerts and music shows. Tonight I was fortunate to watch an old concert at the Troubadour Club, out in Los Angeles. It was staged during the Club's 50 year anniversary. About that club...     Seems like I remember Neil Diamond cutting a live album at that place, about 40 years ago. I think a lot of big time entertainers got their start in that place. In fact, James Taylor and Carole King paid homage to the club during the performance.     This particular performance was taped in November, 2007. Both the stars were well-advanced in years but their voices were full and strong. I like watching Carole play the piano. She seems to really enjoy performing. As I watched her, I reasoned that when you get older maybe you appreciate being able to perform and that your body is "on the clock".     Carole King intrigues me. For many years I thought she was black. No reason, real

    Hey, everyone. Glad you could stop by the old green retreat this evening. I wrote several thousand words on my third book about the French Spy known as the Spider. That was this morning, early. I also watched way too much T.V., with NFL Football being the prime culprit. I told my wife that a football player had a last name that sounded like bat excrement. When she looked it up she proved me wrong, the spelling was completely different. I am so glad for that guy because I hate it when people misuse someones name. Still, it was funny at the time. (See what I mean about some writers being weird?)     I was thinking about writers today and meditating on their peculiarities. They are just normal folks in a way, but are so different in certain areas that some of them would seem weird. For instance, I am by nature a writer, a teacher and probably a few other things. However, living in the South, from a poor background, having any training in the arts seemed unreasonable for a long time

    Hey, everyone. It has been a slow, laid-back day at the green retreat. Don't believe me? Well, allow me to share. We woke up early, though neither of us worked. Carley fixed a big breakfast, bacon, biscuits and gravy, eggs. We did a few chores, then we went to Wal-Mart. I wanted to see how long it took them to sell out of the new X-Box One. She wanted to buy two big turkey ovens to cook the Thanksgiving meal. She does a turkey and a ham.     I was informed that the only X-box Ones they sold were those pre-ordered on line and picked up at the store. I didn't want one but I was interested to see if this was going to be another will-of-the-wisp, a Tech Unicorn. Probably.       I flirt with purchases and never pull the trigger, as you know. I read on my Padster this morning an article about one of the flagship games for the new system. It's called Rhys of Rome , I think. It sounds impressive. It's about a Roman General who is trying to save the empire from the Barba

Hey, everyone. Tonight I watched an older movie called Eye of the Beholder. It is a strange tale and a bit depressing. Ewan McGregor stars as a surveillance expert named Stephen Wilson. He is assigned to monitor a government official who is doing questionable things with questionable people. Coincidentally, this official picks up an attractive woman, Joanna Eris (Ashley Judd) on the same day that this surveillance started. Ashley is a disturbed young woman and Stephen watches in horror as she murders this complete stranger. In fact, Stephen has been bouncing a laser beam off a window and has full audio and video of the crime.  Of course, he has his own mental problems. He is smothered with guilt for his lost daughter, whose 'ghost' appears to him almost constantly. She tells her dad that the murderess needs his help, during one of his hallucinations. Surprisingly enough, Ewan starts to watch over the woman, even quitting his job so he can do so more effectively. He follows he

Hey, everyone. Let me start by saying that on some of my posts the words are being split up from one line to the other. I haven't changed anything and I don't understand it. Blogger has been acting up for some time, though it seems unreasonable to complain about a free service. I was just over on the Washington Post and read a good article on the XBOX One. It freaked me out a little that the device can read your skeletal structure (or your voice) and monitor who's in the room. I'm not too sure that I'm comfortable with that, although I would like to play some games on it. I do, however, love gaming on my I-Pad and prefer not having a controller; plus the games are so much cheaper. Carley and I did a road trip yesterday, traveling to Nashville to Cool Springs Galleria. They have a big Apple Store there and guess what? They actually have that Tech Unicorn there, known to devotees as the I-Phone 5s (Gold, 16 Gig). I managed to keep my lustful little paws off its s

    Hey, everyone. It is Sunday morning in the States. It is 60 degrees and overcast, with rain yesterday and last night plus the threat of more to come. The robins don't seem to care. There are dozens of them in some of my trees, flitting through the bushes and... just now flying headlong into my study's window. Ha, ha. I have seen birds literally break their necks like that. It brings to mind the bizarre Hitchcock movie called The Birds , in which our fine feathered friends get tired of human-related problems and start attacking people.      Nothing like that with these birds. They are mild and well-behaved, other than their odd toilet habits. This morning being so unseasonably warm, I carried my coffee to the front porch and watched ...life happening.     I have several Bradford Pears in the front yard. They are the trees that have become popular for their white blooms in the spring. Their pears stay tiny and unsuitable for human consumption, but birds think they are exq

   Hey, everyone. As you know, I am an aficionado of the Iron Man 3 game on I-Pad, despite my recent falling out with Tony Stark. So it came as a pleasant surprise when I saw that there was an update for that game that included a new 'map'. The graphics for the new territory (Space) are stunning on the retina display of my I-Pad Air and it has some cool things in it.    There are purple mesh gates that slide back and forth across my path. You have to time them to a nicety when you are on hyper-speed. (The idea being not to hit them.)      Another hazard is pink comets that flash by and must be dodged. There are regular chunks of space debris as well, but I tend to like the bright colors more as I get older??? Strange.       The toughest things to dodge are the spokes of a rotating space station. They are moving in such a way as to be a serious hazard and I am offended that the nations of the Earth did not design their tech gear in such a way as to be more convenient for an

    Hey, everyone. It's been a cold day here at the green retreat with a high of 44 degrees and a crisp wind. This made it a good day for gaming. I finished my current game which is called Ravensword 2: Shadowlands.      I think the peasants in the town of Aven are either bashful or forbidden to speak to the gentry. Either way, it hurts my feelings. I was glad to sell my boar hides to a lady, though. They were beginning to stink pretty bad and I got some gold coins for them. But wow, things are high when you are buying, too. For instance, I had to give 1550 pieces of gold for a wooden bow. Heck, when I was a kid, I'd make my own and pretend to be Tarzan of the Apes.      Another odd thing about this game is the state of disrepair that the bridges are in. Who is responsible for this? Heck, here in the U.S. of A. the roads are getting pretty bad. I guess that there is no money for them. The government has wasted so much money for so long, there is little left for infras