Life Goes On and Off Again...

Ladies and gentlemen, sentients and droids (though if any droids read this I'll be surprised),

I am, at long last, a qualified pilot.

With a ship.

 I took my test two weeks ago, brought the result data down to the Imperial License Bureau in Bestine, and walked out with a lovely little license card.

I took that lovely little license card down to Vynn's friend's shipyard and plunked down some cold, hard cash on that YT-1210 I saw a couple of months ago.  I took Ryns with me (he's the guy who gave me the lessons), and he helped me look the ship over.  Like any old ship, it needs some work, but the main systems are in good order.  I'm getting better at working the navicomputer, and I've done some short hops through the system.  I've decided to name her Anteluma Skyline.  I know, it's boring and sentimental, but I'm not building a warship, and I'm not looking to get into scrapes or smuggle with her.  When I get a chance I'll take the ship back home for a while.


But not any time soon.  Why, you ask?  I got a promotion at work!  I am now an editor/producer for the whole Arkanis Sector.  No more farm reports for me!  The bummer is that I'll be a little more out of touch with the goings on around here, but I'll be able to travel, use my own ship, and of course the pay rise is nice as well.  I'm also excited about developing a whole new set of skills.  I'll not only be writing the stories, but I'll be editing the holovids as well.

So that's kind of fun.

Well, I should go.  Remember that pirate raid I told you about a few months ago?  The one where they used the interdictor cruiser?  They've traced the pirates to a group on Najiba, so I get to go to some of the neighbouring systems and interview people.  I'm going to Arkanis (the sector seat), Huldamun, and Cadezia, and hopefully I can stop on Trulalis and catch a show or something...really good theatre there!

Freedom

Hi, gang. It's been a while since I rapped at ya, but I've been stretching my wings, as it were.

I've been taking flying lessons. I haven't purchased a ship yet, but probably wouldn't make much sense to get one until I know how to fly it. Ernie is friends with a couple of spacers, and he's introduced me to them. One of them, a freighter pilot from Ord Mantell, has been teaching me how to fly. I had previously thought that any experience driving a speeder would help.

Turns out driving a landspeeder is as much like flying as eating a Sorennan mint cake is like Darth Vader, which is to say that it's not like it at all.

 We've been practicing in this guy's YT-2000, the Kokada Maru. It's a beauty of a ship, and it handles really nicely. I can now take-off and land with relative ease, and I'm getting to be a smooth touch at the controls at sublight speeds. I still need some work with the navcomputer, but it's getting a little better all the time. I just need my fingers to move faster on the keys.

I've been looking at ships, though. I saw a nice old YT-1210 at Vynn's friend's shipyard. Just the fact that two generations of my family have worked for CEC makes me lean towards that. From what I can tell, there's nothing really wrong with it, and the only reason those never did well is because the 1300 series came out soon after the 1200 series, and they were just that much better. So who knows? I also saw a nice ship with something like chrome plating or something, and it's pretty sleek, but probably beyond my price range.

I've been asked to head out to  to report on some minor political disturbances going on there, so I'll probably be out for the next week or so, and then I'm going back home to visit Sienn and the fam. Being back for my grandfather's funeral really reminded me of how much I missed my family, so I'm going to take more time to visit. And see Sienn.

Here's a picture I made of her. Doesn't nearly do her justice. But I found some old paints in an old shop in Mos Espa, so I figured I'd put them to good use. I'm really underselling the freckles, though, which is a shame...because...because freckles.

Overreaction

I still miss Sienn. But I guess it's not the end of the world that I'm back here. Yesterday I went out on my swoop and took some images with my antique 2D camera (we're talking old-school stuff, but it still works). I almost got caught up in this sandstorm, but managed to blow out of there before sand caked in my air intake. I had to do a story on swoop racers once, and I remember one biker had left his ride out in his yard when a big sandstorm blew through. He cleaned his bike off, but he forgot to blow all of the sand out of the intakes. He didn't know it, but the sand had mixed with the hydraulic fluid and made it coarse enough that it wouldn't flow properly. His stabilizers froze up half way through Beggar's Canyon. You can probably figure out the rest for yourself; I won't insult your intelligence.

