My background is in Architecture (B.A) and Structural Engineering (M.Eng) and my career passion is in designing and building structures such as high rise buildings and long span bridges.

My other big passion is mountaineering, which includes hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, skiing, scrambling, rock & ice climbing, sometimes at crags but up in the mountains as much as I can.

Both of these passions have led me in different ways into the realm of programming.

I now work for a software company that creates the software that engineers use to design & construct buildings, so I have been learning programming on the go to do more interesting work there. Primarily VBA & VB.Net.

Climbing has repeatedly given me reasons to learn more web-based programming, such as HTML, CSS, PHP & Javascript for various personal projects. Right now I am working on a database-oriented website to push these skills, but for now I have a basic Google Site. [www.markpthomas.com][1]

Miscellany that I like to do on the side that also tend to bump into the world of programming are: cycling, digital graphics, photography and GIS.

![graphic made in 2004 from GIS data, 3D Studio Max & Adobe Photoshop for an interactive web map][2]

![I see future use of programming for playing with stuff like this!][3]

![I <3 GIS. Work in progress for an interactive map of climbing desert towers in SW Utah][4] [1]: http://www.markpthomas.com [2]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/xpt5T.jpg [3]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/UZrnE.jpg [4]: http://i.stack.imgur.com/CMCYH.jpg