FOTD -- July 03, 2003 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Sometimes fractals shimmer. Or they can be made to appear to shimmer. The subtle wavy fringes around the edges of the main pattern in today's image remind me of something shimmering in the distance on a hot afternoon. With only a moment's thought I named the image "Shimmering Midget". The parent fractal was created by subtracting Z^(-1.33) from Z^(1.33) and adding (1/C). It is a distorted Mandeloid rotated 45 degrees from the 'normal' position, with its East Valley on its southeast side. Normally, this would mean that its main period-2 bud was on its northwest side, but as I said, today's parent fractal is distorted. The main bud, or the bud that should be the main bud, is actually located on the south-south- west side of the parent. It is not the largest bud -- that honor goes to the period-4 bud to the right of the main bud, with the period-3 and period-5 buds right behind. This is one of the things distortion does to Mandeloids. Today's scene is located near the tip of a chain of pseudo-buds on the bud side of the left branch of the Seahorse Valley of the parent fractal. Seahorse Valley is always the valley that encloses the period-2 bud, regardless of whether that bud is the largest or is located exactly opposite East Valley. The features that are found there will always have an underlying similarity to those in the classic Mandelbrot set, though the details will change. In today's image, the shimmering effect is one of the changed details. For midgets with really new features, one must find unlikely areas of non-classic-shaped parent fractals, and examine the parts that are critical. It is not always easy, in fact it is often downright hard to tell which areas are critical. As is so often the case in life, the harder the scene is to find, the more it is likely to be worth. Finding these critical areas is a large part of the fun of using the MandelbrotMix4 family of formulas. Because of the unusually brilliant blue coloring of today's image, I have rated it at an above-average 7. The render time of 17 minutes is getting into the area where the download of the already-completed image makes more sense. The download can be found at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The rain held off until 3pm on Wednesday, giving the fractal duo ample time in the yard before being forced indoors. The tempera- ture of 77F 25C was close to ideal, making their day at least good if not great. But this morning the rain is still falling. It is due to end soon, but who knows for sure what will happen, certainly not the weather experts. And who knows the moods of a cat? One thing certain to happen is several hours of work. I've got another job from a customer who doesn't know what he wants, but does know when he gets something he does not want. And the time to start on it is now. Until 24 hours from now, take care, and adopt a needy fractal. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Shimmering_Midget { ; time=0:17:45.60--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.11844856655981260/+0.742760244255860\ 20/1.782961e+010/1/27.5/-0.000246466487240595833 params=-1/-1.33/1/1.33/0/0 float=y maxiter=2000 inside=0 periodicity=10 colors=000z0zu0yk0oe0gY3ZRDRIKIDVB5c30k09`0HR0PH2Y\ 73e05n07v09z0Bz0Bz0Fv0Ho0Kg0NZ0RT5TKBYFIZ7Rc0Ye0ei\ 0nk0un0oc0kT0gI0cB0Z20V00R02V03Z55`F7ePBiZDkiFouHr\ zDozBnz7az5by2cy0cx0cy3cy9bzDZzIfzPWzT`zZ`zc`ziZzo\ ZzuZzzZzzZzeIuI5`00I002TnzRgzP`zNYzNRrKNiIH`IDVH7N\ F2FD07D00B009009009009209D09P09`07e05k53oB3uF2zK0z\ R0zV0oN0YF0F700000000000000000200520B20F20K20P30V3\ 0Z30e30i50o50u50z50zH0zR0zc0yn0vz0uz0rz0oz2`uPNgn9\ nuFrzIyzNzzTzzYzz`zzezzgvzikzk`znRzoHyz7tu0ov0ky0g\ z0cz0_z0Wy0Uu0So0Pk0Ne3K`9HYHFTNDNVBIo9Fv7Bv57vD9v\ IBvPDcVFZ`FYiHToIRvKNzNKzNVzBez2nz0yz0zz0zz0yv0uoD\ ogRk`eiVreRu`NuYIuTFuPDuK9uH5vD2v90v50v20v00v00v00\ u00r30r50o90nB0nD0kH0iI0iN0gP0eT0eV0cY0cZ0g`0kc2ne\ 7reDvgHyiNzkTzkYzcRzVNzPIvHFu9Bo37k03g00e00`00Y00V\ 00R07P0BN0DK0FI0HI0IH0KF0ND0PD0TB0V90Y70Z70`50c30e\ 20g20i50k70n90oD0rFzRFzi3 } 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==================================