Below you will find both industry-related information and some random personal facts about myself.
Why programming?
As I've been asked this question many times by friends, professors, and even interviews not related to the software development industry, I figure it's fitting to use this for my professional description.
I like to think of myself as both a creative and analytical person. I am as comfortable listening to (and creating) music as I am digging through source code and making my ideas come to life through machine languages. I would really have a tough time saying whether I am right or left brained as I feel that I am a hybrid of the two 'types'. I originally started my post-secondary education with the intention of becoming an aeronautical engineer (due to my love of flying and science). While I was working through that program I realized that my creative side had been benched and left as more of a hobby than something I could use to my advantage professionally. Sure there are creative aspects to engineering, and hobbies can be advantageous, but what could be better than taking something from both aspects and combining them into a career? I have always loved video games and they were a large creative outlet and source of entertainment for me from a young age. From creating rudimentary text-based games on my 286 in QBASIC to messing with every game engine and editor that I could get my hands on - game development and modification has long been a staple of my creative repertoir.
Fast forwarding to school, I found out about Vancouver's bustling game development industry and how I could actually earn a living doing something hands-on that I normally did for fun. I eventually decided to make the switch and pursue game development full-time. I chose the Art Institute of Vancouver's Visual and Game Programming program for their GPW course. 
Over the six months that GPW runs, an entire game is made from in an environment made to emulate an actual industry game-creation cycle from concept through to completion. My team tackled a ground-up project and some info on the result can be found here.
I found the entire VGP program very rewarding and able to feed my 'ambidextrous' brain quite nicely. While programming is generally though to be a very analytical process, I believe that creative and abstract thinking are equally important in coming up with efficient algorithms, relating to (and working with) other team members such as designers and artists, and when working on my own projects (to name only a few scenarios).
Coming soon: What I do when I'm not in front of the computer :) [figured I'd get the relevant stuff on here first]
