Porthos Muskaduck here again with an update about a video we
watched on our HP TouchPad today that fits with the July 4th holiday Americans near our park celebrated
two nights ago with more noise than the muskets we fired in battles long past.
Our friend Art, who reminds us of our beloved d’Artagnan,
has not visited us for many weeks. That would normally be less than the blink
of an eye to us. We have been swimming, diving, eating with our tails skyward, and
napping in the shade in various parks near Gascony in France, and now The
Woodlands in Texas, for over 300 years -- ever since we were bewitched in the
late 1600’s by Mordaunt, fiendish son of the unbalanced spy Milady de Winter,
and changed from Musketeers in the Queen’s service into immortal mallard drakes.
But the time has been dragging lately, because we
miss hearing of Art’s backyard exploits and offering him our sage advice. So
our conversation around the pond often turns to Art and the new world he opened
up to us by setting us up with this blog and our Facebook and Tweeter accounts.
I may not have told you that he even left an HP TouchPad with us in the park.
Art apologized that it couldn’t run all the standard Google
apps and said something about how it had not sold well. But to us it was the wickedest
device we’d seen since King Louis XIV designed that iron mask for his secret
twin brother. Actually, this is even wickeder. It turned out that the WebOS interface
was quite suitable to the pecking action of our bills and the swiping action of
our wingtips.
I use the TouchPad the most (that’s me standing tallest with
the handsome blue speculum on my wings, remember?). And Athos is learning how
to surf the web to research the Middle East conflict that he’ll be writing
about here one of these decades. But we’re not “all for one and one for all”
about this technology. Aramis (that’s him hiding in its shadow) refuses to poke
it, swipe it, or even look at it.
This picture was taken by a very amazed woman who was taking
a brisk walk around the pond carrying her miniature poodle in a little sling around
her neck. (We see the strangest stuff here!) She stopped in her tracks and just
kept staring when she saw us there pecking at the tablet icons.
Because her dog was contained, we stood our ground, giving
her plenty of time to get her mini tablet device out of her pocket and snap
this photo. I’d explain how we got her photo into our blog, but I don’t want to
bore you or lose you in too much techie talk.
By the way, we didn’t speak to her. We prefer to maintain
our low profile by speaking only with Art and his lady (and you of course). But
after she had moved on, here’s the conversation we had among ourselves about the
interesting discovery Athos made on YouTube –
ME: Athos, how’s your
Middle East research coming?
ATHOS: Quack off! You
think I’ve got all day to just work on that? But I did find a video that Art just
posted.
ARAMIS: Why doesn’t
he come around any more?
ATHOS: If you’d read
your messages you’d know he’s been traveling on vacation, you Ludite.
ME: And when he’s
home he’s working hard to make HP’s new Slate 7 tablet more successful than
this TouchPad he gave us.
ARAMIS: Who cares…
ATHOS: We should,
that’s who! Most people who come to this park don’t give us the time of day,
and he set us up with social media and even gave us a tablet.
ARAMIS: Yeah, an old
one nobody else wants…
ME: You haven’t even
tried it or you’d know it’s amazing. Anything you want to know about from when
we were human, through all the centuries in between, right up to the present
day… just peck at it and you get the answer.
ARAMIS: I think you both
spend way too much time staring at it. Your spiritual life is shriveling up to
nothing.
ME: Hah! On www.BibleGateway.com we can access the modern
Message translation of the Bible that gets rid of all those King James “thee’s,
thou’s, and “thine’s” we’ve outgrown, and I downloaded Kindle versions of devotionals
by Oswald Chambers and that newcomer Billy Graham.
ARAMIS: I don’t see
you checking those nearly as much as Facebook and Fox News.
ATHOS: All right, all
right. Do you want to hear about this video I found or not?
ARAMIS: Who cares…
ME: I do. You said
Art made it?
ATHOS: Yep. Remember
when Art posted on Facebook to David Edwards about how he was going
to complain to Porthos about some pesky squirrel that keeps eating the
sunflower seeds out of his bird feeder?
ME: So the video is
about that?
ATHOS: Yes, but it’s weird.
It doesn’t end the way I thought it would.
ARAMIS: What do you
mean?
ME: Ah, so now that
there’s a story involved that might have a twist to it… now you’re interested?
ARAMIS: Maybe. What’s
it about?
ATHOS: Do you two know
anything about Rocky Balboa?
ARAMIS: Any relation
to Vasco Balboa, the Spanish conquistador?
ME: Wait a minute,
Aramis. Have you been sneaking some Googling sessions on the TouchPad while we
sleep or what? I just did a quick check and Vasco Balboa was before our time.
ARAMIS: I know that,
but we covered him in history class, and I paid attention while you must have
been daydreaming about running away to join the king's Musketeers.
ME: Just tell us
about this video, Athos. What does this Rocky Balboa have to do with a pesky squirrel
that’s bothering Art?
ATHOS: Like I said,
it’s weird. But we already know how Art is… ah… kinda obsessed with parallels
between the small-scale wildlife drama in his backyard and the large-scale issues
of striving, sin, suffering, death, and the innate desire for freedom of all
people in the world…
ARAMIS: Whoa, you may
be giving him too much credit there, sport. I think he’s just a silly bird
watcher who has problems with sparrows and squirrels.
ATHOS: Maybe, but he
could also have some creative insights. Ever think of that?
ARAMIS: Not.
ATHOS: In my opinion, Art’s own viewpoint changed as he produced, directed, shot and edited this film short.
ME: I say let’s all reserve
judgment, lower our expectations considerably, and click the link below to watch Art’s subtle July
4th tribute to the unquenchable desire for freedom -- "ROCKY"
