Me and Erin

Who Am I?

I'm 100% average, a single mom of one beautiful daughter, work full time and run multiple businesses on the side. I have an ex-steeplechase racer named Erin, a gelding named Abbott, a show jumper named Emma and two large ponies I rescued (momma and her baby) living at home at my small farm in Virigina. I have 2 dogs and a cat as well.

I play the violin, I draw, write, and love to go swimming and horse back riding. I can spend all day reading a book I love and I almost never read a book under 400 pages -- otherwise I finish it in the same day.

I started White Oak Stables in 2001 when I was thirteen. It was based on a story I wrote when I was little about a girl whose parents died and she was forced to live with her aunt and uncle at his stables -- White Oak Stables.

As I got older I got interested in programing. My best friend Kathy at the time was absolutely in love with computers. She could put them together backwards and forwards with her eyes closed. I had a history class next to her computer science class and I would visit her every day before classes started. My history teacher would yell at me when I tried to slip into his class late every day but I'd only been in the class next door so he never gave me tardies for it.

While watching Kathy work at her computer every day I got interested. She did these awsome movie edits and made programs and games. I thought to myself "why aren't I taking this class?" The very next year I was.

I'm not good at math, in fact I really suck at it. If you ask me what 2 plus 2 is I'd most likely tell you 5. When I started my programing class I fell apart. I got behind, I couldn't get what was going on I couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing, why I'd taken a class I didn't even really want to be in in the first place.

I sat at home at my computer one night trying to finish one of my assignments for class and I thought about White Oak Stables. By that time I'd considered making it into a game. I pushed aside my homework and thought about how I'd make White Oak Stables work if it was my game -- if I could make it do whatever I could.

An hour passed while I sat there daydreaming. I groaned when I looked at the clock and realized I hadn't finished my homework and it was due the middle of the next class. But it was too late, I went to sleep. The next day in class I started the computer and loaded my program. I had five minutes to turn it in and it wasn't even close to being done. I squinced my eyes together and thought. "How do I make this work?"

Of course the moral of this story is that I didn't get my program turned in on time. What, you thought I would? Naw, I'm average remember? Lol. I got a 0 on my homework grade and I started to cry. I hated this class.

I promised myself to try harder, to make it work. I've never had a C in my life and the C on my interm made me wince. I had a few weeks to get my grades up. I stayed up late working on the latest homework assignments my teacher handed out. I was going to get a B if it was the last thing I ever did. And somewhere along the way I learned to program. The cartoonish lightbulb when off over my head and I understood. "Oooooh!!!" I said that night. Everything fell into place. I got an A on my report card.

I started White Oak Stables -- the internet game -- that summer. I taught myself two new programing languages and I worked for more then 6 months just to get it up and running. I downloaded my own server and I ran it off my own computer at home.

Never in a million years did I expect to see that I had 3 members when I logged in the next day. Nothing on the game worked, only the join. And yet I had 3 members. I was thrilled. I jumped up and down in excitement.

Within a year I had over two thousand members. I bought a hosting plan online and then another as my site grew. I started charging members to get a stable (yeah thats right, stables were once free). The costs of my internet game went up and up. But so did my popularity.

So here I am still programing a game I started when I was 13. Why do I do it? For you guys of course. I love knowing you all have a game to play that you enjoy playing. I know I disagree with a lot of people -- and I understand that will happen -- but many of my decisions are based on my own life. Yeah, thats right I have a life also. I'm your average person remember? So some people hate me and some people like me. I understand 100%. Its all part of the package of having a website like this.

Who am I? I'm me.
Jade