CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. Friday, I went to see Parker , the movie. I then bought a book by Richard Stark, the dude who wrote the story which the film is based on. I went ahead and bought the first book about the character, Parker; it is called The Hunter.      The funny thing is, this book was also made into a movie, several years ago. They titled that film Payback , and it starred Mel Gibson. I loved that movie and the quick way it moved along, without a lot of wasted motion. Hey, I dig gritty crime drama, and I don't mind a bit if there is some sex or bad language thrown in.     Don't get me wrong, The Hunter has a minimum of stuff that might offend you. It is just a good, interesting story. Here's the recipe.      A guy known only as Parker is the central figure. It might be stretching a point to call him the hero. Why? I am glad you asked. He is a professional thief, has a moral compass like an alley cat and will kill o...

    Hey, everyone. Carley and I went to town today to see the latest Jason Statham thriller, Parker. This is a terrific action movie and I'd have to give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Frankly, I've seen some bad reviews for it, but not everyone likes action films. Don't let yourself be cheated out of seeing this pulse-pounder.     Jason Statham stars as Parker, a big-time criminal with an iron code of ethics which he won't transgress. Like, he only steals from people who can afford to lose something, he does what he says and he doesn't harm the innocent. His boss, (played by Nick Nolte) sends him out on a heist with a group of criminals who are not as professional as Parker. They get a man killed, then abscond with the money, leaving Parker, himself, dying by the road-side in Ohio.      Unfortunately for them, Parker survives, and it is part of his creed that he give payback. He finds out that the wicked gang has a big steal arranged in We...

    Hey, everyone. The new season of Justified has started on the FX channel, on cable and satellite. It is a great series and I have talked about it in the past. It is set in Kentucky and features the story of U.S. Marshall Raylon Givens.       Raylon is a bit unconventional, to say the least. He offered a drug dealer 24 hours to get out of town, then shot him in a crowded restaurant. He has a trademark Stetson hat he wears, though he is a modern day figure. He has stepped outside the strict interpretation of the law. In fact, he has, on occasion, just ignored the law, to bring order and justice to a rough area. Since he is from Harlan County, he knows many of the undesirables. His father is one of the worst criminals of the locale and is currently in prison for murder.      This is the fourth season of Justified and one cannot help but speculate on when they might end the show. I feel that it is hard for people to know w...

    Hey, everyone. Carley and I are safely ensconced in our place in the valley. An ice storm has been cruising blissfully through the deep South and we are taking it easy. I have a bit of flu-like symptoms. The roads are icy and it is quite windy.      We have been playing some new puzzle games on the Padster. I have been playing The Old Clockmaker's Riddle. With this game you get a portion for free, then pay $2.99 for the full version. It is a match 3 style of game with a nice little story. It seems that you have received some other person's mail and had the bad manners to read it. (Probably illegal in the U.S.) It is a cry for help from a small town that is under some sort of curse. So, you travel there and begin to use your skills to take the curse off each building, one at a time, by matching the icons and doing a series of mini-puzzles. These mini-puzzles have to be done in a specific number of moves, so that you leave no pieces on the board...

    Hey, everyone. I stayed up late tonight to watch some tennis, down under, at the Aussie Open. I would love to take a couple of weeks off and go down there next year. Anyway, I missed the surprise defeat of Maria Sharapova by Li Na. It was 6-2 and 6-2, have a nice trip home. Then the American teen, Sloane Stephens, defeated Serena Williams after the veteran Williams had an injury. I missed that match also, but I got to see Stephens play in the semis against Azarenka. Believe it or not, Azarenka, the defending champ, also had health problems. She was having chest pains in the 100 degree heat, but persevered to win. She was freaking out a bit on the court and really lost her composure at bad shots.      The 19-year old Sloane was fun to watch. At the pre-match interview she commented that she was surprised at the relative ease with which she had reached the semis. As Azarenka was screaming at herself, Stephens reacted with a wry smile when she herself m...

     Hey, everyone. Alas, poor weekend, I knew it well. Yes, it is almost Monday, but let's think about entertainment. Like a movie, for instance. Tonight I watched a good film on T.V. called Bulletproof Heart . Wow, what an odd, different, weird show. Here's the recipe.      It is about a troubled Hit-man named Mick. He lives in New York and has a steady employer named George. (Played by Peter Boyle.) Mick (Anthony LaPaglia) is disillusioned about life and death. He no longer sees that life and death make much difference. It doesn't matter if one person, more or less, will be gone. He is a sort of controlled melt-down of a person. Then, when he is on the verge of losing it, his life changes. George, his boss, comes to him with an emergency hit. It has to be done before dawn.     It seems that a lady named Fiona  (Mimi Rogers) owes some heavy hitters over $500,000. That is not the worst of her transgressions, however. She k...

