CE Wills

     Hey, everyone. I have recently bought the hugely popular game called Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor . I am having a huge time with it. It has depth, challenge and the best graphics I have ever seen on a game. I am still learning my craft as an Orc killer but let me share some early impressions.      Okay, my character is upset with the Orcs, Orluks, whatever. The crude and rude rascals killed his family before his eyes and they killed him too, I suppose. He seems to have a wraith-like state as well as a blood and bone existence. In this manner, if he is killed in the numerous sword-fights, he returns to fight again. He is like the Bill Murray of Mordor, without the sense of humor.       Unfortunately, if an Orc kills him, the Orc becomes more powerful, like a Captain of Orcs. This title would seem to be something less than desirable to me but they certainly covet it. To make matters worse, the victorious Orcs trash-talk worse than an NFL defensive back. I can scarcely abide th

     Good evening. What do you get when you have Katherine Hepburn, Robert Taylor and Robert Mitchum together on screen? Well, you get a heck of a good movie called Undercurrent. This movie, which I watched tonight on Turner Classic, was a mystery/ drama. Don't be put off by the slow start. In fact, the beginning seemed rather a silly stab at being cute or funny. I came within an ace of deleting it out of hand. I am so glad I did not. By the way, this movie was from 1946.      Katherine Hepburn stars as Ann, a normal girl-next-door type. Her father is a scholarly gentleman who makes the acquaintance of one of the wealthiest men in the world, a man named Alan Garroway. (Robert Taylor). Everyone is surprised when Alan falls for Ann and marries her. Ann is the most surprised person, as she is not exactly playboy material. Isn't this stupid of humanity? That old stuff of "They could have anyone, why pick that person?" As though looks alone were the end-all of relationshi

      Hey, everyone, and I hope the holidays find you content and healthy. The title of this post is a bit misleading, since I am already home and plan to be home for Christmas. I'll have to figure out why I used that title in a moment.       This is Christmas Eve, of course. I am sitting here next to the window so I can hear the Fed-Ex guy, should he arrive. I was tracking a package for someone that should remain unnamed. This parcel left a local place around 6 A.M. this morning and should arrive today. Oh, it is not that big of a deal if it arrives after Christmas.      Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of top-secret, devious, underhanded, fun plots in the works for Christmas. I thought seriously about a 'Santa' scheme. When my boys were young, we did the traditional thing and awoke in the middle of the night to place some stuff under the tree from Santa. If there was a bicycle to put together or an AT/AT Walker from Star Wars, Carley would interpret dire

    Hey, everyone. I find it hard to talk about the NFL, objectively. Of course, my favorite team, The Atlanta Falcons, are playing in the " Humanitarian Division" of the NFL. That is, this division is comprised of teams that believe it is better to give wins than to receive them. Ha, ha.      Truly, I was proud of the Birds when they played the Packers in Green Bay. For the simple reason that they played hard. To play a good Packer team that tight at Lambeau Field is nothing to be ashamed of. They could have easily won that game. The underlying theme of the past two years for the Falcons is their nonchalant effort in most games. A few weeks ago, against the Steelers, I am convinced they were the better team.      Matt Ryan is a guy I have a ton of respect for and he is gritty and a decent man. He is certainly a Franchise Quarterback. But, he gets rattled in some big games. Against Pittsburgh that day, he threw three horrible passes in a row, including the pick 6. But he

    Hey. everyone. I hope you are having a good weekend. Late last night I was playing Skyrim . I have a lot of fun with the game, though it can certainly be frustrating when you are not doing well. I have happened upon a lot of odd denizens in this world. So many that I have begun to think it is an imaginary world.      For instance, I bumped into a giant. This in itself is not too shocking. In America, we would just sign him to an NBA team. No, his claim to fame is his odd tatts. They look like soft-swirl ice cream, as you can see in the above picture.        The giants of Skyrim don't go out of their way to bother anyone, which I have to respect. They are good ole boys and don't mean no harm. Ha, ha. But, if you mess around one of their campsites, they will kill you. They will stomp a mud hole in your rear end, as I can faithfully attest. Recently, frustrated because I was not making progress in the game, I decided to pick a fight with one of these swirly dudes. I though

      Hey, everyone. I thought I might speak again about the excellent game called Far Cry 2 . Though an older game, I consider it a great shooter game and would like to extend my review to a second installment.      Since we last talked, I have taken several naps, which is a hobby of mine in real life. I also accepted a contract to kill a guy at an airfield. This is not a hobby of mine in real life. Ha, ha. To complete the macabre job, I walked all night. The naps helped me to be able to function, no doubt. Plus, by traveling at night I was able to slip past a couple of camps without fighting a bunch of guys. As I approached the airfield, the sun was rising above a huge tree. (What do they call these thick rascals, a baobab tree? Wilbur Smith could tell me. At any rate, I paused to watch the sun rise, enthralled by the beauty. I crouched to walk the final few hundred meters, which made my legs stiff. I tried to approach silently but as you might guess, I was soon in a shootout wit

