CE Wills

    Hey, everyone. It is 09:30 on a lovely morning at the green retreat. I hope that you and your folks are well and happy. Well, I ventured forth into the haunts of men yesterday.      I met a Sony Rep, a very pleasant lady who took the time to chat about games and gaming. We liked a lot of the same games. I mentioned the new/ pending / fictitious? Playstation 4.5. She reminded me that the above-mentioned device was merely a rumor at this time. She also said that if the 4.5 exists, that it will not hinder people like me, it would merely allow 4K definition in the ultra-modern gamers' lives. Those like myself can continue with their current system, games etc. So, I went on my way rejoicing.      By the way, I finished The Order: 1886. I enjoyed it. I began to play Uncharted . I have the box set, you know, remastered and all. I loved it the first time around and decided to play it again while I am awaiting Nate's return in Uncha...

        Hey, everyone, across the known world. I ventured forth into the haunts of men today. I had to pick up a new pair of spectacles (not shown). I also picked up some new contact lenses. It was a relief to get that chore over with. But the day was not without its pleasures.      I bought the DVD of the latest Star Wars flick. Carley and I had watched it at the theater around the holidays but I'll probably talk about it when I watch it again. When I got home it was blustery and cool but I grilled some steaks. Carley fixed baked taters (southern for potatoes), rolls and salads. She put stuff on the salads until they were a meal. Sure, lettuce, tomato, cheese, grape, pineapple, onion, boiled eggs, strawberry and dressing.     On the steaks I put Cajun, not an actual person but the spice, Greek and Montreal steak spice. The meal was good and I washed had almond-pistachio ice cream for dessert. Then I kicked ...

    Hey, everyone, across the globe. Since I have taken a year off from blogging, I felt that I should tell you about my past year in gaming. As you older hands know, I played everything from pong to Intellivision, back in the day. But I became fiercely involved in raising children, building a career and the like. I missed the whole X-Box generation. Once the initial I-Pad came out, I became a gamer again.     When the in-app purchase plague began to raise sores on the buttocks of I-Pad owners, I sought a better experience. I decided that Steam gaming on PC might give me better gaming at a reasonable price by buying at the sales. And so it did for awhile.     What a thrill it was for me to play Tomb Raider, Mordor and Serious Sam! But then I was to learn that many desirable games would not play on my PC. I had a real desire to play Far Cry 4 after playing Far Cry 3 . Alas, it would not play on my machine. I even bought the Game Guide a...

Hey, everyone. Back with you at the Author's Green Retreat. Carley and I have been playing Far Cry Primal on the PS4. We are really enjoying it. Currently we are playing a quest entitled Urki's New Stink . Urki is a stone age inventor. He wanted to fly and landed with a resounding thump after attaching a few feathers to his arms and jumping off a cliff.      But today, he sought our help again. He had invented a concoction to anoint his body with. In theory, it was supposed to repel bears. Alas, it did not work, so he sent me in search of things to mix a new stink elixir. Here's where he and I disagreed. He wanted 5 piles of rhino dung. Yes, you heard right. I have a picture here somewhere...      The second ingredient is 3 honey combs or bee hives. I find the thought of mixing honey with rhino dung nauseating. By the way, the pics show these materials as being red and steamy. I certainly am aware that dung, at an early age, can steam. In this ...

     Hey, everyone. My wife and I, like millions of people, enjoy feeding birds. You can make or buy a feeder, sprinkle in some bird seed, or fruit, or bread crumbs and watch as birds come to snack. Some are attracted to the crowd of other birds, as their nature is to follow a leader. On a cold winter day, the birds stand out against the snow and you can get some cool photos of colorful plumage to show your friends. I know folks who have photos blown up and decorate their homes with these pictures. Others may blog about the richly colored cardinals or even participate in the scientific studies of migratory habits.     Heck, you don't even have to have a feeder. Just sprinkle food on the ground. Of course, ants and other undesirables might invite themselves to supper. Squirrels are the worst interlopers. I have seen these voracious rascals chew through a plastic bucket to get at the bird seed inside. Sort of like a hacker. Ha, ha. They will walk a support...

     Hey, everyone. I have been doing an inordinate amount of gaming lately on P.C. and it is fun to play a variety of titles. My latest binge has been Wolfenstein: The New Order . Since I added RAM to my P.C. and turned down the graphic demands on the options page, the game plays well. Glad I didn't turn in a bad review on this game because it wouldn't have been fair.       Firstly, let me say that the storyline is quite compelling. Imagine if Hitler had won World War 2 and took control of the planet? History would have been so radically changed as to be unrecognizable. Well, that is the premise of this game. By the way, don't you think that the German people would like to see the end of movies, games and books that bring up this era? If it was me, I'd say, "Please, enough." I know that there are similar things in most countries' history, certainly America's. With us, things like slavery and the way we treated the Indians would be an exam...

