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.

The Remembering

It's always a little weird being back home in my parents' house. The house looks the same, except Dad changed the colour. The interior looks the same. Same furniture as I remember growing up, more or less. Mum got a new instrument called a touchboard, and you wave your hand over it and it plays this nice, soothing music. Dad's Zabrak quetarra still hangs from the wall in the living room. But it's different still. My room isn't my room anymore, but a guest room. The posters and art I used to have on the walls are either in boxes in storage or were thrown out after I moved away. My neighbourhood friends have all moved to other towns. Spacer, my pet spukamas (a native Corellian housecat that my dad brought back from one of his trips to Corellia), is now buried in the back yard. I loved that cat. My younger brother Wolt moved out a couple of years ago, and he's now a flight engineer on an ore freighter. But he came back for this, which is great. It's weird, because to me, he's still my little brother, but he's a man now. I mean, he's been shot at before! That's something I've never had to do...yet.

But despite all the changes, home is still home. It's still memory lane for me.

We had the funeral yesterday. It was really great to see all these people who knew and loved my grandfather. A lot of people he worked with at CEC, and a lot of people who knew him through the various clubs and things that he was a part of. Wolt and I also got to reconnect with some of our cousins, which was great. It helped me forget about how much it hurt to lose Grandpa, at least for a little while. My cousin Callie and I had a good cry about it at the after-party at my parents' house. She and I were especially close to him, and I think it was good for us to try and process that together. Callie lives in Chasin City and works for the parks and rec department, and talking with her made me really wish I didn't live on a desert planet where only 2% of the darn thing is inhabitable. Maybe someday I'll move back here and get a news job...

Anyway, after a nice dinner with my whole family, we played some bolo-ball out in the back yard. We had a great time. My uncle Kennick was a star bolo-baller in college. He's getting along in the years, and it was fun to tease him about being slow, but you can tell he still knows how to handle himself out on the field.

Well, time to get off this thing. I promised Callie I'd hang out with her today. She wants me to meet some of her friends. Or a friend. One of the two. She thinks we'll get a long really well. Aw.

Later, vornskrs (I know, it doesn't really work)

JJK

Oh, I got trouble!

Yeah, so, this last month has been pretty awful.

My grandfather never made it out here. He'd made arrangements the night before he was supposed to leave to have a speeder pick him up at his house and take him to the spaceport. The speeder driver showed up a couple of minutes early, and waited. The appointed time came and went, but no sign of Grandpa. He waited another ten minutes, thinking perhaps, since Grandpa was an old man, perhaps he needed some assistance. The driver found the door unlocked, went in, and found Grandpa Jair had died in his sleep.

It's taken me a while to get to the point where I can really write about it, partly because some of me finds it hard to believe he's dead. He was a tough old guy, and part of me finds it hard to believe that he just died like that. I'm not saying someone killed him, because it's not like he's got these great secrets or anything. I do need to remember, though, that sometimes people just die. It's not like he was a kid or anything.

But that wasn't the only reason it's been tough for me to write.

I had a...visit...with a local Imperial official this month. Apparently they were less than thrilled that the gist of one of my stories concerning taxation on moisture farmers shed a bad light on the "graciousness of the Empire and their concern for the working families that keep it running smoothly." I resisted the urge to ask aloud if the oppression of non-humans wasn't doing a better job of that than I was, but they still took away my network connection at home for two weeks. So that means I had to go to the Weary Traveler to catch the bolo-ball games.

How can I post this, you ask, and not risk further persecution by the Empire? The answer is I'm never completely free from persecution. We are all, at any time, at risk of having our lives ruined by the long arm of Imperial Law. I would rather be shut down having exercised my freedom of speech rather than be scooped up whilst cowering behind some furniture in a back bedroom. Besides, officials in my sector generally know that, while people may piss and moan, they're not likely to put those complaints into action.

So, yeah, this has been a very sub-par month for me. One positive note is that my grandfather left his family a small fortune, and while I'd rather have my Grandpa Jair back, I now have a bundle of credits to my name. Some of it will be invested, but I've been thinking about buying a ship. I know it's kind of a big purchase, but I've always wanted to fly, and go wherever I want, whenever I want.  Besides, it would be an appropriate way to commemorate Grandpa's life.

