CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. I had a bit of a technical problem earlier with a post, so if it looks like a duplicate post has went out tonight, it probably has.      My wife saves things that most people don't save and I like that. For instance, she has a grocery store bag from 1984, a store called Dillon's, in Kansas. Yes, they still had paper bags at that time and this one had a public service message on it. In color, no less.     We had spent time up north prior to this, while in the military, so we weren't all too shocked at the tough winters. We were impressed with some of the tips on the bag, and their sound advice. Especially the 'stranded kit'. Most people in Kansas kept a kit in their car during the winter. It was one you put together, not a kit prepackaged. There would be blankets, heat candles, flares, water, food etc.     We had ours and it looked mighty good one night when I was caught out in a blizzard, 50 miles from home. I made it, as I related on a long

    Hey, everyone. Glad you could stop by the author's green retreat. Nice sunset, don't you think?     I watched the final of the Aussie Open yesterday and got a big kick out of it. Let me tell you some thoughts on this rather bizarre match between Stanislav Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal. As you know, I love Nadal. I like his intensity and his bull dog tenacity, his effort. I like Wawrinka too. I like the tatt on his forearm about failure and effort.      Before this match started they were being filmed coming down the tunnel and I guess Rafa stopped and let Stan wait on him, with Stan carrying that heavy equipment bag. Gamesmanship? Only Rafa knows. I watched Wawrinka drop his bag and there was a look of irritation on his face...and the eye of the tiger.     I thought to myself. You might want to forget that this guy has never taken a set from Nadal, let alone beaten the Spaniard. Sure enough, Wawrinka beat Nadal, but what a way to beat him.     Wawrinka came out kicking bu

    Hey, everyone. Last night I caught the second episode of HBO's new crime thriller, True Detective . This series bodes fair to be an excellent show. I was pleasantly surprised how well Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey did in this sort of role. They portray police detectives in Louisiana that are dealing with grisly serial killings.     The crimes seem to be religiously oriented, which makes them all the more macabre and hideous. It seems that young women are brutalized, killed, then posed in positions of worship, in remote locations. The killer is linked to murders from past years that were supposedly solved. While working the case, the duo try to out-race a task force who are threatening to trample their investigation under foot.    Moreover, the two men don't get along very well. No wonder, really , as they are so different. Matthew plays Rust, a burn-out from the drug wars, who is borderline crazy, complete with flashbacks, light trails, and memories of his los

   Hey, everyone. I wanted to update you on my new game called Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project . This game has quickly become too difficult for a casual gamer such as myself. It is with regret that I say it seems to be one of those games which will require considerable in-apps in order to have any sort of pleasant experience. I began to suspect this when A.) I could not overcome certain difficulties without extreme effort and B.) I saw that the in-game store had a place where you can buy a skip-level token. This is a shame since I saw potential for this to be a cool game. At least the in-apps are reasonably priced. Sigh!      I have been playing some music this morning on my keyboard. I was playing well, for me especially, and I lingered on a new song that I am working on. The song is far from new, but I just started learning it. It was written by Joni Mitchell and performed best by Judy Collins. Yes, I am talking about Both Sides Now . Whirls and furls of angel hair And ice cream c

     Hey, everyone. It is a bit of a pill today, weather wise. There is a howling wind, snow and the temperature is dropping quickly. I have just returned from town. I bought a massive sub sandwich. Not a nuclear sub but just bread, meat, cheese and fixings.      This morning I had a good time. Why? I played the new game called Duke Nukem, Manhattan Project . I must confess that this is my first time with the Dukester and I like him a lot.     The game is a very reasonable $1.99 and I don't think it will require in-apps to beat it. I am only on the second level, though, so I might be wrong. It is not a huge file download either. It is around 200 MB, I think. On the app store, I saw some complaints about the save system.      Duke and I are tasked with an important mission. It seems that a bunch of gators and hogs are dressed up in people-type clothing and threatening New York. We are running around rooftops and scaffolding and ventilating the buffoons with an array of weaponry

