Corran Horn (Earth)
| Corran | |
|---|---|
.jpg) "Okeday" | |
| Real Name: | Randy |
| Birthday: | June 5th and 6th |
| Squadron: | Rogue Squadron |
| Join Date: | November 24th, 1998 |
| Characters: | Corran Horn |
Randy is the leader and co-founder of Rogue Suadron and brother of co-founder Jason.
Contents |
As an actual, living, breathing human being
Randy was born and raised in a big city on the coast. Like many of his fellow urbanites, he believed everywhere outside the city was no man’s land, where “there be dragons.” Although he had nothing against dragons, he couldn’t see himself living in many other places (although, in his youth, a move to the Denver-area was under deep consideration). If LA had everything, then why do without by moving elsewhere? Yet he lived in a paradox. For while the earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, and riots kept life in the city interesting, he longed to live in the forests with an endless Calvin & Hobbes-style woods to spend his afternoons and summers in.
As General Cranberry
In late 1998, Randy joined with J.D. and Jason to create the Rogue Squadron E-mail loop. He soon took full control the club, despite his lack of experience at ever having led anything. At times, he was motivational, brimming with ideas on how to improve RS, and good at teaching new members the ropes. But perhaps more often than not in those early times, he was just plain stoooopid. The semi-affectionate nickname “General Cranberry” was derived from those latter times. Randy has greatly enjoyed meeting many RS members in person over the years, especially the quintessential Great RS Meet 2007.
As an academic
Early book learnin’
Due to the fact that the LA Unified School District is the worst in the nation, and private schools are pricey, Randy was homeschooled through high school. He never could understand why someone would want to sit in a classroom all day, listen to lectures on stuff you’ve already read, get beat up by bullies, and get yelled out by the P.E. coach. This impression was always reinforced by the fact that every literary and cinematic representation he’d ever seen of schools was negative. And spending only a fraction of the day doing schoolwork in comparison to the average student allowed him time for many creative pursuits.
Waste Away
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Half-way through high school, Randy started taking classes at a community college he often referred to as Waste Away, due to the lack of funding, the wanna-be gang members that roamed the campus, and the general lack of motivation exhibited by much of the inner city student population. But he also found it a highly educational, with some decent professors and an incredibly mixture of diverse cultures and racial slurs.
The birth of a writer
But most importantly, this is where Randy discovered the world of writing. Up until then, he hated writing, and would only do it when required. Yet he longed to be able to create stories and transcribe them in such a way that would make sense and capture readers’ interests. An excellent art professor showed him the joys of writing by writing about something he was actually interested in: Art. This also coincided with his first stories in RS, Tales from Rogue Squadron. The two literary methods built off each other.
The birth of a teacher
Although he only took a couple college-level English courses, Randy found himself teaching students how to write a mere semester after discovering the medium himself. A paid employee of the school system he had eschewed in his youth, he worked in a writing lab as a tutor and in a classroom as a Teaching Assistant (subsequently, the youngest in the class at 17). He found the work challenging but richly rewarding, especially teaching highly-motivated students from Africa, Asia, and South America.
Uni
After three-and-a-half years at Waste Away, Randy continued the last two-and-a-half years of his four-year-degree at a private university. As an art major with a sub-part art education and fledging talent amidst the born geniuses surrounding him, he found himself often questioning his artistic calling. But he overcame lack of talent with hard work and ability to make deadlines and was awarded with scholarships and accolades, eventually graduating with honors.
As a computer nerd
Starting on a hardriveless IMB PC Jr. around the age of five, Randy’s love for computers was established at a young, impressionable age. Although he’s never considered himself a true computer nerd due to his lack of hardware, programming, or proper pocket-protector-wielding knowledge, he’s spent many years dabbling in gaming, multimedia production, and internet surfing. He also loves learning about new technology, despite the fact that he doesn’t have a clue how it works. That’s why he became an artist instead of an engineer.
As an artíste
Graphic designer
Combining both his artistic talents and his software skills, Randy’s found graphic design to be one of his favorite methods of creating art without having to pick up one of his greatest banes, the paintbrush.
Contemporary fine artist
Educated in a hotbed of contemporary art and perusing up to three art shows/galleries/museums a week, Randy learned to appreciate some of the most obscure, inane and bewildering pieces of art and create some of his own. He still considers the working four-way pingpong table with a pond in the middle, LACMA’s famous “Flying Spam,” and Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” some of his favorite pieces. The longer he spent in the art program, the more he eschewed the depressing, angst work of his contemporaries and chose to make art simply for fun. He especially enjoyed giving inanimate objects personality. Check out his select works from college. His final exhibit was Micropolis, a senior art show where he got to finally meet Ran Kether in person.
Shutter bug
Events photographer
Having captured over 80,000 photographs in his life time, Randy’s right index finger has grown to a disproportionate size. In 1998, he started with a disposable camera with which he took terrible images, then upgraded straight to an $800 0.8 megapixel floppy disk digital camera. He remembers fondly the week when he first brought his new digicam to summer camp and flocks of peers surrounded him to get their picture taken with a device many of them had not yet seen in person. <sigh> The fame. The glory. Coupling his photography with websites, Randy soon become the unofficially official events photographer for the Greater Los Angeles AWANA Clubs (an international Bible club where Randy met several fellow geeks, such as Dru Kargin, Derek Klivian, Bowman Gavin, Gemmer Gavin, Tierce, Runt, Ran-Syi Torack, Bror Jace, and Riv Shiel, who later became RS members). He photographed more than 30 events over 5 years, launching him into his next phase of photography.
