Meet the webmaster!

Greetings, friends!  This page is representative of my original page at Internet Global from 1996.  When I finally got my own domain, I was determined to make a "new start" and get rid of all the old design.  When the time finally came to make the move, I realized I didn't have the heart to destroy my original work...so here it is, reserved for my personal information page.  The barbarian above I drew with a mouse in Corel Photo-Paint 3 back in '96, before I knew too much about what I was doing.  For a beginner, I didn't do too badly on him (at least I don't think so!)  I keep him around as an old friend.

My name is Paris Soulier (last name pronounced SOO-yay, much the same way you'd call a hog), and I've been an Internet junkie now for over 15 years.  My first page, Barbarian's Lair, went up on April Fool's day (hehehe) 1996.  It was spartan back then.  I taught myself HTML from a book and hand-coded everything in WordPerfect 6.1.  There was no Netscape Composer back then, no Microsoft FrontPage, and Netscape and Internet Explorer were in their infancy (version 1.1 on each had just been released).  I was fascinated with the Internet and determined to learn far more about it, so I signed up for courses on it that summer.  

I'm originally from Monroe, Louisiana, and just recently moved back there from Denton, Texas, after a twenty-four year absence.  I was born in Monroe on September 13, 1963.  It was a Friday the 13th, and ever since, I've always considered any Friday the 13th my "lucky day."  After living  in Monroe for almost 23 years, then got a wild hair and moved to Denton, Texas, to attend graduate school there in 1986.  

The most important lady in my life is my wife, Lela Galadriel, a.k.a. The Leopard Queen on the Internet.  (Yep, we're a family of geeks, but who cares?  So is half the world nowadays, it seems.)  We've known each other since 1987, almost since I first moved to Texas, and we finally got married in May 1997, ten years later.  Good things are worth the wait.  

I'm also a big fan of music of almost all types, other than really awful country or gangster rap.  My favorite music types tend to be jazz/blues, rock, and some pop (depends on what it is).  

Professionally, I'm an instructor; having taught both at the secondary and post-secondary levels. I worked at University of North Texas from 1986 to 1996, and then at a business college in Denton, Texas, where I taught classes in computer training, Internet and web design, and networking. I also served there as a director of curriculum from 2003 to 2006. More recently I was employed in Frisco, Texas, as a high-school mathematics instructor, but relocated back to Monroe due to a compressed job market and to assist my mother.

Politically, I'm pretty middle of the road; subscribing to no one party, but voting for the best person for the job.  Other than that, politics bore me to distraction.  I'm far more interested in local affairs than I am in the national level.  I will say this much, that I am rather disappointed in the past administration's job that they have did, and the current one hasn't done much else so far.  It seems that too many individual freedoms are being swept away recently, and no one really seems to care, or are only too willing to give up their freedoms because of their fear about the threat of terrorism.  Terrorism is going to exist until the root causes are resolved.  It isn't  something you can get rid of by fighting a war (and if you really believe the war in Iraq in 2003 was fought for the purpose of getting rid of terrorism, I have some Mississippi delta land to sell you), or by applying economic sanctions.  A fundamental mindset must change first before any peace can be seen, and that change is going to take a very, very long time.

I'm a deeply spiritual person, but feel that my expression of it is private; I don't like group expressions of faith, except for World Peace meditations.  I tend toward the more metaphysical expressions of spirituality.  I don't go to churches that much because I can't stand the singing.  That may seem ridiculous, but after being forced to stand and sing songs that I wouldn't teach a crow, I leave feeling stressed out and angry and that's certainly no expression of spirituality.  So, until I find a church or center that either eschews singing or leaves it to the professionals, I pretty much keep to myself.  However, I practice my spirituality every day and in every facet of my life, which I believe is better than turning it on for 2 hours on one day in a week and then turning it off for the other 6 days.  My wife Lela is much the same way.  You won't find her in a church except at a wedding or a funeral, yet she's one of the most highly spiritual people I know.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with churches, and many people get a lot of benefit out of that, and that's wonderful.  Whatever works for the individual is what I believe.

It has been too long since I've seriously updated this site.  Ten years ago, I was hospitalized for a condition known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, a.k.a. TTP, which very nearly killed me...seriously.  Since recovering from that condition, and after removal of a gallbladder which to this day I know was responsible for it, I have a much deeper appreciation for life.  You can read more about that experience at the previous link.  

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