FOTD -- August 10, 2003 (Rating 7) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Years ago there was a small deli restaurant in the Fractal Central neighborhood, run by a Korean immigrant. The merchant has long since moved away, but I still remember the conversa- tions he and I used to have on slow days. He was a Buddhist who was eager to talk about religion, particu- larly his idea of Buddhism. He often told me that the goal of Buddhists is to escape the constant reincarnations on earth and enter Nirvana. He expressed amusement at the simplicity of our two main western beliefs -- that we go to heaven when we die, to be perfectly happy for all eternity, or that we simply cease to exist, eliminating the need to concern ourselves with the topic. When I asked him to describe the Nirvana that Buddhists believe in, he told me that it is hard to put into words, but that Nirvana is like a mixture of heaven and non-existence. We cease to exist when we enter Nirvana, which is the ultimate peace, yet somehow we can enjoy the ultimate peace of not existing. When I asked him what it is that does the enjoying, he simply shrugged and said that one must enter Nirvana before they can understand it. Nirvana is an oxymoron. Today's image is also an oxymoron. It consists of as much inside material as outside material, yet it is impossible to tell one from the other. I named it "A Fractal in Nirvana" when the etheric blues reminded me of the conversations about transcendental things that I once had at that small restaurant. The parent fractal is the same as the parent of yesterday's 'Wonderland' image, though instead of going to 'East valley' to explore, I went to one of the numerous tiny valleys on the west shore of the main bay. The 'inside' parts of the image have been made visible by the 'bof60' inside fill. This fill normally creates mostly bubbles, though the bubbles are not very apparent in today's image. The image is notably better that yesterday's hasty achievement, and IMO rates an honest 7. And the 9-minute render time allows ample time to ponder the mysteries of the beyond. Those more concerned with the here and the now may bypass the pondering by downloading the completed GIF image from Paul's web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from Scott's site at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The rain on Saturday amounted to only a few sprinkles here at Fractal Central, but even that was enough to wet the grass and dampen the spirits of the dynamic duo. Due to the high humid- ity, the temperature of 80F 27C felt more like 90F 32C. I have little hope for improvement, because today promises to be more of the same. For the cats, the day will be questionable. For me it's going to be a lazy day -- that is if I can get through it without finding any work that needs to be done. Until next FOTD, take care, and walk in the peace of eternal fractal oneness. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Fractal_In_Nirvana { ; time=0:09:09.69--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=ident passes=1 center-mag=+1.55913935558906900/+0.103410051541293\ 70/709229.8/1/-170/-1.28612687166906881e-009 params=2/3/-2/0.05/0/0 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=bof60 periodicity=10 colors=000cCA_DAVFAQGBMHBHJBCKB8LBCNFFQIJUMMXPQXST\ _WWaZ_cabfe020ijkMrQOqUPoYRnaSmeUkiWjmXhqZgu_fxXXm\ VObSESQ5IR9KSDMTHNTLPUPRVTSVWUW_WXcXYgZYk`Zoa_sc_v\ dWscSpbPnbLkaHh`Ef`Ac_7a_8Z`8Xa8Ua8Sb8Pc8Nc8Kd8Ie8\ Fe8Df8Ag88gGLZNYRVjIavA621954C76FA8ICALECOHFRJHUMJ\ XOL_QNbTQeVShYUk_WmaYk_WjYUhWSgUQeSOdRMbPKaNJ`LHZJ\ AYIFWGKVEPTCUSAZR9cUFhXKmZPraUwd_wfdwiiwknweoz`jwW\ frQcmL_hG`cJafMchK`iJZjIXkHVlGTmFRmDOnCMoBKpAIq9Gr\ 8ErGLjOSbWZVceNklFzr7wq6tp6po6mn5im5el5bk4_k4Xj4Ti\ 3Oh3Ig3Ff2Ce29e2Dc5Gb8JaBM`EP_HTZKWYNZXQaVTdUWhTZk\ SanRdqQgtPjwOmpJbjESc9HY57Z6AZ7DZ8FZ9IZALZBNZCQZDS\ ZEVZFYZG_ZHbZHdUF`PDXKBUF9QA7M56J49N4CQ4FT4IW4LZ4O\ a4Rd4Tg8UeBVdFVcIWbMWaPX`TY_WYZ_ZYbZXf_Wi`Vm`UpaTs\ aSpYPnUMlRJiNHgKEeGBbC9`96Z53X21P95IF8BMB4SE9QCDPB\ IOAMN9QM8VL7ZK6cJ5gI4kH3pG2tF1xE0vI4tL7sOBqREoVHnY\ Ll`OkcRttimoegja`eZV`VKtM } 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==================================