So what to buy? I'm definitely going to check out Mos Espa and Mos Eisley. I have a few contacts in each city that might be able to grease the capacitors for me. Do I get something new or used? Something like a fighter, or more like a freighter? Choices, choices.

What I do know is that my next entry will be written from my home on Commenor. My family very kindly waited on the funeral until I could be present, so I'll be on the next flight out of here.

Keep it real, yo.

JJK

New Toys

I'm not normally a betting man. I enjoy what little money I get from NewsLine, and I don't like to blow it. I take that back. I like to blow it, but I want to blow it on something that will be fun. Gambling isn't fun, because I usually lose.

Last night I played sabacc at the Weary Traveler. Normally I'll go to sabacc night with the guys. We'll usually go to Waris' house and sometimes we'll go all night. But I don't go to sabacc dens or other public gambling institutions, because I know they're a scam. But last night I decided to take up what I assumed was a friendly game of low-stakes sabacc.

I walked out five hours later with a swoop and a hundred credits. Don't ask me how. Luck was just on my side.

Granted, the bike is a bit rough. It needs to be fixed up and painted, but it works (the guy I won it from had ridden in on it. So now I've got something fun to do on the weekends. I really want to take it through some of the canyons in the Jundland Wastes, but I also like living, and I'm in no rush to end up a greasy stain on the canyon wall. I'll ask around at work to see if anyone knows of good places to ride. I'm sure the salt flats outside of town are fine, but there's always a better place. I want to take Grandpa Jair for a ride when he gets here, but I don't know if he'd be up for it.

So I found out more info on those pirates and the liners that got hijacked. The Tarnished Blades have claimed responsibility, though I kind of doubt they pulled it off. They are the remnants of the Silent Blades, that Outer Rim pirate group that was hunted down by the Empire a few years ago. I could see the Tarnished Blades jumping some freighters, but not passenger liners, and certainly not with interdictor cruisers. I highly doubt they would have the ability, from a purely financial standpoint, to get their hands on something so complex and with such large man-power needs.

Part of me thinks it's Black Sun, or at least Black Sun "subcontractors," but the other part of me wonders why they would make such a bold move. And following that line of thinking, is that move part of an actual campaign, or is it a feint to draw attention away from something else?

Well, I'm going to take my new bike for a spin. Catch you suckers later.

-JJK

Dirty Ol' Egg-Suckin' Vornskr

I won't explain the title of this entry, save for the fact that I heard this song over the network this weekend.

So I talked to Grandpa Jair, and he'll be out here in a week. I'm excited. He'd been out here a couple of times in his younger days, so I'm interested to see how much Tatooine has changed. Probably not much.

Last week was pretty busy. Some pirates ambushed a few cruise ships along the space lines between Denon and Naboo. Apparently the cruise line powers that be had decided to not follow established hyperspace lanes and forge their own path. Not very smart.

For those who may not know, Denon is smack-dab in the middle of an intersection of two well-used trade routes: The Corellian Run and the Hydian Way. Most liners, because of pirates and other unsavory space types, will travel either the Corellian Run from Denon to Kelvaan (or close to it, anyways) and then cut over to Naboo. If they take the Hydian Way, they'll travel that as far as Malastare, and the take a short jump to Naboo from there. You could also go straight to Naboo from Denon, between the two lanes, but because that area is less traveled, there is a greater risk of being stopped by criminals.

This particular line, which I'll not mention as a professional courtesy, had chosen to disregard that, and paid the price. I flew out to Naboo and Denon last week to cover the story (I'm sure you saw the NewsLine report). The interesting thing was that the pirates somehow managed to get an interdictor cruiser, which I didn't think was possible, what with the Empire cracking down on military-grade equipment in the hands of non-military people. From what I understand, the Pirates successfully raided and looted three cruisers (not all at the same time), and disappeared. I'm still working on it, but I'm willing to bet the raiders had some inside information that tipped them off to the fact that the cruisers would be coming. They probably completed their looting, regrouped on their ships, and then took a short jump just past sensor range of the cruisers before heading back to whatever base they used to unload their booty. Arrrrr. Anyway, the trip was a nice distraction from the boredom that sets in here in Anchorhead.

