Welcome to my personal web hangout. I'm Brian Heath, a 40-something white guy from a certain ethnic suburb of Akron, Ohio. My wife, Trish, has put up with me since May of 1997 (we got hitched in July of 2000). Our daughter, Emma-Grace, has put up with me since April of 2002; and our son, Jacob, has put up with me since May of 2005.
To pay the mortgage, I'm a credit wonk for a certain ethnic large utility company based in Akron, Ohio. When I'm not chasing Trish or the kids around or sleeping or tending to domestic madcap fun, I'm usually geeking around online. Some have said I'd make a great IT person; but considering how difficult the IT market's been the last decade, I've shied away from going that direction.
I'm a devout but progressive Roman Catholic. My attitude about other faith traditions is "live and let live" - and a spiritual pet peeve of mine is seeing people of faith attempt to proselytize those active in other faith traditions. Politically, I'm slightly left of center. I mostly trend towards Democratic ideology but have a few conservative moral threads.
In terms of my media choices, I tend to prefer "old-school" forms of entertainment. Not much on TV or in the movies today gets me jazzed. Most of my all-time TV shows and movies are from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. My fave movies include "Animal House", "Up in Smoke", "Caddyshack", and "The Breakfast Club". My fave TV shows of all time include "M*A*S*H", "Dragnet", "Adam-12", "Emergency!", "NYPD Blue", "The Untouchables" (the old one with Robert Stack), and "Hill Street Blues". In terms of music, I like oldies, classic rock, and 80s metal and alternative. Not much into reading books. When I have time, I like watching football (mostly college and NFL). I'm a lifelong fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes, along with the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Indians. Yes, I'm a masochistic and long-suffering Cleveland professional sports fan.
My life journey started when I was born in Akron in 1966. After a mostly ignimonious stretch in school from grades K-8, I had a somewhat decent four years in high school and graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School in 1984. I graduated from Kent State University with a telecommunications degree (radio/TV) in 1988. After 16 months of un- and under-employment, I spent seven years with two CBS affiliates in Jackson, Mississippi and Rochester, New York.
Those seven years were spent as a news videographer. Loved the work. Hated the stress and egos. Still miss it but got out of "the biz" in 1996 for my own good. Moved to Seattle and spent five years there, first as a fundraising computer geek at the Union Gospel Mission - then as a production manager for The Domain Group, an ad agency that works with primarily nonprofit and faith-based clients. Trish and I moved to Ohio in 2001, just after 9/11. After some less-than-fun work experiences, I ended up with the certain ethnic large utility company and have been there since March of 2003 as a contractor and was hired by them later that year.
Finally, a quick "back story" to explain the question, "why 'vanillacokehead'?" I stole the initial idea for the name from a friend of mine who used to call herself, "Diet Cokehead". A few years ago, I got hooked on drinking Vanilla Coke. I got tired of using "heathbar66" as a screen name for a number of online services and web sites - so I decided to use "vanillacokehead" - and I've stuck with using the name ever since.
If you've made it this far without falling asleep or going to another web page, I thank you for reading. And I appreciate you stopping by. :)
my online rules of engagement
my online hangouts:
(frequently updated stuff)
blog.vanillacokehead.com
my twitter profile
my facebook profile
new family pix
my youtube channel
(somewhat dated stuff)
mcheathster.com
myspace profile
old family pix
my old blog
this site last updated April 6, 2009.
DISCLAIMER: this web site is my PERSONAL online presence and is not associated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Coca-Cola Enterprises. I am solely responsible for the content on this web site. Vanilla Coke is a registered trademark of Coca-Cola Enterprises and no infringement on, dilution of, or misappropriation towards the Vanilla Coke brand name is intended. However, it would be interesting to see the Coke Classic product team sue the Coke Zero product team.
