A prisoner of circumstance

Stanley is a computer nerd who inherited a paid-for ranch and 450 good cows. For some people, like me, this would be a dream come true, but for Stanley, who hates cows, horses and the outdoors, he became a prisoner of circumstance. One man’s dream really is another man’s nightmare. Stanley’s goal in life was to design video games, and he was three years into getting a degree in electronic engineering when his folks died and he had to come home to run the ranch.

You might say we shouldn’t feel sorry for Stanley; he could simply sell the ranch and cows, never get out of his pajamas and play computer games for the rest of his life. But it’s not that easy. Even thinking about selling the ranch that’s been in his family for 125 years made Stanley feel like a traitor to his ancestors. Plus, he’s got a young son and daughter who are both interested in cows and love everything about ranch life. So Stanley feels a responsibility to keep the ranch going for his kids who would be the sixth generation on the place.

Just because Stanley has been reduced to being a placeholder doesn’t mean that he’s no longer interested in everything electronic. He’s heavy into social media, maintains a homepage for his cat and got PTSD from playing Mortal Combat on his MacBook six hours a day. And Stanley is no slouch when it comes to cyberspace. His home office is overgrown with cable spaghetti, he gobbles up computer cookies and you’ll never catch him plugging a power strip into itself. Stanley has spent a fortune turning the dirt road that leads to his place into an information superhighway, and I’ve often thought that Stanley might operate in some gray areas by hacking into other people’s databases. I wouldn’t put it past him.

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