Went to the Weary Traveler with some friends Saturday night. Everyone had just gotten paid, so the place was pretty busy. Well, as busy as an Anchorhead cantina can be. Vynn was really trying to pick up our Twi'lek female server, and I admired her tenacity in shooting him down. I think he finally got a picture when she had a serving 'droid take her place. I left her a nice tip for her efforts. We all had a shot of Cassandran brandy together when my news bit came on the Holovid. It was fun. Dhagon's birthday is in two weeks, so I can't imagine the piss-up we'll have then. Look out, Anchorhead.

Sooooo...not much else going on here. The only reason I got to go on my work trip is because Naboo is close to Tatooine, and we're on the Corellian Run. But it was nice to get away, nice to have something to do besides moisture farm reports and police reports.

The Heritage

I spoke with my folks last night. They were telling me that my grandfather is planning to come out and visit me, which is fantastic! Grandpa Jair is nothing short of amazing, and he and I have always gotten along splendidly. He's 73, so I'm hoping he'll be able to handle the travel well enough, but he's a tough old man, so I'm not worried. I'll call him tonight, probably, and chat with him a bit.

Jair Lovely Kayle (yes, his middle name is "Lovely," and mark my words, there's never been a tougher or more manly man to bear that name) is my namesake and my father's father. He, like his father, and his father's father, and his father's father's father, was born and raised on Commenor. He spent his early life in Chasin City, attended the University for astronautical engineering, and spent his entire career as a designer for Corellian Engineering Corp. He worked mainly on guidance systems, and he worked on many well-known designs, including the Action series of transports, the CR-70 and CR-90 Corvettes, and the YT series of light freighters. I'll have to ask him about it, but I think he was, for a while, part of Nerfworks, the think-tank design team that created the droid ships. He met my grandma and they were married for 44 years before she died. By that time Grandpa had retired from CEC, returned to Commenor and built a big home on a few acres of land outside of Kliffen. They had five boys (the Force bless my grandma...she was a Corellian, so she, if anyone, could handle it), and they'd built the massive home to accommodate all five sons and their families. It was a little tight, but it was great fun.

Anyway, Grandpa and Grandma Kayle traveled all over the galaxy while she was alive, just adventuring and exploring and learning, so he's always got stories to tell. Even if I've heard them a dozen times before, I still like hearing them again. He's such a good storyteller, that every time I hear a story is like the first time all over again. So yeah, I'm excited to see him.

Enough of that, though. Tonight the weekend starts, and some of us are going over to Leewo's for sabacc night. I think it's my turn to provide alcohol, so I'll be running to the store later. This weekend I think we're going to try to get a pickup bolo-ball game going in town. There are a bunch of Rodians who have expressed interest in starting a "just for fun" league, and I think it'd be a great idea. It's been a while since I've done more than juggle the ball with my feet, so it'll be nice to dust the bolo-ball boots off and actually play a game.

Later, spacers.
JJK

Sides

Hey, everyone. Go drink a nice, refreshing glass of water, and then thank your local moisture farmer.

Someone asked me the age-old question that journalists have been asked since the profession began: how can you remain unbiased, given all the events that happen around you?

The simple answer is that you can't.

Note: that line read that you can't. But your writing can. Every journalist has personal biases. Those biases make up who you are, and how you'll react to certain issues and events. They guide your writing and your feelings, both of which combine to make the end result. I can write about the same subject two different times, and let's say I saw a holodoc(umentary) on the subject, the second draft could be radically different from the first. You're always learning new things, and one must always write with this in mind. A journalist that isn't flexible is no journalist at all, or so says my first editor (and mentor). Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have some absolute truths that you adhere to...we all need a set of standards and guidelines. But don't be so rigid in your thinking that you lose your ability to objectively look at any given situation.

It's easier out here, where the long arm of the Empire doesn't always feel like reaching (watch, now I'll get ronto poo smeared all over my landspeeder for saying this). But I mean it's not as necessary to have a very strong opinion out here. Yes, it's important, and there are a lot of important issues out here, but it's not nearly as intense as it can be closer to Coruscant and the Core Worlds. Commenor is pretty peaceful, but even there we had our share of...difficulties.

