FOTD -- February 04, 2003 (Rating 3) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: There's nothing like a comical junk e-mail to take some of the depression out of an otherwise bad day. Things were already going bad enough, then the fractal for the day turned out to be a loser that I could rate no better than a 3. And then, to make things even worse, I checked my e-mail box and found the usual jumble of junk. I deleted the junk at once without downloading it, all but one letter that is. That letter had a subject line telling me that I am something special. OK, I told myself, I'll take a quick look at this one. As expected, the letter was a typical piece of junk directing me to an x-rated web site. The text began by telling me that the sender had seen my profile and that I was exactly the type of person she had been searching for all her life. The sender then described a gorgeous young woman eager to meet me. The letter might have been effective had it not been for the long list of carbon-copy addresses to which the same letter had also been sent, which somehow had inadvertently been included at the start of the text. Disappointed, I deleted the final piece of junk. This comical disappointment eased my disappointment over finding nothing better that a miserable 3-rated image for today's FOTD. I did all the right things, but it seemed as though fate itself was working against me. Regardless of what I tried, the images were as junky as an unwanted e-mail. I finally settled on an evaporated scene in the fractal that results when three parts of Z^(-14.56) are subtracted from 7 negative parts of Z^(-1.456) and 1/C is added instead of plain C. I named the image "Quagmire", mostly because that's how I felt. I rated it at a lowly 3 because that's all it is worth. A render time of 1 minute would be too much to ask for today's image. The actual 12-minute render time is verging on the ridiculous. Luckily, the image, for what it is worth, is available on the web at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Bland weather once again prevailed here at Fractal Central on Monday, with some sun, some clouds, a bit of a breeze and a temperature of 45F 7C. Taking advantage of the blandness, the dynamic cats were as lively as they have been in some time as they romped in the yard for several hours. Of course, at their age of 12 years, their romping is not what it used to be, but Tippy the tabby still managed to climb two meters up a holly tree. Today is starting rainy. It remains to be seen how the dynamic ones will cope with the latest inconvenience. Being well in excess of 12 years, my tree-climbing days ended long ago. My romping is also suffering. But the fractals keep coming. Until next FOTD, take care, and does space end where time begins? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Quagmire { ; time=0:12:16.28--SF5 on a p200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.89508650616089440/-0.815728148775334\ 10/6369148/1/-140/-4.15605366371751828e-008 params=-7/-1.456/-3/-14.56/0/1e+100 float=y maxiter=900 inside=bof61 periodicity=10 colors=0007tZ6t`5ua4ub4vd3ve2wf2wg5ug7tg9sgBrgDpgF\ ogHngJmgMkgOjgQigShgUfgWegYdg`bi_ch_cgZdfZdeYedYec\ XebXfaWf`Wg_VgZVhYVhXUhWUiVTiUTjTSjSSkRRkQRkPQlOQl\ NQmMPmLPnKOnJOnINoHNoGMpFMpELqDLqCLqBPoGSmLWkPZiUb\ hZefbidglbloapk`kk_liZjgZheYfcXeaWc_WaYV_WUYUTWTTV\ RSTPRRNQPLQNJPLHOKFNIDNGBME9LC7KA6K98MB9NCBPECQFDR\ GFTIGUJHWKJXMKYNL_ON`QObRPcSRdUSfVTgWViYWjZZlZXk_V\ k`TkaRjaQjbOjcMidKidIieHhfFhgDhgBgh9gi7fh8gi9gi9gi\ AgiAhiBhiBhiChiDiiDiiEiiEiiFjiFjiGjiHjiHkiIkiIkjJk\ jJljKljLljLljMmjMmjNmjNmjOnjPnjPnjQnjQojRojRojSojS\ ojTicTdXT_QTVJUPBTQCSQDSQERQFRRGQRGQRHPRIPSJOSKOSL\ NSLNSMMTNMTOLTPLTQKUQKURJUSIUTIUUHVUHVVGVWGVXFWYFW\ ZEWZEW_DW`DXaCXbCXcBXcBYdAYeAYf9Yg9Yg9Zg8`h7ai7ci6\ dj5fk5gk4il3jm3lm2mn1oo1po6mpAkpEiqJfqNdrRbrV`rY_q\ __qa_pd_pf_ph_oj_om_oo_nq_ns_noaklbhhceeebbf_ZgXWh\ VTjSPkPMlMAqT9rU9rW8sX7sY } 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==================================