Everyone knows the story of Chubby Pup Charlie; the loveable yellow lab puppy with a few extra pounds on him. But few know about the Barker family. Some would say that Patrick is the head of the household, others would point toward his witty son, Nathan, but how did Patrick and the rest of the Barkers live off of nothing and somehow become one of the most well know, inventive families of all time?
Mr. Barker was born in Winnipeg, Canada, in a family just trying to make ends meet. But while every Barker was relatively quiet, no one of Patrick Barker’s parents would have said he wasn’t ambitious. Patrick was always the inventive one. When Patrick was just thirteen, he managed to scrape together a few bucks from neighborhood jobs and bought his first computer. This is where it all began. Patrick had no idea what he was doing, all he knew was that idea of being able to connect with the rest of the world through one piece of technology simply extraordinary.
Oddly enough, Patrick spent most of his time playing and analyzing video games. But Patrick saw more than just a few pretty graphics on his small monitor. He contemplated the concept of algorithms and programming. After just playing around with it, he had a pretty good understanding of how the system worked. Three months later, Patrick had his first video game.
It may have been simple, but Patrick and his parents got the name of the game out there. Patrick even sold the rights to it for six-hundred dollars. Not much, but now he knew what to do. Computers, algorithms, and programming became an obsession to him. Patrick spent eighty hours a week on his computer, playing, analyzing, and dreaming up inventions that would later change the world. Things seemed to be picking up for the Barkers, but Patrick soon had to face his biggest setback.
When Patrick was just fifteen, he became an orphan. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he decided to run away. Even though he was in a deep depression, he did everything he could to keep his mind occupied. Patrick spent his days at the library, reading everything he could get his hands on.
A few months later, Patrick decided to move to the United States. He saw it is the land of opportunity, where even the lowest of the low have the ability to do something amazing.
Patrick managed to get to Seattle with the help of his cousin. His cousin, Martin, was already living in a small apartment and sleeping on the couch. Although it was a bit cramped, Patrick was in luck, Martin had a computer. Patrick showed Martin the game he made, and was immediately captivated. As if that wasn’t enough, Patrick showed off a few of the other skills he learned in the Canadian library, internet programming, algorithms, and development.
Early the next morning, Martin woke up to find, Patrick staring at his computer. He walked over and saw Pat working on something he said would change the way the world uses computers and connects online. Patrick didn’t know it at the time, but he was creating the world’s first blog.
Martin was immediately engaged. They took turns sleeping on the couch. The website they made was up during the day, and they were coding at night, seven days a week, all the time. The site was an instant success.
The cousins would go on to sell the site to another online company, bringing them both a payday that would prove Patrick’s parents were right about his genius and ambition.
Patrick went on to invest what he had in himself, to the point where he still had to borrow rent again to allow him to pay for some of his inventions.
It was about twenty years later when Mr. Barker found the famous Charlie wandering the streets on the cold, stormy, September night.