    Hey, everyone. My wife and I went to see Broken City , starring Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg and Catherine Zeta Jones. We both enjoyed it and felt it to be an approximate 4 stars out of 5. Here's the recipe.     Russell Crowe plays Mayor Hostetler, who has been the Mayor of New York City for a couple of terms.During a heated election campaign, Hostetler wants to find out if his wife is messing around with another guy. He calls in a former cop called Billy Taggart , played by Wahlberg. Taggart is a Private Investigator. He is paid $50,000 by the Mayor to find out if Mrs. Hostetler is fooling around with another man. Why Taggart? Well, he was forced to quit his cop job because he was involved in a questionable shooting. He shot a man who had assaulted and murdered his wife's sister. So the Mayor knew that he would not be afraid to bend the rules.      The detective gets pictures of the Mayor's wife (played by Catherine Zeta Jones),...

     Hello. It's been a tough week for me. Work-wise, among other things. The weather has been a ... bummer. The worst thing I have dealt with this week was the dreaded Nuclear Worm of Alien Zone .      My blond-haired, pony-tailed character has fought her way, bravely, through 3/4 of this huge space ship. It is a ship that is overrun with multi-limbed zombies, humans with antennae, giant crabs without butter or salt for their legs and massive ape-like creatures that shamble about in a murderous daze.     I have probably used 10,000 rounds of ammunition and 500 med-packs. I am constantly picking up armor and weapons dropped by fallen enemies. Afterwards, I sell them in the shop for a few coins; like a purveyor of melons in the market place.     I have stumbled onto sealed rooms, where civilian medical personnel cowered in fear, awaiting a heroine. I may not escape from this lunatic asylum, but at least I will hav...

      Hey, everyone. It has been a crazy weather week in the South. Tons of rain and some flooding. Perhaps snow and other stuff moving in tomorrow. I saw snow on the radar for Mississippi. Very rare. I like that state very much and I've traveled the length of it many times. But, I digress from my stated mission of talking about a game. It's funny, but back in the 1970's I was a weather person and ran a storm detection radar. It was considered high-tech at the time. Now, everybody has better equipment on their phone. Whatever.     I downloaded a free sniper game today. It is called ISniper 3D Arctic Warfare. It is fairly entertaining here in the early stages. You can play it in 'Story Mode' or just a survival mode. I have played the story mode. You play as a military type who winds up in prison after a mission. After a few months a former associate comes to the prison and gets you released, with one proviso: you must go on another mission. So, ...

   Hey, everyone. Last night I talked at length about the cool space shooter called Alien Zone . These aliens are smarter than I gave them credit for. For instance, it is apparent that they are aware of human greed. I say this because, like many games, there are med kits and credits (packs of money) lying around this space ship. You pick up the money and buy goods and services. Well, these diabolical aliens are leaving a big pile of credits in the floor of some cul-de-sac. Then, when I start picking up the money, they jump from the rafters and the dark corners and attempt to do harm to my person. Makes me feel like a stupid, less advanced species.      Also, what's up with the green goo they regurgitate on me? Is it acidic? By the way, there is a fire on Level 1 that will slowly kill you if you are ignorant enough to hang around there. (Duh.)     About the levels. I am not sure but it seems that you have to start over if you quit before you reach L...

    Hey, everyone. We have had a massive amount of rain today. It was good for my purposes, as I wanted to watch some football on T.V. The Falcons game was so intense for me that I had to have a nice nap afterwards. The Falcons 'D', if they have a big(?) lead, likes to take a series or two off. It almost proved their undoing today. Pete Carroll's time out to ice the kicker on the game-winning field goal was a two-edged sword, wasn't it?     Matt Ryan didn't have a great game today, but he showed up, big time, when the chips were down. I get the feeling from the Giants game, a few weeks ago, which they won 34 to 0, and from the first three quarters of this game, that Atlanta can beat anybody if they play up to their ability.      That young quarterback for San Francisco is really special. I was shocked at his speed when he was in the open field. Then I heard him tell Terry Bradshaw that he had been timed at 4.43 for the 40 yard dash. ...

    Hey, everyone. You guys go to bed late, don't you? I have been up late myself, still playing the new game called March On Oz. I thought I'd toss in a few screen shots to show you the color and graphics.      For a hillbilly like me, it is nice to get out and stroll around a cool place like Oz. I have made some new friends. For instance, I have a friend that is a huge Jack-o-lantern. The trick is that if you tap on him when he is around your enemies, he explodes ice and snow all over them, which cramps their style. His brother pumpkin explodes with fire, which wreaks havoc in the ranks of the Nomes.      Before, I had a Fairy as a guide. Now I have an exotic queen and her daughters. They appreciate my service to Oz so much that they have given me a magic ability to call forth a "Wall of Air". To me it looks like a big granite rock with eyes, but it appears to be an effective defense system. He talks also.     ...