    Hey, everyone. I watched a good movie on T.V. tonight. It was made for TV and was never released for the theaters, to my knowledge. The title is After the Storm . I enjoyed it very much and would have to rate it as at least 4 stars out of 5. Here's the recipe.       Benjamin Bratt stars as Arno, a lazy dude who lives in the Bahamas and has his own boat. He scavenges the beaches and makes a few bucks off salvage from sunken ships he finds. He has the hots for a girl called Coquina, (played by Mila Avital) who wants to see the wide world. Arno contents himself in the arms of Janine (played by Simone-Elise Gerard)., until such a time as he can complete the conquest of the younger woman. The problem is, Janine is the wife of Jean Pierre. Jean Pierre is Arno's competitor in the salvage business. Jean Pierre is played by one of my favorite actors, Armand Assante. Nobody plays a scoundrel on the make like Armand.       A gangster tries to get Arno involved in a corrupt deal. W

      Hey, everyone. During my recent sabbatical from the blog, I saw and did a ton of things which I woulda, shoulda, coulda blogged about. Books I read, movies I saw, games I played and things I did. One of these was the day that the new I-Phones came out. I had not been planning on buying one of them but had been following their hype machine with interest. My wife had been interested in a new phone and as you know, I don't like being left out, like any kid.      Carley was having angry heated , less than cordial exchanges with Verizon and wanted to enroll in Wal-Mart's pay as you go plan, Straight Talk(?). Well, Straight Talk only has older phones available, at that time anyway. We had discussed the subject almost to death and not done anything. So, about 1P.M of launch day I decided to stop at a big Verizon store. To my shock they had two I-Phone 6, gold, 16 Gig devices left. Hoping I was unobserved, I fondled the sleek, thin golden body with the white face. It was elegan

        Hey, everyone. It is about 3A.M. and I am sitting at the P.C., here at the author's green retreat. I was playing Far Cry 2 today, for a long time. I really enjoyed it. This is a great game. I finally found my groove and you gamers will know what I am talking about. It is that point in a game, or a book, for that matter, where things just take off and it ceases to be work, or a struggle, but it becomes fun and excitement. If we are fortunate, this happens from the get-go, but that is rare.      With Far Cry 2, early on, I tried to do their suggested missions, follow the maps and all that. This turned the game into work. When I changed and started roaming around, leaving a path of destruction behind me, it became fun. You'd be surprised how many goals one accomplishes while fighting bad guys across part of a continent.       For instance, in the picture above. You will, perhaps, notice a formerly serviceable jeep laying upside down. It is on fire and will doubtles

      Hey, everyone. It is a rainy, warm December afternoon, here at the author's green retreat. I have been alone today and have had a good day, anyway. It seems like this week has been Africa Week for me. I have been reading Wilbur Smith's latest novel called The Desert God . It is about Africa, of course, like all of Wilbur's books, and ancient Egypt in particular. It is the story of Taita, the slave and counselor of Pharaoh, who hatches brilliant plots against the enemies of his master. This is the fourth (?) or fifth book about this character and I am enjoying it thus far. I am in the early stages of this novel at the moment.      Taita has a grudge against the Hyksos empire for many reasons. Most notably because they took a half of the Egyptian  empire and mistreated many captives. They are, in Taita's mind, an unwashed, uncouth lot and Taita decides to destroy their alliance with the Cretans. He does this by stealing a vast fortune in silver from the Cretans a

Hey, everyone. On Thanksgiving, we had a get-together here at The Author's Green Retreat. One lady brought a cake which I wanted to show you. It had the look of a Roman Coliseum about it. Inside it was just as decadent...and fun, as ancient Rome. When I cut it open, homemade marshmallow cream began to ooze out in several spots, running over the chocolate cake and peanut butter icing. It is best served warm so the cream is fluid. Very tasty. The same lady, and her children, are people who have played a lot of Skyrim. They gave me some pointers on the game because I am having problems with it. They taught me how to fast travel, and a ton of other things, but the main thing was the armor and clothing problem. This is a little embarrassing, but let me explain. Okay. For several weeks when I played, I would enter towns and everyone I met would comment on my nakedness. I would select a tunic and shoes, whatever, go back around people and they would say something about it. I guess I w

