About Me

I am Toby Mackenzie of Northeast Ohio. I am introverted, quiet, shy. I am a web developer.

Places

I have lived in Northeast Ohio my whole life. I currently live in a house in Northwest Akron.

Previous places have included Cleveland, Lakewood, Peninsula, Kent, Ravenna, Cuyahoga Falls, and Akron. Accommodations have included houses, dorms, an apartment, and a mobile home.

Education

I went to pre-school at Tri-C, where my mom worked. I started grade-school at Lincoln Elementary School, where I spent six years. I went to Horace Mann Middle School for just one year before moving to the Woodridge School District, where I spent the rest of my grade school days.

I attended Kent State University for four and a half years, majoring in Hospitality Management. I also minored in business and took various other courses, including Computer Science, which I really liked. I graduated with a bachelor's degree.

After graduating from Kent, I spent several years working as a line cook. During this time, I was expanding my knowledge of various programming and web languages, and my plans changed from a future in the restaurant industry to a future in the web industry.

I began attending Tri-C to gain some accreditation in my new career choice. I stumbled upon the eBusiness Management Program, which gave me a year long internship and a number of computer, business, and web related courses to take. I graduated and earned an associate's degree.

I no longer attend school, but have not stopped learning. The web industry continues to expand and evolve. There is more knowledge and technologies and tools out there than any one person can learn and use. I continue to learn in areas I'm interested and following new industry trends by reading blogs and listening to podcasts, experimenting and playing, trying new things in my work and personal projects.

Occupations

I currently work for Cogneato, a small web-development firm in Akron. I do front- and back-end development, server maintenance, and other miscellaneous tasks. Read more about my web development career.

Before that, concurrently with my stint at Tri-C, I worked as a web-development intern at RPM International. They are a large sealants and coatings company with many subsidiaries. I worked on some of their company websites as well as a number of charity websites to which they donate hours and hosting. I did front end development as well as some back end development in classic ASP and some database work with SQL Server. I enjoyed working on sites there, especially when some of the more difficult programming or database query problems came up.

My first job was at the Winking Lizard Tavern, where I worked for almost 10 years. I started as a busser and dishwasher, worked briefly as a host, and ended up in the kitchen working various stations. It was fun at times, but it could be rough, especially in the busy summer.

Hobbies

Since a young age, I've been interested in computers, and tend to spend a lot of time using them. I like music, both to listen to and to play. I played drums in concert and marching band in grade school, and then in a rock band for about five years. I now mainly am focused on playing keyboard for my own entertainment. I like reading, movies, and TV, especially sci-fi. I enjoy a number of outdoor activities, including hiking, running, and (formerly) cycling, as well as looking at plants and animals. I have enjoyed sports, especially dodgeball, but am probably too old for that now. I like photography. I like board, card, and video games sometimes. I have some interest in home design and operation, cars, and many other things.

I like to create things, improve things, learn things, and organize things.