My wife and I noticed the power bills got more and more expensive. Our electric provider began charging the 50% of its customers who use the most electricity an extra $100 a month. Our power bills averaged $250 a month with outliers hitting $450 a month.

We began thinking more about installing a rooftop solar panel system. We brought in a sales person to go over a few options. She reviewed the idea of paying someone else to install the system on our roof and then pay that third party for electricity at a lower/locked-in rate. Or we could finance and own the system without a third party.

We chose to do it ourselves without any financing. My father-in-law purchased panels on eBay. It’s a good thing he’s handy. I don’t think I could have done this project on my own. After he purchased the panels the next step was designing the system. 

We have a friend of the family who designs solar photovoltaic systems (solar power systems). The design cost us about $1000. The designer measured the roof, angle of exposure to sunlight, breaker panel capacity and more. After measurements were gathered the designer had plans drafted by someone overseas. When the plans came in we reviewed the system and next steps with our designer.

At this stage we wanted to submit the plan before the state of California changed its pricing agreements. (We wanted to lock-in a 2.0 plan instead of 3.0.). The change was due to happen in the summer of 2023. As long as the plans were submitted and approved before the summer we would secure a better rate for power sold and purchased through our utility.

Plans were approved within that time frame. Then we needed to purchase the rest of the system: an inverter, tile-hooks, power optimizers, racking, and more. All of this was spelled out in the plan. Nearby a company (Greentech in San Diego) sold us the parts we needed.

I’m so grateful my father-in-law helped with the installation. We lifted up concrete roofing tiles and attached about 35 tile-hooks over two weeks. Then we laid racks against the hooks. Then the panels came up (too early apparently). Then we ran wires between the optimizers. Eventually more wires went through a hole in our roof, through the attic and out the side of our house to a solar inverter. More wire from the inverter to the breaker panel and viola!  The meter began running backwards.

Soon it was time to call the county inspector. He wanted us to upgrade a wire that grounded our system under the house. With that we received the green light to operate our system.

Now we spend about $15 a month on electricity (the minimum we can be charged for connection to the grid). The money we spent on electricity can go elsewhere. We’re choosing to save it to purchase an electric vehicle to reduce our expense on gasoline for our cars.

This quick rundown of what happened to accomplish a home rooftop solar system may lead one to believe it’s simple: it’s not. I’m grateful for the help of my father-in-law and uncle (our electrical guru) who made this happen. It’s a privilege to have such capable family members that can pull this off.

Is DIY rooftop solar doable?  Yes. For the average Joe, I think it depends. We benefited from family members who are handy and have electrical experience. I’m glad we did it and hope to reap the rewards for a long time to come.

Learn how a family took control of their rising power bills by installing a DIY rooftop solar panel system. Discover the process they followed, from choosing the right system to navigating state regulations, all with the help of capable family members. Find out how they locked in a favorable rate and drastically reduced their electricity costs, making the case for DIY solar while acknowledging the importance of expertise.

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Lessons from Installing Rooftop Solar Ourselves

Podcasts are a great way to listen and learn new things.  As someone who spends about an hour each day commuting in the car I find podcasts an enjoyable way to ease on down the road.  Here are the ones I most enjoyed in 2022.  I group podcasts into two groups: mini-series podcasts (usually going deep into one story) and regular podcasts (released daily-ish)

# Regularly Programmed (Daily) Podcasts

## Ukraine: The Latest
### Produced by The Telegraph (UK Newspaper)
The conflict in Ukraine interests me.  I want to know where things stand.  This podcast dedicates about an hour every weekday to reports from journalists connected to Ukraine.  It helps me understand the conflict.  As citizens in the US we contribute financially and emotionally to this conflict.  Plus as someone who enjoys traveling to Europe I want to understand ramifications for my vacation plans. 

## Up First
### Produced by NPR
NPR releases a 15 minute morning news summary that’s a great way to catch up on current events.  They usually dedicate themselves to three main stories.  The 15 minute format allows for depth beyond brief headlines.  I find it an informative way to hear what’s important today in our shared world.