Landscape photographer
While his earliest landscape panoramas in the early days of erality.com were taken around LA and Arizona, Randy’s landscape photography didn’t really take off until he moved to Idaho and fell in love with the remote and diverse landscape. Using GoogleEarth as his trail guide, he’s discovered and photographed many dramatic and beautiful landscapes many Idahoans have never seen. Panoramas have always been his medium of choice, as they show the immensity and scope of a landscape rather than a small, select slice.
Adventure photographer
There’s no point going on adventures without photographic evidence. Making friends who are enthusiastic about the outdoors and adventure has introduced Randy to many new hobbies, such as rock climbing, backpacking, wilderness camping, off-roading, and snowshoeing. A year-and-a-half after moving to Idaho, Randy launched his oft-updated Picasa album.
Award-winning filmmaker
Working with a small group of friends and siblings, Randy filmed and edited a grand-prize winning outdoor adventure commercial. Flushed with success, and planning ways to spend their $1000 gift certificate, they proceeded to make a second film, a commercial for Pom Tea. The competition over 140 submissions proved too great, though, and the video failed to make it into the final round. Unperturbed, the film crew created a commercial for Swiffer cleaning supplies. That commercial is currently in the judging/voting process. The film crew relies on the creativity of their ideas as opposed to their lacking technical skills and filmmaking experience.
As a country bumpkin
People actually live here?
It was during an RS Meet of Randy and Jason at the homestead of Dar Keyis in Bartlesville, Oklahoma that Randy first discovered that small city in the middle of nowhere could actually be…livable. He was impressed by the cleanliness, friendliness, and modern amenities. Beyond all logic and reason, he found himself thinking, “I think I could actually live in a place like this.” A year later, in 2003, through a bewildering set of circumstances that would be injustice to call “coincidental,” he found himself amongst the half-million denizens of the Treasure Valley (Boise-Nampa metro area) in Idaho. After a second visit, he was convinced that he wanted to make Idaho his home. So after he, Jason, and their sister spent a couple years convincing the rest of their family to move, they spent months packing up 25 years of accumulation, selling the old homestead, and moving up to the potato state. They arrived in late June of 2005.
Destroying perceptions
Before he first visited Idaho, Randy knew only two things about that state. One, it had an abundance of potatoes. Two, it was mountainous. Oddly enough, most people only know the first fact, and believe Idaho to be somewhere in the flat Midwest, despite the fact that it’s bordered by six highly-mountainous states and one incredibly mountainous province. As for potatoes, it was two years before Randy saw his first spud field. Idaho continues to destroy perceptions, especially with the population explosion and massive influx of coastal-dwelling Californians, Oregonians, Washingtonians, and others. Not too surprisingly, Idaho has the most pickup trucks and guns per capita. Oddly enough, it also has the most golf courses and millionaires. And while it’s a highly rural farm, lumber, and mining state, it also has tech centers. Computer chips and cow chips are within stone’s throw of each other. Literally. Hewlett-Packard overlooks a cow ranch and Boise-born Micron (responsible for a third of the cell phone cameras in the world) overlooks grazing land. Randy considers it a mission of his to dispel incorrect notions and perceptions of places by people who have not spent time in them.
As an outdoors enthusiast
While never denying his many geek traits, Randy’s discovered an intense love for the outdoors. His favorite thing to do is to get out into the wilderness with friends and family, away from everything else. And with a mostly-wilderness state like Idaho, he has plenty to keep him occupied for a lifetime.
As a human crash dummy
One of Randy’s more memorable achievements is walking away from a 30mph collision with a solid block of cement with only minor injuries. Without airbags, though, his concussion made him a bit loopy for a few days, and his lil’ Honda Civic was totaled. He’s since purchased a 2006 Jeep Liberty for his off-road adventures.
As a journalist
Somehow, and against his better judgment and with no formal training, Randy became a journalist. He currently works as a news editor for a newspapers, working with stories, designing for multiple publications, leading half a squadron of copy editors/designers. He finds the work enjoyable and the daily deadlines challenging but wishes his job afforded him some time during the work day to frolic in the wonderful escape of RS.
As stoooopid
F: Corran is stoooopid!
M: Corran is stoooopid!
C: I am stoooopid! But stoooopid is the new smart!
M: Whatever helps you sleep at night, Cran.
C: Join the stoooopid club! Ignorance truly is bliss.
One little-known fact about Corran is that one of the greatest pleasures in his life is creating redirect pages to everything on the wiki.
Personal galleries
www.erality.com – Landscape panoramas and more
www.erality.com/picasa - Life and adventures in Idaho
www.erality.com/sites/randy - College portfolio
www.erality.com/sites/micropolis - Senior art show documentation
www.youtube.com/erality – Short films
