Sitka, Alaska

Group Photo on the last day - Unfortunately Oleg left a day earlier!

Over this labor day, my parents and friends, Oleg and Jeremy, and I, decided to go to Sitka, Alaska. My mom was always telling me stories about Russian influence in Sitka (since I speak a bit of Russian) and she likes to travel. My Russian friend Oleg likes to travel too. My friend Jeremy likes to kill animals, so we'll go on a gigantic fishing trip tomorrow in at attempt to catch ridiculously large fish. My dad and I wanted to be good sports, and to play handball today at a rec center.

Getting to Sitka was a pain. We left our place in Albuquerque at 6:50 a.m. on Thursday, September 3, 2015, to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight to Phoenix. In Phoenix, we had to walk to a completely different terminal, go through security again, and then head on a plane to Seattle. In Seattle, we took another plan to Ketchikan, Alaska, stayed on the plane, and then got to Sitka shortly afterward. It was about 6:00 p.m. Sitka time (8:00 p.m. New Mexico time) when we arrived.

It was breathtakingly beautiful when we arrived! The air smelled really, really fresh and good. My skin started feeling all the moisture in the air. Below are some of the pictures that Jeremy and Oleg took (they have MUCH better camera phones than I do.)

The above two pictures is the view from outside the Harbor Heights Penthouse apartment we rented on the third floor, overlooking the bay.

Friday Oleg, Jeremy and I went on a kayaking tour around the island after Jeremy made some delicious breakfast pancakes. This tour was a great way to see much more of the waterfront. Jeremy and Oleg were paired in a double kayak together, and I was paired with Brianna, another tourist, and her two female friends were paired together. We didn't know the femme fatal troika before the tour. 

The sun was actually in my eyes, despite how dark this photo looks! 

My friend Oleg - the tree hugging hippy... 

We stopped and walked around some abandoned World War 2 gunnery pylons. Apparently, Sitka was a heavily defended site against the Japanese in World War 2.

The below three pictures came from the guide. 

Oleg and Jeremy kayaked in the lead ahead of everyone else, including the guide.  

Brian and Brianna.

I caught a gigantic kelp crab, and then let it go. Unfortunately, they aren't good to eat.

Overall, I'm happy I went on the kayaking tour. Oleg asked everyone about 25 minutes before the tour began if they wanted to go, and both Jeremy and I agreed. We saw some sea lions, crabs, a few fish, and a bunch of the beautiful Sitka shoreline.

Other than the above, my dad, mom, Jeremy, and I played handball at the Sitka rec center, and ate a very nice home cooked meal my mom made.

417.5 Available = Available version 2.0

My one bedroom apartment at 417.5 Princeton has become available again. Unfortunately, the previous tenant broke his lease early, and left me empty handed during the summer months. I decided to take this opportunity to replace the carpet, and do some maintenance on the place.

I'd like to have a twelve month lease, at $600 / month for this apartment. I cover water, sewage, garbage, and internet access, and the tenant will need to cover electricity and gas. I like to get first month's, last month's, and a month of damage deposit, as a condition of starting this lease.

Since the last blog post, all of the kitchen cabinets have been resurfaced. More importantly, the carpet has all been replaced as well. The carpet was looking pretty worn (white), and I'm happy to take this opportunity to replace it all (with brown.)

If you're interested in this place, please call me at 505-750-1169. If I do not pick up, send me a text message at the same number.

Below are some pictures of the place. A lot of these are from a previous blog post I wrote about the place, but there are some new pictures below as well.

This picture, and the below two, show the newly refinished kitchen cabinets. 

 

The white carpet is no longer there - now it's brown.

The bedroom now has brown carpet. The white carpet was EXTREMELY worn, and needed to be replaced.

It's interesting how different the bathroom seems with slightly different decorations.

Professional Headshots

There are many opportunities for promoting my business that can use professional headshots. By "headshots" I mean a business/profession photograph in which a person's head is the primary focus of the image, rather than a debilitating blow to the head.

My friend Efrain Grijalva has been interested in photography since I met him, thirteen years ago as an undergrad. Lately, he's been expressing an interest in taking headshots. I volunteered to be his model, since I'm positive I can use some (updated) images of myself when promoting software development services. Below are the results.

 This one is my favorite. I seriously think it could be a stock photo. 

I like this one, but I think if you look closely you can see the PhotoShop.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the outcome. I would recommend ironing your shirt beforehand, as opposed to stuffing it in a backpack with a laptop and biking everywhere. If you're interested in having professional headshots done, give Efrain a call at 505- 453-5700.