    Hey, everyone. So, its NFL Playoffs again this weekend. Four games, two on Saturday and Two on Sunday. Of the eight teams remaining, only three of them have yet to win a Super Bowl. Atlanta (my team) and the Seattle Seahawks have been there, but lost. Atlanta, of course, lost to Denver, in 1998 I think. Seattle went also but lost in an entertaining game. Houston is the only team in this year's playoffs who has never made it to the Super Bowl. They had some great teams with Bum Phillips, didn't they? 'Luv Ya Blue' and all that.      I like to see different teams and different players get that elusive ring. You tend to see the repeaters in the big game. Brady and Manning or the other Manning. The reason being that there is a very limited number of quarterbacks good enough to get there and win it. Brady just freaks me out. In big games his focus and intensity is like an assassin's. Of all the QBs I've ever watched (since 1958), he is the last guy I...

     Hey, everyone. I am still playing a bit of March On Oz , the 99 cent game that will surely wind up being a massive hit. Things are not completely perfect in Oz, though, and I'll tell you why. I have to overcome some lifelong prejudice against Flying Monkeys. I feel the need to unburden myself to y'all (Southern for all-inclusive). When I saw the Wizard of Oz , back in the 1950's, the monkeys got on my bad side when they carried Dorothy and Toto off to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. To start with, who would work for someone like her? I mean, you are known by the people that you hang out with. Not only that, but they attacked my favorite guy, the Scarecrow. They took some of him and threw it over there, then they threw some over there... He later told me, in confidence, that some of his straw was placed in a barn and became ... contaminated.     Now, after all these decades, I find myself playing a game in Oz and the Flying Monkeys a...

    Hey, everyone. I just bought a game called March On Oz for a paltry price of 99 cents. Here's the recipe. This game reminds me of Plants Vs. Zombies but has a heavy Role Playing style to it. You are swept up by a cyclone and land in Oz. The place is a mess because evil forces are corrupting it.     The main problem is the Nomes, formerly peaceful creatures who are under a spell. Your tutor and guide, a fairy, takes you to meet Ozma, the Princess of Oz. She is under a spell and is being transformed into a tree. This is certainly cool from a 'green' point of view but hinders one's mobility. Ha, ha.      So, Ozma talks you into helping the kingdom. It is at this point that I wish that I had a Scarecrow, with or without brains. But, I will get by with soldiers and Burbury Bakers etc. Oh, yeah. Floating pieces of cake appear. If you tap on them you accumulate in-game currency, hence the title of this post. You English chaps, or was ...

    Hey, everyone. Glad you stopped by the green retreat. If you felt a breeze about 1 A.M. it was an asteroid going by Earth. The asteroid has a name, Apophis. This is the name of the Egyptian god of death, which would seem appropriate.      There is a website or two which I could have gone to and watched telescope images of the passage of this bad boy. I was busy at the time and missed it. It is over a thousand feet wide and would make quite an impression if it hit Earth on its next pass. (2029?) The odds of that are astronomical, no pun intended. Gizmodo has a cool video animation of what would happen to our planet if the asteroid struck.     Another cool thing about Apophis is this. The Rage game which I enjoy so much on my Padster? It talks about Apophis smashing into Earth and only the people buried in Arks survived.      Hey, I was over at Huff Post tonight and saw a scary video of a U.S. Military Drone. It is built...

   Hey, everyone. I recently bought a book on Amazon by Marcia Carrington. It is titled The Adventures of Mrs. Browning . I have read several of Miss Carrington's books and I like them because she makes me think. Here's the recipe for this short story.     Mrs. Browning is a woman, no longer young. She dresses in dull clothes of somber hue, mostly browns, blacks and greys. She lives in a modest home outside of New York City. Her husband has been dead for several years. She is much alone and prone to melancholy. Like many of us, her life consists of plain meals eaten in front of the television set, with very little in the way of company or diversion.     But then, on Friday night, every Friday night, she takes a taxi into the city and indulges in her other life. She travels to a penthouse apartment she owns. She dresses in fashionable clothing and has her limousine take her out to the hot-spots.      She gambles for a while...

