The sun rose and bathed the forest with a warm glow. All the birds tweeted — with their voices, not their computers — and sang sweet love songs. A gentle dew quenched all the plant life before the sun rays of the day parched the forest. It was a blissful morning scene.
The songs ceased and the birds spread out to collect twigs for their nests. But Carl the Cardinal was missing.
Max, the biggest Cardinal in the forest, hopped toward his friend and asked, “Hey, Sammy, any idea where Carl is today?”
“Not a clue,” said Max.
Max puffed up his plumage as he chewed this fact over.
“Hmmm he’s not one to miss a friendly chirp.”
Sammy shook a little and squawked, “We’d better look for him then.”
So the two Cardinals flew off in search of their friend. They flew over a babbling brook and didn’t see him. They dove into the tall pine trees and chirped his name to no avail. They asked the grumpy Blue Jays of his whereabouts but couldn’t shake any clues out of them.
After a long morning of searching, the birds lazily flew back to their nest. They perched themselves on their front porches when Sammy started chirping, “I”— he felt a dry lump at the back of his beak — “I hope he’s ok.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. He’s a tough bird and he always kept his beak clean.”
“I know but…but I just have awful visions of a mountain cat and…”
“Don’t Worry,” Max interrupted, “Let’s just try to get some shut-eye.”
Suddenly loud music and explosions seemed to echo throughout the forest. It was coming from Carl’s house!
The birds flew next door to Carl’s nest and found the front door wide open. It seemed like no one was home. They moved deeper into the house and found Carl sprawled across his couch with a controller.”
“No, no shoot left!”
“Carl!” they both screamed, “Have you been sitting here playing video games all day while we worried sick about you?”
“Carl turned around to face them so quickly that his cigar fell out of his beak. “Oh, sorry guys. I woke extra early this morning to squeeze in some game time. I forgot that we were collecting twigs today and just kept playing.”
So I’m not much of an early bird when it comes to playing video games. Let me tell you what I am by way of a story…
***
Much later, the forest became deathly silent. Darkness covered everything like a giant black blanket.
There was some relief, though, from the darkness. Something like a gigantic bowling ball with three huge craters appeared high in the night sky.
Then there were two yellow orbs that pierced through the darkness that blanketed the landscape. The orbs were so bright that they even shone through the dense packed trees.
A lone traveler with his flashlight headed towards the trees. He scratched his head, furrowed his brow and wondered “What could those orbs be?”
He walked so close to the trees that he bumped his head. The branches were perfectly camouflaged in the black night, and it was a dangerous time to be in the forest.
“Owww what was that?,” he said.
He moved away from the branch and heard a strange sound.
“Hoo, Hoo!”
The traveller clenched his fist. “Not who. I said what.”
“Hoot, hoot!”
“Oh a wise guy, eh? Alright you asked for it pal.”
The traveler pulled his arm back to deliver a deadly blow. That’s when he noticed the orbs seemed to blink.
“Wait, what the…”
The traveler’s eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped when he saw it. An owl, perched on a branch, and staring at a glowing white screen. It was playing a handheld video game at night!
“We’ll I’ll be… playing video games at night,” the traveller thought.
The Owl replied, “Hey, will you keep it down over there; I’m trying to play. Geez, the nerve of some people.”
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I don’t obsessively play video games in the middle of the night in a tree. But this was a different way of saying that I’m a night owl gamer. What about you? Are you night owl gamer or an early bird?
Video Games Nebula 