User:Taryn85

Nigel Clarke - is a product of Queens, New York. At one time he was regarded by many as one of the great young minds of the Internet, working as an engineer for companies such as Mindspring, Bellsouth, Turner Broadcasting, Canon, and Nextel. He is known for his work performed at his consulting companies, Forever Networks and Crafted Packets. He is one of the contributing authors of the Addison Wesley publication "High Availability Networking with Cisco".

BIOGRAPHY

Clarke was born and raised in Queens, New York. The earlier part of his childhood began in St. Albans, NY. He grew up in Queens during the tumultuous 80's. A period of time that gave birth to rap music and the "Crack Era". Clarke was a brilliant student in elementary school, but he was often distracted by many of the personal problems in his household. As a result, Clarke suffered socially and had problems interacting with his classmates.

During the winter of 1990, his family moved to Cambria Heights, which is a section of Queens that sits on the border of Queens and Long Island. Despite the fact that the neighborhood existed in suburb area, it attracted many participants of the "Crack" game. As a result, the neighboorhood suffered from a high rate of crime.

Once his family moved, Clarke attended Linden Middle School (192). Clarke coasted through many classes and never took his work seriously. In sixth grade, he had been known as a trouble maker and frequently participated in brawls. He was suspended for a fight and decided not to tell his parents. Instead, he choose to cut school for the remainder of the year and was still promoted to the seventh grade. During this time, Clarke realized that it was easier to make your way through life by hacking life itself.

Soon after, he manuevered his way into Thomas Edison High School. He rarely attended class and made fake report cards for himself and his friends. He managed to do just enough, to pass classes, without getting good grades. After he made it through High School, Clarke went to Atlanta, Ga.

While staying with family in Atlanta, he worked in the produce section of Kroger. During this time, he met a man who would change his life. The man told Clarke that he did not want to see him in a stationary position his whole life. Following this advice, Clarke returned to New York to pursue a career in the field of computer technology. When he returned he attended MINT(Metropolitan Institute of Network Technology, Jersey City, NJ) and learned the fundamentals of Network Engineering. At a very young age he was exposed to the core technolgies of the Internet. It was this learning experience that gave Nigel an appreciation for hard work and intense personal study.

Although he only spent a few months at the school, Clarke decided to return to Atlanta. Once he returned, he was fortunate to land a job with Nextel communications. From there he never looked back. He worked for companies such as Bellsouth, Mindspring, American Cancer Society, Delta and Turner Broadcasting.

Clarked worked very hard and he was obsessed with possessing the CCIE certification. While this kept him focused and helped him mature in his career, he missed out on many opportunities of his youth. He was forced to grow up quickly and before long he became depressed. This depression led to severe sickness and he had to move back to New York City were he was surrounded by friends and family.

Soon after 2000, the economy collapesed and the nation was in a recession. Clarke had a hard time finding employment in New York and he moved to New Jersey to find employment. Although New Jersey offered many employment opportunities it did very little for Clarke's social life.

This was a problem for Clarke who had started to develop an interest in photojournalism and graphic design in 2003. As a result, Clarke made his exodus from Jersey and moved to Brooklyn, New York. Clarke had spent many years in Internet Engineering and no longer had an interest in the legacy technologies. He developed an appreciation for New Media technologies.

Clarke had also developed an intense hatred for Corporate America. This feeling was developed when Clarke, observed the ill treatment that many employees had suffered during the recession. He realized that companies were not loyal.

Keeping this in mind, he was determined to be a successful businessman and rely on himself. Soon after he transitioned into the world of New Media and Motion Design.

Clarke is now a media design consultant living in New York City. He is also a freelance writer and photographer.