    Hey, everyone. Tonight I watched a movie called Bringing Down the House . It is a comedy starring Steve Martin as a tightly wrapped lawyer and Queen Latifa as a lady he meets on line.     Peter Sanderson (Martin) is a divorced lawyer who has managed to mess up his life. His career has helped destroy his marriage and his relationship with his kids. He meets Charlene Morton on line. She calls herself a lawyer but she is really an inmate in the penal system. Peter is somewhat taken aback when she turns up at his front door. It is understandable when their beginning moments are rocky, but it is a deal in which they badly need each others help and he, at least, doesn't know that he needs her. Her earthy common sense and toughness is the perfect balm to his troubled life and career. His astuteness about legal matters is a blessing to her as she seeks to clear her record of an armed robbery charge.     Peter's odd friend, Howie, (played wond...

   Hey, everyone. I have several things to talk about today. 1) Carley has (had) a game she really liked called Fairway Solitaire . It is a card game with a golf theme and I liked it myself, though it is very strange for me to like a card game. She was really advanced in this game, had lots of trophies and 'Golf Bucks' and played it every day to get the bonuses. Well, she did an update and lost all her awards, game money and the game itself is crashed and irretrievable, I guess. Does anything make a gamer more irate? Nooooooo. Then, instead of restoring the existing game, Big Fish Games comes out with the new Fairway Solitaire for $2.99. This begs the question, "Was the update just a ploy to get rid of everyone's existing game in order to sell them the new game?" I'm a suspicious bloke, I guess. The new game came out the day before the update. 'Nuff said. 2) Sad morning in Minnesota. As a hard-core football fan, I feel for the Vikings. They didn't...

    Hey, everyone. Tonight I watched a good action movie on the telly. It was titled Safe , which seemed a bit of a misnomer. Wasn't anyone safe in this show. Here's the recipe.     Jason Statham, one of my favorite actors, stars as Luke Wright. Luke has had a rough time of it. He had been on a special task force in New York City, working to rid the city of organized crime. He had been borrowed from some shadowy government agency which had trained him to be very adept at killing people. He would terminate criminals of note, rather than bring them to trial.       Some crooked cops had him removed from the force and Luke's life is a wreck. To make a living he works on a City garbage truck and fights in cage fights for some extra money. When he refuses to take a dive in a match, the Russian mob takes a huge loss. Angry, they kill Luke's wife and he is contemplating suicide by subway (Not the sandwich) when he sees a girl in distres...

    Hey, everyone. Sometimes gaming can be high-pressure. Take tonight, for instance. I was playing the excellent puzzle game titled 4 Elements #2. I have already done a review of it so I won't attempt to do so again. You have to match symbols and use 'power-ups' to get molten lava to flow around a board and bring life back to a faerie world. Cool. That's what I do. I'm into it. There are also a variety of mini-puzzles such as hidden objects and even putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Hey, when I get in trouble I call Carley.     Anyway, tonight, Carley wasn't around when a crisis struck. I was confronted with a faerie in a glass jar. She was crying for help. She said that she was running out of air. Every minute or two she would rattle the jar. In order to free her, I had to find all these objects and use them. Like there were some missing books. Then there was the pieces of a torch. When I found them I could light all the candles. I found the pieces of ...

    Hey, everyone. I just finished the novel by John Grisham titled The Racketeer . I had received it, in hardcover, for a Christmas gift. I thought that I would share a few thoughts on the book. Here's the recipe.      Malcolm Bannister is a former attorney who got caught on the fringe of an FBI investigation. He is in a minimum security prison. He plans to parlay some secret knowledge into freedom. Because he helps other prisoners with their legal woes, he is privy to information concerning the murder of a Federal judge, Ray Fawcett. Fawcett and his secretary were killed at a remote cabin and the judge's safe was robbed. The FBI are under massive pressure to get results in the case and are willing to deal with Bannister. He 'gives' them a guy named Quinn Rucker, who certainly had reason to hate the judge, because the judge had sentenced Quinn's relative to prison, despite a significant bribe.       Well, Quinn is arrested...

    Hey, everyone. Happy New Year to all of you across the globe. Hopefully it will be a good and prosperous year for the entire planet.      The other evening I was channel surfing, out of boredom, and came across a show on C-Span. It was a broadcast from the National Press Club and they were doing an interview with James Taylor. Taylor is a poet who happens to play guitar. He has been a favorite of mine musically for longer than I care to tell. His stuff is mellow, reflective and just good.     The most apparent thing about this interview was the strong feeling about Taylor's peace of mind. He seemed so relaxed, content, upbeat. There was a sweetness to his spirit, as though he had finally found the peace that he had been searching for his entire life. It was as though he could look back on his life and say, "You know what, I did okay."      The lady who was interviewing him did an exceptional job, I think. She...