Greetings! This site used to be my mirror business site to www.ppsenterprises.com. However, it is now my personal web page (PWP), for I discontinued my business in late 2000 and was recruited to serve Uncle Sam.

Yes, I am Paul Schafer, but not my namesake from Canada and who entertain's late-night TV goers. As far as I know, he is sighted. I am not. He is a musician, and I am not. However, we both do appreciate music.

My musical taste are eclectic, ranging from Gregorian Chants up to various popular genres in the U.S. and from around the world.

I enjoy reading as well. For years, I read academic or technical books. Since about 2000, I've been taking a break from the latter and reading books from various fictional genres: namely, Fantasy, SciFi, Mystery, and Suspense/Thrillers.

I am a fan of Star Trek, all the TV series and movies and many of the Simon & Shooster abridged audio books, a fan of Star Wars, the movies and audio books, and a B5 fan, the TV series and feature-length TV movies. On and off since 1976, about when the first box set was released, I have been known to engage my imagination and role-play in some D&D/AD&D, also known as Dungeons or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I've enjoyed playing other RPGs as well, though not as much as with D&D.

By now, you may have concluded that "this guy, Paul, is a geek." Well, if the skis and boots fit, then I say put them on and rip it up proudly. Others of you may realize that labels are useful and have their limits; and people can ride in different skis an boots proudly... Please read on.

Like some of you, I enjoy keeping current with news in the socio/political, scientific, and technological domains. Mostly, I keep current via listening to certain shows on National Public Radio (NPR), some TV news, and various web sites, including audio broadcasts, recently and increasingly so.

I enjoy or have enjoyed certain non-sedate activities as well, including lap swimming, playing Judo, English horseback riding/jumping, and my athletic passion is alpine skiing.

Yes, I am totally blind and ski untethered, and started learning to ski after I had gone blind. To illustrate my passion for alpine skiing, for the last three seasons, I have used all my generous leave from Uncle Sam to fly out west a few times and ski for about a month, and I have adventured from beyond sticking to the groomers to warming up on the Blue/Black groomers and then tackling challenges like moguls, chutes, off-piste terrain, traversing into/onto cornices, and boot-packing it to powder heaven! While I've enjoyed skiing at other resorts in my eleven-year, 169-day skiing experience -- but who's counting? --, my three favorites thus far for steeps and deeps are Snowbird in Utah, Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and Kirkwood in California. One of my plans is to use this PWP to archive and share with you audio postcards (and perhaps picture/videos) of my 2006-07 ski adventures and subsequent seasons. To quote Tom, one of my guides from Park City, utah, "Skiing with Paul is a kick in the pants!"