FOTD -- April 23, 2004 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's relatively harmless image takes us into the world created by combining portions of Z^(-1.8) and Z^(-8.1), then adding (1/C). To decide how much Z^(-8.1) to include, I simply divided 1.8 by 8.1. I doubt that this procedure has any special significance on the appearance of the resulting fractal, but doing it is kind of fun, and above all else, fractals should be fun. The image shows a midget (nothing unusual in that) located in a node on a zig-zag filament in a valley of the humdrum parent. I rendered the scene in the conventional manner (nothing unusual in that either) and named it "Star and a Half". I can give no good reason for the name other than it sounds poetic. Since everything about the image is normal and it takes 5-1/2 minutes to render, I rated it at a 5, which is as average as it is possible for a 'Fractal of the Day' to be. When the render time is taken into consideration, the overall value rates a 91. The task of copying this letter into the Fractint directory with a .par extension and running it as a parameter file may be avoided by going to the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and downloading the GIF image from there. The rain held off Thursday, letting the cats have a pleasant afternoon in the yard. When the time arrived to come inside for dinner, they did so without complaint, settling to sleep only 5 minutes after eating. Today is starting sunny but oppressive -- the kind of day that produces thunder, which the cats do not enjoy. We will see how it goes. We also will see how the dynamic duo takes to the hordes of 17-year cicadas that are soon to make their appearance in the Fractal Central vicinity. Their holes are already starting to appear in the ground under the trees. These bugs come out by the millions every 17 years, doing little harm but making a terrible racket for a month or so. When they die, their dead bodies literally make eight-inch-deep cicada drifts in the gutters. When the cicadas last appeared in 1987, Squeaky and Little One, the predecessors of the present dynamic duo were overwhelmed. Things will be less overwhelming for me when the work is behind me, but to bring that about will require around 4 hours' effort. Until next time, take care, and fractals are clearly infinite, but unfortunately, people are not. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Star_and_a_Half { ; time=0:05:29.11--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+1.94988892809340500/-0.005789089823096\ 38/7552786/1/-92.5/-1.21952945740522178e-006 params=1/-1.8/0.22/-8.1/0/0 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=0 logmap=100 periodicity=10 colors=000XUCZXH`ZMaaQccVde_fhcgjhilmjoqlnvmoznqzn\ rzntznuznvznwzkxzhyzewzbwz_wzXwzUXTR`XOc`LfdJihNcj\ QYkd`tZYmTWaNUaISSCQP6EC1OD3RH5VK6XN8`RAbUBeXDg`Fj\ cGlfHmdInbJoaKo_LpZMqXNrWOrUPsTQtRQtQJqIDnA7l3Kn9X\ pFhrLjkOkdQlYSmSUnLXoEZzY`j1bp7_pDXoJVoPSnVPn`NmfK\ mgIhhJciK_jK5kc9leEkgIkiNkjRjlWjn_jpdirhismiuqhwvh\ yzhzvgxsfwpfvleuidtfdsccr_bqXbpUaoR`nN`mK_lHZkEZjJ\ afNdbRg_VjW_mScpPgsLkvImqJnlJpgJqcKsZKtUKvQLwLLyGL\ zCLyFKyHKyKKxMKxOKxRKxTKwVJwYJw_JvaJvdJvfJvhJsfOpe\ SmcWjc_gcddchaclZcpWctXcrXcpXcnXclXcjXchXcgYceYccY\ caYc_YcYYcWYcVicJdcM`cPWcRScUNcWJcZEcaAcc5cf1chWca\ Zc``c_bdYeeXgfWigVfhVciV`jVYkVVlVNmLFnB8o17p96qG6r\ O5sV5tb4ui4vp7woAxoDynGznJzmLzmOzlRzlUzkXzkZzjazjd\ zigzijzhlzhezd_z`UzXOzUIzQCzM6zJDzIJzIPzHVzH`zHbzS\ dzbfzmgzwVzqIzl5zgEzdMzbVz_bzYjzWdzX_zXVzXQzXLzXGz\ XBzX6zX1zX7zTCzQHzMNzJSzF } 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==================================