Here I am with the San Andreas fault in the distance behind me. It's January 2005, near California Valley, about 50 miles east of my home in Arroyo Grande.

Here is some of my work since my retirement in 1990. There is a musical computer program and four books.

My annotated curriculum vitae is here.

You can email me here.

This has been my project for the year 2010.

The first volume uses my version of evolutionary biology to answer college-dorm questions like "Why am I here?" and "What is the purpose of life?" It concludes with the suggestion that there is an urgent need to leave behind some of the characteristics inherited from our caveman ancestors -- like war and religious leaders. Human survival in the nuclear age may depend on it.

The second book uses eighth-grade algebra to understand physical science though its equations. The equations can be solved with a computer spreadsheet in the Cloud. I use rockets and quantum mechanics as examples. If you are puzzled by TV and News explanations of physics, you have come to the right place.

These two books were printed at Lulu, a different kind of "vanity press." Lulu lets you print a single copy of your book from your word-processor file for a few dollars. If you click on one of the Lulu buttons at right, you can read more about my books. You won't have to buy one unless you want to.

My father, John Aseltine, was Principal of San Diego High School from 1927 to 1954. In 1937 he began writing a weekly column for the school paper The Russ. one of the titles he used for the columns was Think on These Things, taken from Paul's advice to the Philippians. The columns continued to appear until 1954. Thus they span the period from the Great Depression to the Cold War. This book is a collection of his columns annotated by my brother Richard and me.

1. From lists of composers and compositions. (The program will play samples like this.)
2. From arias imbedded in stories of operas.
3. By plinking the tune on a Virtual Piano.

Wagner's Ring is a work in progress. The occasion was my plan to see the Seattle production in August of 2009. I first studied the Ring in 2001, using the Ring Disc which I highly recommend.

At the beginning of 2009 I began more study (the more you learn about the operas, the more you enjoy.) I planned to write a synopsis for each of the four operas, with integrated leitmotifs. I only got half way through before I went to Seattle. The four opera synopses are here, but only the first two have music. Click here to check on my progress.

The Library of a Dilettante is the annotated bibliography of my own library. Currently there are about 1500 volumes -- the result of 60 year's browsing in used-book and thrift stores. There are new books too, but they are far outnumbered.

The library changes constantly, so this is a snapshot that I have used as a place to hang my ideas and theories. I have commented on many of the books, but not all. Sometimes I use a book as a starting place for an essay. Sometimes I use it as a source of a picture I like. Often I find something interesting to quote.

Volume 1 covers the first one-third of the books. To give you a preview, here is a list of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. The answers are in the book.