FOTD -- December 16, 2003 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The celestial appearance of today's image inspired the name "Ethereal Iteration". It is one of my better recent images, the first to rate an 8 in several weeks. Most of the heaven-like appearance is due to the coloring, which I found totally by chance. While I sat watching the colors cycle, today's palette flashed by. I quickly stopped the cycling and backtracked a few steps. Only a minor bit of touching up was needed before today's image was finished and ready to be crowned FOTD for December 16. The parent fractal is a curiously distorted Mandeloid, most of which lies beyond the top border of the default screen. North of the Mandeloid lies a rounded area of chaotic broken filaments and bits of spirals, almost serving as a shadow to the Mandel- oid. Today's scene, which mirrors the nature of the filaments very well, lies in one of these filaments. The midget itself was one that I found by instinct. There is no two-way symmetry at the surface of the parent fractal to indi- cate that the midget is there. How I find midgets such as the one in today's image is as big a mystery to me as to anyone else. Often I come upon them without even trying, while idly noodling around in some newly-created fractal. But that's how it is in the mysterious land of fractals. The rating of an 8 might be a bit liberal, but after so many 6's and 7's recently, I deserve it. The render time of 3 minutes is within the realm of reason, and can be cut in half by download- ing the finished GIF image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Monday was too cold and windy here at Fractal Central for the fractal cats to have a good day, but they took their disappoint- ment stoically. In the evening their reward was a dish of flaked tuna. Today is starting cold and calm, but due to turn warmer. It should be a better day for the duo. For me, it will be an acceptable day once the work is finished and the next fractal has revealed itself. But that time is yet several hours off, so it's time to get started. Until 24 hours have passed, take care, and what does it all mean? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Ethereal_Iteration { ; time=0:03:41.68--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-0.08297230542334892/+5.277060130765460\ 00/174630.3/1/80/2.21423986923596772e-008 params=0.95/1.1/-1.05/-1.1/0/0 float=y maxiter=800 inside=0 logmap=75 symmetry=none periodicity=10 colors=000JAWKAYLA_MAaNAcOAePBgQCiRFkSImTKoUNqVPsW\ SuXUwYXwYZwYawZcwZfw_hw_kw_mwWjvSgvOevKbvH_vDYv9Vv\ 5Sv2Qv6Qr9QoCQkFQhIQeMQaQQZUQVYQSaQPeQLiQImQFiODeM\ CaKBYIAUG9QE8MC7KA6K85K64K43K32K6DK8NDBX9Df4Gp0Iz6\ KwBLtGNrLOoRQlWRj`TgeUeeQeeNfdJgdGhdCid9jd6je9heCf\ edAbXBZPCWHDS9EP1EO3DN5CM7BL9AKB9JD8IF7HH6GJ5FL4FN\ 4KR5OU5TX5X_5ac6ef6ji6nl6mi7mg7me7lc7la7l_7kY7kW7k\ U7hV8fV8dW8bW8`X8YX8WY8UY8SY9QZ9NZ9L_9J_9H`9F`9D`9\ BILFMKJQKMUKQYKUaJXeJ`iJcmJalK`lLZkLYkMWkNVjNTjOSi\ PQiPPiQNhRMhRKgSJgTIgTHhVHiWHjXHkYHlZHm_Hn`HoaGpbG\ qcGrdGseGtfGugGvhGwiFufEtcDsaCqZBpXAoU9nR9lP8kM7jK\ 6iH5gE4fC3e93d7GZITTSeNbqHllLjgPhbSfYWdUZc68c7Ha7Q\ _8ZY8gW8pUAlXBlZDm`EnbGodIpfKqhMr_OsSQtRSuRUvRWwRY\ xQ_yQazQczQezPgzPizPkzPmzOozOqzOszOuzNwzMxzLyzKzzJ\ zzIzz2zz2zz2zz7zzCzzGzzLzzPzzUzzYzzbzzfzzkzzozztzz\ xzzrzzlzzgzzazzWzzRzzLzzG } 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==================================