    Hey, everyone. I enjoyed my weekend and it seemed to pass quickly. I finished the initial book in the Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin. It is a huge book and well worth the ebook price of $4.99. Its rich detail and diversity of story lines are rarely equaled in literature. For instance, the focus of the missive is on kingdoms which rise and fall and the peccadilloes of the rich. That is just the beginning of the rich tapestry, however.The Stark family's efforts to deal honorably with a decidedly dishonorable bunch of folks is the stuff that holds the reader to the tale. Then, there is a sideline of magic. This involves the former royal family of The Seven Kingdoms.     All that is left of this family is the girl Daenerys (Dany) and her older brother, Viserys. They are the so-called heirs of the dragon, though they are in exile in the desert lands beyond the sea. The brother basically sells his sister to the Khal, or big chief of the horse clans. He hopes that the

    Hey, everyone. Yesterday I had an odd day. I had I-Pad trouble with my I-Pad Air. Let me tell you about it. I'll have to give you the "Reader's Digest Version". Ha, ha. This is an old saying, common during the dark ages. At that time Reader's Digest put abbreviated novels out for consumption by those who didn't really have a lot of time. They were quite good, usually.      So, a weird thing was going on with my Padster. To wit, I would buy a game and it would not appear on my I-Pad. The store would indicate that the game had downloaded but alas, there was no icon. Distressing. How could I possibly save Duke Nukem in The Manhattan Project ?      I bought other games, like Alpha 9, and they didn't appear either. I just chilled out for a while and meditated on the problem, hoping it would go away or a flash of genius might overtake me. I plugged the Padster into my PC and added some of my old games. They didn't appear either. Hmmmmmm.      I l

    Hey, everyone. I wanted to thank Marcia Carrington for the kind words she gave one of my books over on her blog. The book was A Lodi Kind of Guy and her blog is a good one. I'll provide a link. Marcia was giving awards for the best books she had read, of 2013, July through December. Marcia is one of the nicest ladies on the internet and I appreciate her. Also, see my post about her ebook, The Adventures of Mrs. Browning . Check out her blog and books here. http://marciasbooktalk.wordpress.com/    

   If I may, I'd like to warn you of spoilers in this post. The reading of this post would hamper the enjoyment of the movie I am discussing. I hate that, but I wanted to talk about it, without holding back, so be warned. I actually wrote this post on Monday, the 13th, but was of a mind to delete it.  At any rate, here it is.      Hey, everyone. It has been a cool, rainy day at the author's green retreat. Carley and I opted to venture forth into the wilds of society and go to a movie. To my chagrin, there was a limited number of films that called for my visual caress. Therefore, I rolled the dice for a film titled Saving Mr. Banks. What an odd show!     I found it depressing in the extreme, thought provoking and entertaining. All at once. I would have gladly left the theater at the half-way point or even later. Yet I liked it. Here's the recipe.     This is the story of Mary Poppins, in a way. It seems that the lady who wrote that story was pursued by Walt Disne

    Hey, everyone. The other day, Carley and I had an interesting time with her I-Phone 5S. ( Silver, 16 Gig) It is a rather involved mess so I'll try to make it coherent.      It began with me asking her if she wanted me to put a sticker over her rear-facing camera. It had come to my attention that certain hackers with funny initials could remotely turn on your camera and take photos of the owner. In fact, I talked to a blogger who had his picture taken in this way, then placed as the screensaver for his PC. Would that freak you out? Yeah...     Carley said that she would like the sticker on the lense and I put it there. She immediately got a warning notice on her phone that her face time feature was disabled. The funny thing was that I had the feature disabled since day one, when she bought the phone. We have never made a face time call and I don't know anyone who uses the feature. So I went back over to the settings and checked on the switch again. It had been turned bac

   Hey, everyone. This morning I heard a loud thump at my house. It sounded like something had hit the house. Later, when I walked onto the front porch I saw something that looked like a misshapen leaf, lying under the porch swing. When I walked down to look at it I saw that it was a dead bird, a cardinal. It was a female cardinal and you might wish to know how I figured that out. No, not like that.     Actually, a male cardinal is the pretty one, being a nice, scarlet red in color. The female doesn't have to strut around and be fetching, I suppose. At any rate, this was a female.      So, this lady cardinal, flew from goodness knows where, perhaps St. Louis, to fly into my window and break her neck. Odd. Suicide in birds is something that I find perplexing. I think it may have started with the Angry Birds craze. When word got around the avian community that some birds were making millions of dollars by being flung from a sling shot and tearing down structures, the other birds