     Hey, everyone. It is a cold , rainy day at the green retreat. The temperature is in the mid-thirties and there is snow in the mountains just west of me. I always hated this weather when I had to get out and work in it. If it had been colder, the precipitation would have been snow and though inconvenient for traveling, at least I wasn't soaked. Now I don't have to get out in it. But, after all those years, I have become somewhat ambivalent about the weather. I went for a drive and walked a track in the rain. I would have preferred to walk in the woods, but no one was walking but me, which is how I like it. Therefore it was a fine day for a walk on the track.       Though I wasn't walking in the woods, I did see some wildlife during the drive. The first was a woodchuck. He was running up the road on this old, narrow, country lane. His fur seemed very light-colored and I thought, perhaps, that he had tinted it, just a little. I wanted to...

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 was just thinking about phones. A useful tool with a long history of service. I can remember days when I actually dared to go somewhere without one.      When I was a kid, we didn't have a phone. Most people didn't. Maybe, there was a store nearby that one could go to, in an emergency, to use a phone. Then there were the days when there were"party lines". No, this did not indicate nights of wild revelry with nicely shaped phones. Rather, it meant that a certain number of households would have a common line and number, so that a call would ring perhaps 6 or 7 houses. Believe it or not, some people used this primitive tech to eavesdrop on their neighbors discussions. Today we do this and call it a conference call.      I remember the days when a phone was never carried on one's person. There was a line that attached them to the wall and they were massive and heavy. They were even used to ki...

    Hey, everyone. I was just sitting on the porch, drinking my morning coffee. This is one of my favorite rituals. I noticed one of the local cardinals, a female, was alighting on one of the massive blooms of a Crepe Myrtle tree in my yard. When she did, blossoms went everywhere, cascading downward onto my lawn. Then she went to another bloom with a like result. Then another, and another. Soon it became apparent that she was purposely deflowering my tree on some sort of bird vendetta.     As you know, I recently had a cardinal family next to my chair, snug in their nest. They had the baby birds there and the whole domestic scene. Cool. They survived their infancy just fine and moved to other quarters recently. We got along great because I kept the cat away from them. During their residency, I did a blog about the rascals and mentioned that the lady cardinal was more drab in her mode of dress than the male.      It seems obvious to t...

    Hey, everyone. I bought the newest Lego game when it came out late Wednesday night. It is $4.99 and over a Gig in size. It has bunches of Super Heroes and it is possibly one of the best IOS games ever .     It has a lot of separate chapters but one overall storyline. I have played it for hours and hours this weekend and have yet to reach the halfway mark.     It seems that the Silver Surfer has been cruising around  and Shield is tracking down 'Cosmic Bricks'. I, as a Super Person am lending a hand. Sometimes I play as Iron Man. Sometimes as Hulk. Sometimes as Spiderman. Sometimes as Black Widow or Hawkeye. I have fought the Sandman. I have fought Mandarin and Loki. Doctor Doom has made a brief appearance as well. I had a tough battle with Doctor Octopus and I beat him by throwing my shield, in my guise as Captain America. It was funny. Doc Ock put me on a rotating platform with disco lights and music and I could only throw my sh...

     Hey, everyone. It is a peaceful Sunday morning at the green retreat. I awoke at 5 A.M. and just lay in bed and thought about stuff. I thought about things I'd always wanted to do and some of those items on that list which I have actually accomplished.     These days, they have a term for everything and Bucket List is a term which is thrown around. It comes from the Jack Nicholson movie, I suppose. I found that movie sad and depressing but the subject is intriguing.      It's funny. As one goes through this life, their list undergoes transformation. You may accomplish 50% of your list. About another 40% you lose interest in doing because you decide it was stupid, or a waste of time or too much money involved, or it was just too much of a hassle.      Let's face it. I am in my sixties and I have some physical things that limit the contents of my bucket. Ha, ha. I just had a mental picture of a guy walkin...

    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 w...

   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 ...

   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 t...

    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...

   Hey, everyone. I went to see Thor: The Dark World today and enjoyed it. Then I went out to eat massive amounts of vittles (Southern for food), eventually returning home.     One thought that crossed my mind during the show was about computer generated special effects. They have certainly come a long way the last couple of years. They are so good now that movies like Thor and the Avengers can truly be filmed. For instance, the scenes in today's movie of Asgard and its environs seemed real and plausible, making a suspension of disbelief easy to achieve. The fabled Rainbow Bridge was well-rendered. My favorite scenes with Thor's hammer returning to his hand, zipping across landscapes and through parallel dimensions, were very cool because of advances in this tech.      If I had a hammer like that, I would have a ball with it. I would promise not to ever use it for evil. I would keep it clean and polish it and give it a better name than M...