## The Journal
### Produced by The Wall St. Journal
Each weekday afternoon the Wall St. Journal releases a 45 minute-ish podcast that dives deep into stories about money and/or power.  This podcast intrigues me with coverage of the Twitter ownership change, LivGolf and Facebook’s metaverse.  They also explore future electric cars and where to find the lithium needed for their batteries.  It’s a thought provoking way to go deep on interesting topics.

# Mini-series Podcasts:

## Hack Me If You Can
### Produced by the Wall St. Journal
This nonfiction series explores how a Russian man went from stealing credit card numbers on a small scale to a much larger scale.  Remember a couple of years ago when Target disclosed its database of credit card numbers was hacked?  This explores the guy who did it.  He shares how and why he did it.  The US government had been trying for years to bust him.  Eventually they caught him.  Now he helps catch hackers doing similar or more nefarious things.  It's a fascinating rags to riches story.

## The Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill
### Produced by Christianity Today
Mars Hill Church in Seattle was a significant powerhouse in American Christianity.  The music ministry blazed trails a few years ago.  Their former pastor Marc Driscoll rose a lot of eyebrows throughout the growth trajectory of his career and the church he founded.  Then it unravelled a few years back.  This podcast explores what happened.  It's another rags to riches type story.  There are lots of lessons to learn about leadership here.  I can’t believe Marc told people he read a book every day.  The podcast focused on that and many other nuances of the story.

## Bad Bets Season 2: The Unraveling of Trevor Milton
### Produced by the Wall St. Journal
The Wall St. Journal released a series of podcasts about the founder of Nikola Motors.  This is the story of a man with a vision.  He wanted to produce a hydrogen fuel powered truck that would disrupt the trucking and fuel industries.  He got a lot of people to buy into a vision.  He was a darling of Wall Street for a time.  The more the spotlight shown on his company the more he could not survive the scrutiny.  Milton's multimillion dollar company eventually went bankrupt because he built it on dreams and failed to make much progress.

## How To Build A Metaverse
### Produced by The Wall St. Journal
With Facebook focusing much attention on the metaverse the Wall St. Journal explored it's possibilities.  They harkened back to an internet venture known as Second Life from the early 2000s.  I remember using Second Life a little after reading about it in Wired magazine.  Yeah, it wasn’t anything extrordinary.  Why would Facebook want to pour billions of dollars into something like it?  That question is explored at length.  All the while Facebook seems to be doing a lot of damage control from its investment in a metaverse project.  This podcast helps understand that backlash.


Podcasts are a great way to listen and learn new things.  As someone who spends about an hour each day commuting in the car I find podcasts an enjoyable way to ease on down the road.  Here are the ones I most enjoyed in 2022.

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The Best Podcasts of 2022

I got the travel bug about seven years ago after my first trip to Europe.  Since then, even amidst a pandemic, I returned to Europe about once a year.

What I really want to focus on here are my favorite European destinations.  These are the places I enjoyed above others.  It’s pointless to prescribe this list for others but I hope it can be useful when thinking about places worth seeing.

## 5. Prague
Prague feels like life in a fairy tale.  Likely the best preserved medieval city, Prague's hilltop castle looks down on the city that evokes awe.  World War II devastated most cities of this stature but Prague was left alone.  The Charles bridge stands over the river running through the heart of the city.  The old town nearby has cuteness all figured out.  Prague stands as the capital of a proud nation.  It’s memorable to behold.

## 4.  Normandy
My wife and I made the trip to Normandy early in our marriage.  Spending a night on Mont. St. Michele was so much fun.  It was fun to brag about having a hotel room on that island.  A lot of people have seen the island in pictures and movies.  There aren’t many hotel rooms so getting one is unforgettable.

Mont St. Michele fills up during the day.  It’s best to see that island after the day trippers leave and before they arrive.

Besides Mont St. Michele Normandy hosts great WWII sights, notably the beach at Arromanches.  Large pieces of equipment used in the D-day invasion are left stranded on the shoreline.  It feels other-worldly to feel waves crashing against the equipment you can climb on.

## 3.  Paris
It feels cliche to put Paris high up on a list of European Destinations.  What does Paris have to offer?  The opportunity to say you’ve been there is significant.

I went on a Seine river cruise and heard a stranger who spoke my language say “Not a lot of people get to look with their own eyes on the Eiffel Tower.  Soak it in”.  It felt correct.  It’s an impressive structure.  The food in France is also astonishing.  It’s hard to overstate that.  Their bread is amazing.