On the other side of the coin, there's a really good motivation to stay neutral in everything: The Hutts. If you side with them once, then you're done. I've met several good journalists who lost their credibility because, under threat of death, they have been forced/threatened or otherwise coerced into representing Jabba's opinion instead of straight news. So far I haven't run afoul of anyone, but I'm sure that can't hold out forever. Then maybe I'll join the local police force as a desk clerk or something...

JJK

Welcome...leave your shoes at the door

You may not know who I am, and it just struck me that you may not care. My name is Joruth Jair Kayle. I'm Commenorian by birth, but somehow, through some gross misfortune, I ended up on this lifeless rock on the ass-end of the Galaxy. The Outer Rim. Tatooine.

Blech.

This is a log and record of my life, and you have no idea how inadequate I now feel having said that. But I guess this is a way for me to describe how it feels to be me during these turbulent times.

So let's begin at the beginning. Like I said, I was born on Commenor, where my family has lived for centuries. I grew up in Anteluma, known for it's athletic events, and I became a fan of limmie (or bolo-ball) at an early age (I still try to catch matches on the holo whenever I can). During school I played for our team, and I guess we were okay. My dad worked in sales for the Corellian Engineering Corp, and my mother was a sentient-rights activist, so I grew up around all kind of alien races. Sometimes my dad would take me on business trips with him, and I got to see some of the aliens in their own worlds, which was pretty cool. My first girlfriend was a magenta-skinned Zeltron named Naala. 

Whaaaaaaaaat! Yeah.

A Zeltron as your first romantic relationship. Great Xendar's minions, was I out of my league.  We had some good times together, but then I went to college and her family moved, I don't know, somewhere else. I'm not really sure where.

Anyway, I went to the University of Commenor and got a degree in journalism with a specialty in non-human relations. I was thinking, you know, get a job for the government or something, which was a stupid idea anyway, because they're all Imperial xenophobes, or maybe work for the HoloNet news or Coruscant News Network or something.

I did end up working for CNN, but when I refused (for the third time) to slant a story of mine to play a more anti-alien angle, I was sacked. I mean, you know how it starts. First it's "Hey, we're all in this together," except that for some folks you're actually not, and they wouldn't have it that way anyway. Then it's, "Well let's put a slightly pro-human take, because humans are a virtual majority in the galaxy," and then it's a straight-up "anti-alien" bent. And I've spent my entire life around non-humans, and they're great. At the end of the day we're all the same.

So anyway, there I was, freshly unemployed. I had little money, no place to live, and no ticket home. So I found a freighter crew that would take me with them in exchange for my services as a crew member. After spending six months loading and unloading ships, I ended up on Tatooine.

I live in Anchorhead, which is decidedly nicer (read: cleaner and safer, but more boring) than Mos Eisley. I'm just working for Sektor 242 NewsLine, mostly doing moisture farm reports and other Tatooine news. Sometimes I'll cover podraces and swoop races, and sometimes I get to travel off-planet, which is awesome. But for the most part I just hang out here and work. I've got a little house, and as long as the gizkas stay out and the local watering hole stays well-stocked, I'm okay for now.

Anyway, that's my life in a nutshell.

So what's up today? Not a lot.

SoroSuub Corporation is coming out with a new moisture vaporator, and since they haven't really broken into that market they're spending a lot of money on marketing and advertising to the moisture farmers out here, which is the bulk of Tatooine's economy. I've been working with some of the local SoroSuub reps on a story that I'm doing for an upcoming beamcast. They've got a tough sell, if I do say so myself. Most of the farmers here use the older-but-proven GX-8 vaporators, and they don't necessarily take kindly to change. SoroSuub will have to walk the walk if they're going to make headway here.

In other news, Wayfar had a small resurgence of Bledsoe's Disease, which caused quite the panic, from what I hear. Fortunately the local medical facility was able to quarantine the sick before the disease spread any further, and I hear things are settling down again.

I know this is really boring. Hopefully I'll have more to write later on. Some of the other reporters are going out for a drink tonight, so I might tag along if I don't have a ton of other work to do.

Keep it real, friends. I sure am.

JJK