    Hey, everyone. I have been playing quite a bit of Tomb Raider on my P.C. and in fact have finished that game. It is a great game, though someone fibbed about the version I played being the "easy" level. There were numerous times that I had to replay sections 30 times in order to bypass a battle or hazard.       At times I would get on a nice run, though. Here I am pictured in Shantytown. (That's not really me, that is Lara Croft; because A: I am old and B: I am male.) Shantytown is a less than glamorous section of this lost island where many undesirables like to hang out. If a ship or plane is destroyed and their passengers wind up on the island, bad people kill or capture them. I have decimated their ranks and destroyed a good part of their playground. I got word that my friend Sam (A lady) had been taken captive and that the locals were going to make her a Queen. The Sun Queen. You say good, royal privilege and all that. Not so much. They plan to put the old que

      Hey, everyone. Tonight I watched a good movie on television entitled  The Painted Veil . Edward Norton stars as a Doctor named Walter Fane who goes to China for an outbreak of cholera. Dr. Fane is a bacteriologist. The story takes place around 1920. Walter, a proper English bloke,marries a girl named Kitty (Played by Naomi Watts.) before leaving for the Orient. Kitty agrees to marry Walter for that age-old reason, to escape her mother. She is justttttt a wee bit selfish and immature. When she arrives in China she straightaway begins an affair with a colleague of her husband.     When Walter catches the lovers in the act, he volunteers for service in a village swept by cholera, although he is more of a lab guy than an M.D. He forces his wife along for the ride. I really am not sure if his intent is a double suicide via infectious disease or not.       Regardless of intent, they arrive in a grim and tragic mess. There is widespread hatred of Europeans,complete with attendant

     Hey, everyone. I recently watched a great movie with Geoffrey Rush as the star. The title is The Best Offer . Rush played the role of Virgil, an art critic/ auctioneer in London. He was meticulous and a bit weird. He always wore gloves in public and seemed sort of a germaphobe. He had a secret closet, really a room, with dozens of gloves arrayed for various occasions. Concealed behind the gloves was a wonderful selection of art. Very specific art. Art that had women as the subject. No, not like that. A lovely treasure trove of paintings by many of the masters.       He had accumulated these paintings by having prior knowledge of them before their sale at auction. He used a proxy named Billy Whistler,  (played by Donald Sutherland) to bid on paintings that he wanted for his private collection.. Oh, the proxy was being well paid and was a trusted friend. Billy had been a painter that Virgil, as a critic, had deemed less than good, which had limited Billy's career as an artist

    Hey, everyone. I recently entered an odd condition in my life as a gamer. I walked alone through the streets, hands clasped behind my back, brow wrinkled in a studious frown. I didn't even hear the echo of my own footsteps on the pavement. It was like the song by Simon and Garfunkel called The Sound of Silence . "Hello darkness my old friend..."     I found my thoughts drifting over the early years, decades ago, when I played the Intellivision games by Mattel. Then I thought of all the great games I had played on I-Pad before the in-app invasion. Some days I sat by my window and watched the rain. I felt that there was something more for me, out there somewhere in the great, mysterious world.      Finally, I packed my  duffle bag, one of my few souvenirs left remaining from my military days, and set out to find that indefinable something which I longed for.     It took some time, and I sought wisdom from many sources. Sometimes I would get a clue from someone in a

        Hey, everyone. I bought the game called Godfire, Rise of Prometheus late last night. I have been playing it for hours today and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it is one of the best games you can buy and it is so worth the $2.99 sale price or the $6.99 normal price. My advice is to run, not walk, to the ole app store and buy this adventure. Because it is an adventure indeed. Here's the recipe.      I am playing  the role of Prometheus, who has a visit from an odd masked lady. Visits from masked women almost always turn out to be trouble. If you don't believe me, ask Tom Cruise. At any rate, this lady wants me to do her a wee bit of a favor. She wants me to 'liberate' (steal) some chips of stuff that will enable the human race to live more full and enriched lives. Cool. I am up for that, being a hero and all. This sort of thing is expected of you.      The lady's mask has tears running down the cheeks, which I find strange. I can only as

   Hey, everyone. I have been enjoying an app called Louvre HD . This app has a collection of the famous museum's paintings and again I marvel at the ability to carry so many of the old masters' works in the palm of my hand. I thank the app's creators for this app.      The above painting is split into three pieces, not because it is that way on the app, because it isn't. Rather, I wanted to enlarge it, take screen shots and talk about it. As usual, I was meditating on the painting, just trying to get into the artist's head a bit.     The artist is, or was, one Francois Boucher who died in the 18th century. He liked to do landscapes and pastoral pictures and I enjoy them very much. This one is entitled The Shepherd's Presents or The Nest. It is derived from the collection of Louis XV.      If you can enlarge the part in which the people are, you'll see that the man is pointing to something in the lady's lap. It is a bird's nest, with some