I caved...

General Waiting Area
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So I’ve been nosing around the site for a couple of weeks now, and I finally caved & sent my join form in.   :)  That “expected join date” & long waiting list sure are intimidating!

Since there’s nothing to do but wait, I figured I’d post a little introduction & get to know some of Final Furlong’s players (hopefully!) in the mean time.

Let’s see…the basics.  I’m Alyssa, and I’m 21 and live in Kansas City, MO.  I just graduated from Mizzou in December & moved back to my hometown (er…city).  I haven’t ridden horses in YEARS, namely due to financial restraints and parents who “thought I’d outgrow horses when I discovered boys” (HA!).  Now that a decent salary is a possibility, I’m hoping to get back into riding whenever I finally have the funds to justify it.

As for simulated games…I’ve been playing in various games since 1997.  It’s definitely an addiction.  While I’ve dabbled in racers throughout the time, I only got serious with them in the last 1 1/2-2 years.  But all those races are entirely randomly run - any horse has an equal chance to win, regardless of pedigree/past performances/etc.  So when I heard of Stretch Drive (many, many months ago), I decided to research it a bit more (and the games that use it).  Thus, I stumbled upon Final Furlong.   :)

I’m excited by the idea of having to “figure out” what’s best for each horse, and the chance for winners to be consistantly good (instead of “good” just whenever the luck of the randomizer falls upon him/her).

I do play in one other game, HORSES FOREVER, where I am currently an officer.  That’s where my co-op racing stable, MOMENTUM, LTD., is located.

Maybe you’ve seen me around?

Either way, feel free to drop me a response, a message, or an IM on AIM if you get bored.  I’m online far more often than I probably should be.   :P  And I’ll probably be on the forum too often, too, as I read through all the posts (blame all that “waiting” I’ll have to do over the next couple of months).

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Welcome to the game!  :slight_smile:

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Welcome! I’m Amy and Shadow Creek Stables is my teeny little barn on FF. I just started recently also and am currently broke. :wink: Hopefully you won’t have to wait too long. It should be a LOT faster than it says. Mine said I should be in by January 2007 but I go in within a month or so (July 2006). Good luck with the riding thing also. I know that feeling. My parents used to think I’d grow out of it too. Nope! I even converted them to horse freaks also. :smiley: Anyways…WELCOME!!!

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LOL.  Well, about the closest thing I’ve gotten to “converting” them was a family trail ride once.  My dad (the largest in our group) got the stubbiest, most wheezy, oldest strawberry roan.  He was miles behind us.  It’s still a source of laughter in the family story telling…  I was hoping it would be much easier considering mom used to be fanatical about horses when she was younger.  But alas, I think she really did grow out of hers.

That took a lot less time than I expected (thanks again, Shanthi!).  Can’t wait to get started, but I’m probably going to still be lurking on the boards a whole lot before making any moves.  There’s so much to learn - I’m used to the standard “everything is done by hand” games.  :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve got 2 new racers, MADD KAROL & MY RETURN.  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of questions as I get underway!

Thanks for the warm welcome, though, Amy.  :slight_smile:

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Welcome!

I’m Taylon, and I own Raceaway Stables.  I’ve been playing the game for nearly a year and a half, and over time, my stable has come nicely into it’s own.  In “real life” I am a first year college student in Minnesota.

Hah, I love the family riding stories!  I have a third cousin who I convinced to ride my horse once, probably more than five years ago, and it never fails that at every family event, she still gushes over the time that “she was at the farm and got to ride the horse”!  My dad tried to ride Billy once, but he didn’t really know what he was doing, and they didn’t really get along.  Needless to say, that hasn’t been repeated. 

Unfortunately, now that I’m at college, I’m having a really hard time riding between being on the golf team and all the time I spend studying, but I’m in the market for a new horse… hopefully, I can put it in training close by and get out to ride it a few times a week and on the weekends. 

Good luck with the game!  If you need any help, don’t hesitate to ask!

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Welcome to the game. :slight_smile:  There’s a lot to learn, but some recent features have actually made everything a little less overwelming.  I’m sure you’ll have fun.  Don’t hesitate to post on the forum or send people PM’s asking for advice, most people are very happy to help people who are really interested in learning how to play.

I can’t imagine not having my family ride.  Well, my sister doesn’t, but my mom does and my dad does thanks to my mom making him ride the bucks out of her mare back in their younger days.  My dad also suffered from having to play chauffer to me and my horses, so he learned a lot by contamination :wink:.  I’m a grad student in NC and I’m still trying to adjust to this whole paying for your own horse habit thing.  It was much cheaper when my parents were spoiling me.  (So all you members whose parents are paying for horse stuff, remember to thank them :wink:).

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I appreciate that.  I think I’m doing a decent job of searching high & low 'til I figure out the answer so far (I’d hate to ask a dumb/redundant question), but I’m sure I’ll inevitably run into problems somewhere along the road!  I’m glad to know that FF has such a welcoming member base - it’s definitely a plus!  That’s what drew me to my other game originally.  :wink:  The automation & realism initially drew me to FF - I wasn’t expecting it to be so community oriented, too!  Seems like too much to ask for.  I guess I thought all the automation would subtract from the community feel or something.  Glad to know I was wrong.

