FOTD -- November 09, 2003 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: I have won no further lotteries since yesterday. I'm not sure whether this is bad news or good news, but it is most curious that, despite having won close to a dozen lotteries over the past month, I am no wealthier now that I was before my good luck arrived. ;-) The parent fractal of today's image can be best described as 'mostly blobs with scattered Mandeloids'. And amid the Mandel- oids lurk some holes that are decidedly not Mandeloid-shaped, yet have buds along their borders that indicate the presence of a critical area. Today's scene is located on a filament exten- ding from one of these buds, near the point where the filament passes a hole shaped like a figure eight. I named the image "Construction Job" in honor, or dis-honor, of the construction that is taking place two blocks from Fractal Central, down at the bottom of the hill, where a new storm drain is being installed, which hopefully will eliminate the flooding that seems to happen down there on a regular schedule. I also chose the name because, by the coloring, I rather constructed something from nothing. I guess this makes today's image another piece of fractal-art. After studying the image for a few minutes, I decided it is just a little above average, which equals a 6 on my arbitrary 0-to-10 scale of fractal worth. The image does have a kind of glowing effect to it, but the colors, especially around the perimeter, are not all that pleasant to look at. The 'passes=g' option is extremely efficient with today's image. The render time when passes=1 is 17 minutes; 'passes=g' does the job in only 7 minutes. Since the result in either case is exactly the same, I have removed the 'passes=1' entry from the parameter file and cut the render time by 60 percent. But if 7 minutes is still too slow to fit into a busy schedule, the completed GIF image may be downloaded from one of the FOTD web sites at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Though it was chilly here at Fractal Central on Saturday, with a temperature of only 46F 8C, the sun was warm, and the cats enjoyed a couple hours in the yard. This was enough to prevent the sulking that happens when they get too little time outside. When evening came, the duo settled down quite peacefully, and passed the rest of the day as decorations. But this morning's temperature is only 26F -3C, cold enough to put a film of ice on the water dish on the porch. I wonder how the duo will take this sudden cold weather. I'll know the answer in a few hours. For the rest of the day, I'll be trying to take it easy, but the fractal lady has that 'lets go look at antiques' gleam in her eye. So we'll have to see how the day goes. Regardless, in 24 hours I'll return with another fractal. Until then, take care, and keep those spirits up. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Construction_Job { ; time=0:07:29.56--SF5 on a p200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip center-mag=+0.09925390891872346/+1.894791001828095\ /1.868638e+008/1/115/-9.1173630439880804e-005 params=-3.1/-1.3/1.3/-3.1/0/0 float=y maxiter=1500 inside=0 logmap=245 periodicity=10 colors=000SYASX9RV8RU7RT6SU8TU9UVAVVBWWCXWEYXFZXG_\ YH`YIaZJbZLc_Md_Ne`Of`PgaQhaSjbTkbUmcVncWrcXsaPxaL\ xcKxdMxgOxiQxkSxnUxpWxsYxu_xw`xubxscxrexpfxohxmixl\ kxjlxinxgoxfqxdrxcswZivU`uT_tS_sRZrQZqPYpOYoNYnMXm\ LXlKWkJWjIWiHVhGVgFUfEUeDTdCTcBTbASa9S`8R_7RZ7RYCV\ XGZWKaVOeUShTWlS_oRctRgxSgxSfySfzTezTeyTdxUdvUduUc\ tVctVbtVbtVbtXcpZcm_cmZcmUcmPcmKcmBcnCcmDcmDfmEclE\ `lFZlGWlGTkHRkHOkILkJJjJGjKDjKBjJDlIFmHHoGJpFLrENs\ DPuCRvBTxBUyDVwFVuHWsJWqKXpMXnOYlQYjRYiwWjtXiqXhoX\ glXfjYegYddYcbYb_YaYZ`VZ_TZZQZYNZXL_WI_VG_UD_TB_TF\ ZRIYQLXPOWNRVMUULXTJ_TIbSHeRFhQEkPDnOBqNAtM9wM8xLA\ xKBxKDxJExJGxIHyIKyHOyHSyGWyFYyFazEezEgzDizDkzCmzC\ oyBqyBsyBtyBuyBvyBwyBxyByyBzxBzxBzxBzxBzxBzxBzxBzy\ BzyBzyBzxBzxBzxBzwBzwBzwBzvBzzBzzBzzAzzAzz9zz9zz8z\ z8zz7zz7zz6zz6zz6zz5zz5zz4zz4zz3zz3zz2zz2zz1zz1zz1\ zz4zz7zzAzzDzzGzzJzzMzzOz } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(-a*b*g*h)^j, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================