Yes it’s got the Mona Lisa, the Louvre, the Orsay and stories of the French Revolution.

## 2.  Budapest
This city surprised me.  The buildings wreak of historical significance.  The signs throughout town boat unfamiliar aliphatic symbols which makes it feel more exotic.  It feels different, farther removed from my USA rooted perspective of the world.

The Danube river runs through the heart of the city allowing the people of Budapest opportunities to create beautiful bridges that span the water.  The bridges are colorful and unique.  Walking alongside the river is exciting.  The Hungarian Parliament building is so grand.  

Historically this city had a lot of money pumped into it in the late 1800s and it shows.  It was a time of grandeur, iron, stone.  Their Central Park, architecture and streets give off an incredibly established confidence.

## 1.  Venice
This is place is so picture postcard perfect.  It’s like a huge maze of history ready to engulf you.

You’ve seen the domes, churches and bridges in pictures throughout your life.  Seeing them in person felt surreal to me.  It’s beautiful all over again.  It’s exhilerating to get wander away from the crowded tourist spots and get lost in Venice.

I woke up here around 4am by accident once and decided to go out and enjoy the town regardless of the unusual hour.  I’m so glad I did.  It's such a fun place to get lost and bring a camera.









My favorite European cities to visit as a tourist 

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Top Five European Destinations

I completed a website using Next.js (a React variant) for a church in San Antonio, TX.  Next.js is a popular choice currently because it delivers websites with blazing fast speed.  Websites can be judged on how quickly they load (often monitored through Google Lighthouse).  Fast websites keep users happy and matter even more for people on slower cell connections.

## The Problem
Many websites manage changing content by generating pages in real-time.  When you visit a webpage a computer somewhere often checks a database for the latest version of that page’s “stuff”.  Then that computer packages the content into a page and sends it to you.  That can take a while.

## The Solution
Next.js uses Static Site Generation (SSG) to render webpages ahead of time.  Pages are “pre-baked” so they can be delivered more quickly.  I’ve known SSG exists for a while now but couldn’t find an answer to one important question: “how do I automatically update a pre-baked site when content changes”?


## But How?
### Revalidation v. Rebuilding The Site

One way to automatically update a Next.js site is with revalidation (officially named Incremental Static Regeneration).  With revalidation Next.js sends pre-rendered pages back to users and simultaneously checks for updates.  If a pre-rendered page is out of date Next.js re-renders that page for future visitors.

Revalidation is awesome!  But it fails when a route (or slug, page, or address) is added or deleted.  Next.js doesn’t cook up new routes or paths without rebuilding the entire site.

### Triggering Rebuilds
Next.js can also update content with standard SSG: meaning the whole site is rebuilt when triggered.  This takes about 30 seconds for my site containing about 50 pages.

How do you trigger Next.js to rebuild a whole site?  For me the answer is “with a webhook”.  Webhooks really are awesome.  I found webhooks intimidating a year or two ago but learned it was critical for making static site generation work.  

When someone adds or deletes an entry in my CMS (Strapi) that CMS triggers a webhook to an IP address with a specific port and password.  I setup my server to listen on that port.  It checks the password and if approved the server rebuilds the site.  Voila, 30 seconds later those new paths/slugs/pages come alive.  The 50 or so pages are rebuilt and the node server restarts.

## Using these Render methods
You can generate pages of your site in different ways based on which functions you use in a page.  If you use the “getInitialProps” or “getServerSideProps” functions then you get the old-school ways of rendering a page (slower, server side renders).  

![Screen Shot 2021-05-24 at 3.25.37 PM.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/diqgdacjy/image/upload/v1621991594/Screen_Shot_2021_05_24_at_3_25_37_PM_ea6a4612df.png)


Static pages use no initial props and have no changing content.  If your page uses “getStaticProps” you get classic SSG change at build time.  If you use “revalidate” in the getStaticProps function you get “incremental static regeneration” (ISR) which updates the built page in realtime for the next response.

![The getStaticProps function in Next.js along with revalidation](https://res.cloudinary.com/diqgdacjy/image/upload/v1621991649/Screen_Shot_2021_05_24_at_3_26_10_PM_cbe5bea559.png)



## To sum it up:
Next.js is great and powerful.  Want to render content on the server?  You can.  You can also speed up rendering with revalidation or site rebuilds.  There’s more to love too, like Next Images but that’s another post in and of itself.