Anyhow, lucky you.  I’ve always wondered if mom would have pursued horses had she had the funds to do so (she came from a family of 10 kids raised on 1 construction salary in the middle of suburbia…not very condusive to having horses  :stuck_out_tongue:).  I think it would be AWESOME to have a family of horsey people.  I was always envious of anyone who did.

So what are you in grad school studying?  I’ve kind of been toying with the idea of going back to grad school, but not heavily enough to do the research I should regarding what careers it would open up, etc.  Not yet, anyway.

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I’m getting my PhD in Biology at the University of North Carolina.  If you’re super interested, I’m actually studying how transcription factors know to bind to the right spot to turn on genes instead of binding randomly across the genome. :wink:  For the most part, I like grad school.  Biology’s a little different though in that it’s easy to get funded (we’re all on our bosses grants) but the trade off is you get no time off.  Even holidays are considered work time, as are weekends, and evenings…  But on the flip side, if you  need to take off an afternoon or something to get stuff done, there’s no paperwork to go through, you just go poof and run away. :slight_smile:

My mom was an only child, but her parents were mill workers so they didn’t have money for horse stuff, either.  I think she’s making up for not getting to ride as a child as an adult.  So apparently the trick is to either have tons of money, or barely any. :wink:

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Welcome Alyssa.

I know ya from Horses Forever. I’m Rhianon.

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Wow Andrea-I think my IQ just went up 10pts by reading that. :wink:

WELCOME Alyssa-you sound like a great member and yes, many FF members are very eager to help the very eager new members so feel free to PM/IM anytime, don’t be shy! I’m always available through PM(I’ll reply to PM’s usually within a day) and often on AIM as striderisbest1

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Genetics - lucky you!  Those were by far my favorite courses in my degree (along with Reproductive Physiology), and if I were to go back, what I’d most like to get into.  :slight_smile:  Though I’m not a Biology major, I know Mizzou requires that all Animal Science grad students be funded by a professor’s grants as well.  That’s what really peaked my interest - I just assumed grad school was way beyond my means so I hadn’t ever really considered it…at least not for anytime in the near future.

And as for having no money at all or lots of money, it sure would be nice to have lots!  But I think maybe you appreciate it more, on average, when you have limited funds.  :stuck_out_tongue:

Good to see a familiar face, though, Rhianon - how’s the grandbaby doin’??

I’ll have to try to get around to messaging everyone at some point in time, CascadeJade.  :stuck_out_tongue:  Goodness knows I’m online plenty - I even got bored & made a page for my (tiny) farm here.  My horses are in transit to the racetrack, & I can’t really do anything 'til they get there (is it normal to take 2 days to ship 35 miles by road?!  I would think that, realistically, it would be an afternoon drive…  If so, I can only imagine how long it would take to drive cross-country in the game!!)
ivia.icy-blue.com/ivycreekracing/

And Taylon, sorry - I meant to respond to your post last time but I somehow managed to forget to do so.  I was just up in MN helping with a research project last fall.  :stuck_out_tongue:  What are you studying up there?  And golf, wow.  I can’t even imagine playing golf - I suck bad enough at both mini golf & frisbee golf, and I know they’re nowhere near as complex.  More power to ya.  I didn’t do any sports in college, but in high school I polevaulted.  Now that I think about it, we did have a golf team, though, too.  Hmm…

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Ordinarily, no, but shipping to/from farms is the exception to the rule.  Shipping to/from a farm automatically tacks on 1 day to every trip.  So your horses are spending 1 day shipping the 30 miles to Belmont, and another day shipping the 5 miles to Aqueduct.  What can I say, blame it on lazy staff who want to stop at a hotel every 20 minutes on the road.  :wink:

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Hello and welcome to the game! (though I am a bit late, as usual)

My name is Freedom on here (it’s LeAnn really- I’m happy with being called Freedom or LeAnn  :wink: ) and I run Freedom Acres, which is having a hard time right now. But that’s okay! I just have to figure out my horses… they can’t seem to figure out what they want yet.  :wink: But I’m trying.

My family isn’t very horsey either… just my mom, who doesn’t ride anymore anyway. I ride quite a bit in real life. I have my horse (first horse), named Jovi, who isn’t really mine in the first place. I lease him for free as payment for working at the stables that he lives at. It’s a lot of fun, and plenty of experience for me. I ride Jovi western in shows in the local fair, take him to camp, the works. (though this year since I’m starting high school, it’s going to be mighty difficult to manage to fit horse camp and fair into my time… the fair starts the day after band camp ends…! (marching band… whoo!) I’m slightly worried.  :-\ ) But anyway, I’m just rambling aren’t I?

Welcome to the game and I hope you enjoy it… I sure do!