     Hey, everyone. I watched a good movie tonight. I think you might like to see it. It is Night Falls On Manhattan . It stars Andy Garcia as an idealistic young lawyer who is just starting to work as an Assistant District Attorney. His dad is a cop in New York and he was too, until he landed the new gig.      You may remember the days when you were a young idealist. Very few arrive at an age where they can be called an old idealist. It is a dangerous business, being idealistic. Not many people will love you and fewer still will want to hang with you. Heck, they know you'd send them down the river too, because "It's the right thing to do." But I digress.      So, Andy Garcia plays Sean Casey. Sean is only a few months into his career with the D.A. when his dad is shot during a drug bust. He survives but three other cops die during the raid.      The dealer hires the best lawyer in town, Sam Vigoda. (Played by Richard Dreyfuss.) Sam foolishly uses the defense that

    Hey, everyone. The other day, some of the grand-kids came by and we talked a lot about games, since one of them had received an I-Pad for Christmas. I recommended some games for them and they showed me this game called Pocket Tanks . When I first opened it, my thought was: "These graphics are not impressive." Sorta like the way that one might be guilty of judging a woman by her looks. Games, like women, are complex, and offer much deeper things than meets the eye.     Pocket Tanks is simple, really. You play against the computer in the sport of shooting at one another, taking turn about. After a given number of rounds, the high score wins. You choose a difficulty level, which I love. Yes, I choose easy level and lose some of the time.     You have a vast array of weapons. You can either have your 10 weapons auto-picked for you or you can pick manually, time about, like in school when you chose up sides in baseball games. You can play on-line if you get the deluxe edit

    Hey, everyone. I published a short story tonight. It is called, as one might discern from the picture above, Breeze and the Prom Queen . I need to explain some things about this ebook.     Several years ago, I wrote a short story called Tale of the Black Mushroom. It was really short, so I just made it free and someone downloads it every day, somewhere in the world. It was the story of a cute little 16 year old girl named Breeze. She has been raised in the wilderness by her dad. She has never watched television or dated or had any friends, really.     One day she meets a guy in the woods. His name is Jeremy and the local prom queen has sent him on a scavenger hunt for a black mushroom. If he finds the mushroom, the popular girl will be his. Breeze helps him find what he needs, but he finds something so much better than a date with the prom queen. He finds Breeze herself.     The original story ends there and it doesn't really tell what happens to the young couple. I even

    Hey, everyone. It was a cold night at the green retreat. I was up early, around 5A.M. At that early hour I decided to try and finish the Thor game which I have been involved in for the past couple of months. I was glad to finish the aggravating rascal. Even on the last level, my reward of 50 Runes was not given to me. No big deal, I guess. Overall, a deep, fun game with lots of glitches. No regrets on the money spent for it. You can expect to pay for some in-apps, like I said before.     Well, the NFL Playoffs are in full swing. Yesterday I was amused during the early game when Jim Nantz said something to the effect of "The Nationwide Insurance Action Cam". The NFL, up to now, has been really good about forbidding commercials during the actual game. I guess the greed of marketers in the boardroom has finally won out. That, along with several other sensitive topics which I can't mention, has soured me on the sport. I have watched the NFL since 1958, but I turned

     Hey, everyone. I hope that your New Year is going well. I really mean that and I'm not just saying it.     The weather here is a bummer tonight. We have snow on the ground, along with a 15MPH wind and temperatures which will drop into the low teens. But, that just makes it seem more snug here inside the Green Retreat. Things are not so green outside at the moment, however.     Winter used to depress me when I was younger. Somewhere amidst all the trials and tribulations of my life, I got to the point where it just quit bothering me. Why? I don't know but I suspect that I merely became a bit more resilient to ...life. As the saying goes, "Suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character". Also I have learned that regular exercise helps your mental outlook. When the endorphins kick in during exercise, it's a good thing for one's mood.       I started reading a new book yesterday. The title? Game of Thrones , by George R.R. Martin.