I am Clint Lenard… born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised in Huntington Beach, California. I moved to California when I was just 8 years old and basically my entire life consisted of California. I do remember Oklahoma, don’t get me wrong – but California was like a dream at first. As a child I always heard things about the place and couldn’t believe we were moving there. Of course I didn’t like it at first because I was going to leave my grandparents and cousins, who were my life basically. My best friend as a child was my cousin Nick and my Grandparents were like my parents away from my parents. I loved them all and knew I would miss them. Time went by and I eventually got used to living in California and we had cousins, Aunts and Uncles visit all the time…not to mention my Grandparents who always surprised us!

California was not easy… the life was obviously much faster and even as a little kid – I seen things that most people don’t see as Adults. My life in California created a crazy infatuation with Baseball. Baseball was my life… I went from a kid who could hardly throw – to a kid who everybody wanted on their team. I was always the best Pitcher and Hitter in the league and was usually the youngest as well… My fastball was clocked at 76 MPH at only 14 years old but that was nothing compared to the crazy forkball that NOBODY could hit. The problem was — the forkball is what ruined my Baseball career… my fingers got so used to forking the ball that I eventually kept picking the ball up between my fingers. One day I dove for a ball and threw to first on my knees… then a little tingle in my elbow evolved into a 4 year problem. I could hardly even pick up a glass of water, much less hold a ball. So, if Baseball was gone – what was there to do?

Wrong crowds are easy to find when you’re bored.

By 14 I started running with the wrong crowd. I was a nerdy Athlete in Junior high and then I decided “if I couldn’t play Baseball, I would find something else to do…”

Gangs were pretty common at my High School. As a Freshman I started running with a little Gang that today I look at as a joke but it was the gateway to disaster. I eventually got caught tagging all over the Boys Bathroom and then my teachers convertable lol… it’s funny now, but it wasn’t then!

I ditched school like I didn’t belong there just to hang out with friends. We used to go to the Music Store and steal C.D.’s and tapes (yeah, they were around then!). I got crazy and started stealing C.D.’s like it was nobodies business… I had like 200 tapes and 100 C.D.’s by the end of Summer. I ended up going to some school in Irvine which was supposed to help straighten me up… but who’s going to straighten up a kid who doesn’t want to be anything less than trouble?

I ended up meeting other kids who were involved with Gangs and it only got me deeper in trouble. The next school year I got sent to a continuation school called Valley Vista where I met even more trouble… one of my new friends (Ryan Mones) ended up getting killed that year and it made me a little more crazy. Then another kid was murdered… buried in a trash can. My next High School was Irvine High, which I went to play baseball at. I hated the school at first because all there was – was rich kids and wannabe gangsters. Unfortunately, I made the team (Varsity) but couldn’t play due to a low GPA the previous semester and never got to play against Alex Rodriguez in the Upper Deck classic. Life was getting a little better though, being away from HB, Santa Ana, Anaheim, etc. and I started feeling more comforatable around the rich kids (ha!). I met some cool people there and made a ton of great memories. But, I left Irvine High and again, Life was getting out of control and then our family moved to the other side of H.B. which ended up being the future home of my Neighborhood: Sher Lane. Over the next few years I was kicking it with alot of different people and alot of different Neighborhoods. I was cool with alot of people but also not cool with even more… I was still a “good kid” for the most part. I was dragged into alot of problems by “friends” but never did smoke weed or drink alcohol at that time. I eventually started smoking weed like crazy and then came alcohol later… which was a bad decision. By 20 I was smoking weed and drinking alcohol like crazy and starting sh!t with anyone and everyone… Life was just depressing at the time and I guess I was looking for the childhood I lost. The problem is — I lost my early 20’s as well. Alcohol led to cigarettes which will probably be the death of me.

In 2001 I started to straighten up a little and got online quite a bit. I started going online in 2000 but it was just to chat and search and stuff like that. In 2001 I actually found Monster.com and they had some little HTML tutorial that helped me learn HTML which later led to creating a bunch of my own little websites. As crappy as they were — it helped me alot!

In 2004 I started really getting into Web Design and Development. I started learning PHP like crazy and got into CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. Through the next few years I’ve dabbled in Java, Perl, C and C++ as well as Ruby on Rails.

Now, my life is almost the opposite of my teenage years. I’ve become a huge computer nerd and I love working online. I love learning (always have) new things and Computer Technology is just fascinating to me!

I also Record Music… some may know me as Mr. Devil – which is my street name that I was labeled due to my look and attitude. That person is long gone but I still use it to remind myself of who I am…not who I was. Who I was will always be who I am, no matter what. It’s always good to know that no matter how stupid we might have been or might be now — will never stop us from being who we want to be.

This was a quick little Blog for anyone interested in this site. Hopefully you can read new Blogs on a daily basis. Although alot of it may be based on Technical Stuff!