My lessons from building a website with Next.js (a React/web development framework)

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Lessons From My First Next.js Project In Production

On our last day in Switzerland we woke up in Bern.  Then we did a walking tour of the town with my mom.  One highlight of the tour is Bern’s famous clock tower (build in 1530) that springs to life before the top of each hour,  A jester rings bells by pulling a string,  Father time has an hourglass he flips over.  A figure at the top of the tower that rings a bell.  I’m sure 500 years ago this was a riot of entertainment.

Then we hopped on a train to the nearby lakeside town of Murten.  Murten is a small town that is well maintianed.  The walls around the town are in good shape.  We ate lunch here in Murten and got a feel for the town.  I enjoyed the flowers under the windows, the tall pointy spires on towers and the large awnings.

Then we got back on the train and returned to Bern to pick up our bags from the hostel.  We boarded a train heading to the Basel airport.  The Basel airport sits of the border of Switzerland, Germany and France.  From there we flew over to Paris.  We only booked two nights in Paris.  We got there late for our first night, probably around 11pm.

Discovering the Charms of Bern and Murten in Switzerland | A Delightful Swiss Adventure with Stunning Clock Tower and Charming Towns - Join us on a picturesque journey through Bern's famous clock tower, dating back to 1530, witnessing its whimsical hourly show. Explore the well-maintained lakeside town of Murten with its beautiful flowers, spires, and awnings. Follow us as we travel from Bern to Basel airport, where we embark on a short flight to the enchanting city of Paris. Read on for an unforgettable Swiss experience and a glimpse of our Parisian escapade.

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Bern & Murten - Switzerland Highlights - Day 12

On Day 11 of our European vacation, our last in Mürren, we cable-carred down the hill then bussed to the Trummelbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen.

The 10 waterfalls inside a mountain are accessible via elevator and stairs allowing us to watch the Jungfrau’s glacial melt rush to the valley floor.  We walked through chasms the water carved out over the ages.  The glacial melt rushed passed us in a constant roar.  I couldn’t help but wonder if these falls inspired Walt Disney as he planned the caves of the Matterhorn ride.

The water spins through a corkscrew feature before finally dumping onto the Lauterbrunnen valley floor.  Then it flows to Interlaken the same place we wanted to visit.  We took the 20 minute train ride to Interlaken and followed a printed walking tour of the town.  We lunched on the 18th floor of the Metropolitan Hotel, otherwise known as the concrete shame of Interlake.  We watched base jumpers land in a nearby park.

In the 1800s well-to-do tourists made Interlaken a major stop on the “Grand Tour of Europe”.  The town catered to the rich and famous of the day.  In recent decades many tourists, like us, chose to stay higher in the alps.  Today tourists from India dominate tourism in Interlaken thanks in part to the many Bollywood films shot in here.

After lunch we walked across the river and along luxurious homes perched beside beautiful water.

Then we continued our train ride over to Bern.  We wanted to spend at least one night there to get a feel for Switzerland’s capital city.  We walked around the city at dusk.  We gave the Parliament building much attention.  Throughout the city the Swiss post statues on columns.  One famous statue features an ogre eating babies.

The people of Bern preserved Albert Einstein’s home as a museum.  A poster of Einstein hangs in a window of his old home.   We walked to the far end of town with thunder crackling in the distance before heading back to our hostel to end the night.

Day 11 of our European Vacation: Trummelbach Falls and Interlaken's Grandeur | Join us on an exhilarating day exploring Mürren's cable car adventure and the majestic Trummelbach Falls in Lauterbrunnen. Witness the glacial melt roaring through chasms and wonder at the falls that may have inspired Walt Disney's creations. Experience the charm of Interlaken, once a playground for the rich and famous, now embraced by tourists from around the world. A delightful lunch at the Metropolitan Hotel and a glimpse of base jumpers in action add to the excitement. Later, we venture to Switzerland's capital city, Bern, strolling past iconic landmarks and Albert Einstein's preserved home. Discover the captivating beauty of Switzerland on this unforgettable journey.