Here's a picture of my house:

And my neighbourhood. This is Ento. He's gotta work on his vaporator, so he's setting up a little shelter:














And just a random shot down the street.

But here's one of Tatooine's saving graces: Beautiful shots at night where you can see the entire galaxy.

Oh, so all those messages? Three each were from Callie and Sienn. :) Made my month. The rest of them were a smorgasbord of work, friends, and drunk dials, mostly from Ernie (don't think I've mentioned him yet, but he's a geologist from Coruscant...he goes out in the Jundland Wastes and collects rock and soil samples to try and figure out the history of this place, hopefully to find out what the planet was like before it was a massive desert).

I've just now been sitting here for the last 30 minutes trying to think of what else to share with you, but I've been coming up empty. I'm going down to the Traveler. Maybe I'll have something else to say later. Sienn is calling tonight, so at least I have something to look forward to. :)

JJK

Home Again

I really hate to call this place home, especially after being on Commenor. Seriously, Anchorhead sucks. The beer here sucks. The climate sucks. The dust sucks. The heat sucks. The lack of imagination and willingness to just accept life and not change it sucks! I miss Sienn like crazy, and it SUCKS!!! AAAAAAAAA I HATE ANCHORHEAD!!!!!!

Oh, don't worry, I'll be fine. It's always like this the first few days I'm back in town, and it's especially bad because I'm leaving such a beautiful creature behind. I seriously hope she wasn't jerking my chain. Man.

Anyway, I'm back. :( Meh. Tomorrow Vynn and I are going to see his friend's friend's friend's shipyard. Other than that, it's back to the drudgery. I've got 40 messages in my message minder to go through. Which...actually...seems like a lot.

I'm going to check them now. Maybe Sienn's been calling.

Laters,
JJK

Ta Ta For Now...

Hmm? What's that, you ask?

Why, yes, Sienn and I are in fact together. In fact, she's sitting right here next to the terminal. Here, Sienn...say hello to everyone.

Ohhhh, she's funny. She literally says, "Hello to everyone," and then makes an obscene gesture as she walks away.

Yes, everyone is a comedian, aren't they, young one. And now she's just showing off that her lekku give her triple powers of obscenity whereas I have merely two awkward but articulated human hands.

Anyway, I'm just writing to say goodbye for now. My ship leaves in three hours, so it's downstairs for dinner with Mum and Dad, Callie, my brother Wolt, and Sienn.

See y'all on the flip side!

By the way, I'm not sharing my drawing from the other day. It's shit.

JJK

The Finer Things

Have you ever thought you were meant to do something other than what you're doing right now? I mean, I know it's silly because everyone loves their jobs and their lives, and nobody would ever want to change.


I'm kidding.


I like being a journalist. I like the travel, I love writing (obviously). I enjoy the variety I get in the stories I can write. Most of the time it's really boring, but every once in a while the Hutts will have someone vaped or spaced, and then it gets interesting. I remember a few years ago one of Jabbas bookies thought he could skim a little off the top. One day the Anchorhead cops found a pile of limbs in the middle of the city, right outside the market. That caused quite a stir. And another time someone from off-planet tried to muscle in on Hutt turf. This guy hijacked a couple of freighters and made off with a few hundred thousand in spice, and the rumor mill had it that the guy was going to be doing a little business with, shall we say, a Rodian...pleasure...establishment in town. He was trying to be subtle, coming to sleepy little Anchorhead. Well, news spreads like a sandstorm around here, so practically within hours of the news hitting the town, one could see the bounty hunters materializing out of the ferrocrete. I never saw what happened to the rival guy. He just disappeared, probably into the sarlacc.

