Philip Rastocny

I worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories for over twenty years with some of the finest minds in the world. Bell Labs--the company that invented the transistor--committed itself to going green decades before it became popular and I was one of its strongest supporters. As a senior technical editor in this NASA-like bleeding-edge environment, my well-rounded approach to writing is down-to-earth, easy to understand, and can help you solve everyday problems.

I write about the things I know. I have published over ten Do It Yourself books after personally testing each subject. Typically designed for the individual trying to evaluate a topic, each book brings insights others may overlook or be more difficult to interpret. Periodically updated, these guides keep pace with technological changes, current wisdom, and user feedback.

Living in an extremely green home in central Florida, my modest house uses wind, rain, and solar technologies for sources of electricity, water, and hot water. My goal is to get as close to being completely off the grid in a typical suburban home as possible.

Lowering my carbon footprint with each project, I have reduced my personal electrical consumption by 75% in six years and my city water consumption by even more. My guides on making a hot water solar collector, evaluating wind turbines, and understanding solar electricity share these insights as to how this was done.

My Improving Mileage Guide increased the average highway mileage in my 2007 Toyota Yaris from 37 to 42.5mpg, with its one-time best mileage of 47.

My Raised-bed Garden project solves several issues with locally poor soil, unusual growing conditions, invasive roots, and persistent pest problems while providing 100% home-grown organic foods to my table.

My Appliance Buying Guide talks about the true cost of ownership balanced against the purchase price and tells you how to measure the REAL electrical usage of your appliaces.

My Organic Gardening Guide raises your consciousness about the quality of the food you choose to put into your body--even from your own garden.

My Composting Guide helps you reduce your contribution to landfills while creating a high-quality and free source of fertilizer with readily available and free, recyclable materials.

My Squirrel-Proof Bird feeder guide can put more food into birds and less into squirrels while having a little fun with one of nature's most persistent and creative creatures.

My first contribution to creating a better you starts with my "Meditation for Geeks (and other left-brained people)" where I explore your higher consciousness and help those who are addicted to logic to find a way to slow down their non-stop minds. A remarkable piece of work that in a few pages can make the difference between a hectic you and a calmer you.

And in my crowning achievement, my novel "Althea: A Story of Love" takes you on a heart-tugging emotional roller-coaster ride of a supporter dealing with the potential loss of a loved one. Even here I share the things I have tried hoping others can benefit from my successes in the greatest challenge I ever faced.

My philosophy extends to my love of music. A series of six "Extreme Audio" guides will help you improve the quality of your home entertainment system by analyzing the sources of often overlooked problems and provide easily remedied solutions, even for high-end purists. The first issue on house wiring is very revealing and explains the real reasons behind why audiophile reviewers recommend dedicated electrical connections for your home entertainment system and how to achieve similar results without going to this expense. These reviewers are right and this explains what is happening inside of your house electrical system that causes problems.

My soon-to-be-released work is another informative self-help work about CHOICES and how and why we choose most of the things we do. Written for the first-time individuals who are fascinated by their own behaviors, this guide gets to the core of issues quickly and in high-level, easy-to-understand terms including every-day examples with which almost anyone can relate.

I have lectured on each of these subjects and I love to share my successes with others. My common-sense approach to going green addresses everyday choices so future generations can potentially enjoy the same--or hopefully an even better--planet than we do today. My self-help guides can springboard your understanding of yourself and what you can do to make your life more of what you want it to be.

Join me on my journey in finding practical ways to coexist with nature and living a quality life.