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. I like journalism. But when I was a kid, I loved art. I used to sculpt, draw, paint, make my own holograms with different coloured light-pens, all that stuff. I've always wanted to get back into that, but I'm always busy. Actually I'm not, but I'm never inspired at home. Maybe it's a restless spirit, but I always feel like there's something more out there, and I'm not going to find it on Tatooine. So if I'm stuck on a planet I hate, I may as well make the best of it by imagining other places. This is where art comes in.

Tomorrow I leave for Tatooine. Today I'm going over to Sienn's place. She is a classically trained dancer (she learned the Coruscanti style at the academy on Coruscant...she's that good), so she's going to show me her art, and I'm going to attempt to capture her using my art. Trying to decide if I should use a graphite and a flimsy pad, or if I should bring my light pens. Anyway, if it's any good, I'll post what I made later on.

Got a call from my friend Vynn today. He knows a guy in Mos Espa who knows a guy who owns a shipyard, and the guy just got a couple of nice used Starhome family-style cruisers in, so they might be able to swing me a deal, especially since I work for NewsLine. All I need now is some piloting lessons, but Vynn said he could help me out with that too.

Well, gotta go shower. Catch you all later.

JJK

It ain't easy being...blue?

Holy crap! I'm in love!

I went out with Callie yesterday. She's been invited to this really fancy ball by her on-and-off boyfriend in the Chasin City Constabulary, and needed a male opinion for a gown she wanted. She casually says, with a look on her face like she's trying to hid her intentions but not so much that I miss them, "So Jorey, you know that friend I want you to meet?"

"Friend? Or friends?"

"Friend. Well, She's going to meet us at the dress shop."

She?

"She? What are you onto?"

"Onto? Me? Come on, don't flatter yourself. I just want you to meet her. You'll think she's cool."

Indeed.

So we're in the dress shop, and while Callie is trying on a nice, shimmery cream-coloured gown, I hear the door chime ring. It's a small shop, so naturally I turn around to see who it was.

My jaw hit the FLOOR as in walks the most beautiful Twi'lek I have ever seen. Gorgeous, smooth light blue skin, dark eyes, and wearing a burgundy dress that looked stunning on her! Flowed where it needed to, and hugged her in all the right places. She wore a matching head-wrap thing that looked really good too. And she has freckles! Freckles! I nearly died. And with the grace of a dancer and the confidence of a boss, she walked up, shook my hand and said, "You must be Jorey. I'm Sienn."

Then Callie walked out with a big grin on her face, like she planned for things to happen that way. The little shit.  We hung out all afternoon, and then in the evening Callie's boyfriend Rollo met up with us and we went dancing. Afterwards he took Callie home, and Sienn and I started walking.

She told me about growing up on Ryloth, was impressed that I knew more than your average tauntaun about Twi'lek customs (or that I gave a shit), and filled me in on what's wrong with the local music scene. Of course, she could have been talking about the innards of a rancor and it would have sounded like poetry to me. I was so happy just to be walking next to such a majestic creature in the first place. A couple of times her lekku (their headtails, for the xenophysiologically challenged) brushed up against my arm, and it felt...well...electric. And I really like that she's her own woman, too, you know? She goes where she wants. She says what she wants. She does what she wants, and nobody's gonna tell her what or when or how.  I wasn't expecting anything to happen when I dropped her off, despite the perfect chemistry, and when we got to her apartment door she shook my hand again, gave me this wry grin and a look that spoke volumes and said, "See you around, Spacer." Then she punched me on the shoulder.

 And. I. Fell. In. Love.

Stars above, I am so...AAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! And she digs me! Callie called me today, and I guess Sienn called her when she got home and the chatted for a bit. Do you have any idea how good that feels, after spending years living around what feels like a...er...a relationship desert..(maybe that's too literal)...to have a nice girl that's confident and smart and hot take interest in you? It's like winning the lotto. No! It's better!

Man alive.

Sienn.

 Sienn and Jorey.

 I like that.