Worthy Diversions

I'm tired of the news. And since I we are in the big Q [quarantine] until next year, I'm going to bury my head and go into the world of diversions.

Mandelbulb 3D art:

Titled:

My computer got buggy

Fight in the Hard Drive

Christmas Bulbs

The Ornament Mother

Just That

Time Space Continuum

Fractal Artists like to wander in another time and place. They can avoid strife and stress by delving into the 'maybe' and 'whatifs' of time and space.

It is an escape from current life.

And sometimes we need that.

Today I gave myself a haircut. Laugh if you'd like. Rich decided not to risk his shaky hands and declined taking the scissors to the back of my hair.

I'll call it the Covidcut. I stuck the wet hair in a pony tail and cut it. Now it lays nicely just above my collar.

I'm good with it.

Why not?

In this year 2020, anything goes.

I've actually been asked to do some album covers for some artists. Yep, I may do so.

One of the things I'd have to do is get a much more powerful computer.

Old fart...doing graphic art for young musicians. That could be fun. Yeah?

Some inspiring out of this world...music.

From Nyrus.

Spotify:

Fern Dale

Hey, it is not for everyone. But I like it.

I'm going to have nightmares....

It's been a while since I messed around with fractals and abstract art.

Probably a bit too long since I've forgotten how to do some of these old strange and wonderful creations.

Well, not really. I do know how to do it. I just forgot which were my favorite formulas and I used to have fun 'tweaking' other artists' shared formulas for little challenges and pongs to see what we could do to each other's art.

So today I spoke to a good friend on the phone. I'd sent his wife a link to a nice farmhouse in our area that was for sale.

Just for giggles, as they always wished they could move here and one day that may be possible.

I'd noted on FB that they must have been on a second vacation from the photos of the places they'd been.

So I asked if they'd been on vacation. 

Nope, he told me. They were under quarantine.

Hmmm?

Well they'd been with other family members and those members tested positive with symptoms. But weak symptoms.

Nothing serious. So he and his family had been exposed and were tested.

His daughter's tests came back in 3 days and they were negative. His wife just got a negative result and his was still out.

So they had been told to quarantine for 14 days either way because of the exposure.

Slap me if I am wrong. But what is the definition of a Quarantine?

This person continued chatting and telling me of all the parks they decided to go visit and see. They were careful mind you, of course, to not go into crowds.

Bahhhhh!

All I could see in my brain as I stared out at the dense fog over the pasture was ...

COVID virus monsters!

[This is a fractal I had created about 4 years ago...edited with Deepdream]

I think I stood there with a loss of words. Not wanting to offend my friend, I just remained silent while questions ran through my head.

Precautions?

Wait? Did you distance? Did you wear masks? How sick were they? Who else???

Breakdown...

I really couldn't say anything. I was so stunned and perplexed.

He went on to tell me that one relative was bedridden but came out of it, another was just tired, and it must not be a big deal cuz most people just are fine.

And then I thought ... uh huh. I nodded my head slowly, very slowly and stared again at the fog.

Um.

I changed the subject ~~~~all sorts of things were bouncing around in my head that I wanted to say

...no shout 

but

really

it would fall on deaf ears.

This person has had a brush with Covid-19 and it hasn't affected him yet. So obviously it isn't a big deal.

That weighed on my mind most of the day.  

And in the headlines?

Texas is looking for refrigerator trucks to store dead bodies. Their hospitals look like war zones....

I did some artistic stuff to another image, but since it is pretty disturbing [and it is meant to be], I'm not posting it to the blog.

So to remind myself that there are good people and good things in this world I post this instead.

I will think of unicorns....

Last note. On FB my coach shared a letter written by someone regarding how people could avoid become ill if only they would exercise and eat properly. The discussion that followed seem to want to blame deaths on fat shaming, diabetes, and other health issues that the posters felt everyone should be able to control.

I don't think the coach meant for things to go that way in the discussion, but ....

I find that a very narrow view on humanity. And human health.

We are all different...

Bleh!

And now I need a Unicorn AND a Rainbow!

I'm becoming more and more interested in becoming a hermit.

Nuff

said.

Just a bit of cabin fever

Pasture View from the front door. The now empty windswept pasture that is not in use right now.

Some days are spent waiting for Rich to wake up and help him either have lunch or some other meal. I ache to get outside and do something other than just chores.

View out the porch door also:

On those really cold days I think up other things.
Like a bit of computer art work to color up my day:

Yesterday I picked up an odd looking piece of 'something' from the floor of the shed. It probably came from hay.

But it struck me with an idea.

Some flat still life work with natural things. The curly things are from a grapevine I passed while walking through the neighbor pasture the other day.
I need a do over for this. Perhaps putting the items in tiny vases would be neat.

This one was just for fun. I found this old rusty odd can in the shed.

I picked up my Grandmother Pearl's old notebook of directions on how to make lace and doilies and ...

And then some messing around...

There is a story behind this pink one eyed bear...I just couldn't resist it.
It was alone on the shelf purchase price... $1.
I felt it needed a good home.

And then a Thank You card for Mr. Farmer ... for all of his help.

So after I get Rich set up for the morning, I'll grab my snowshoes, make a stop to feed the new kid goat and play with him.

Then head out in this latest snow storm. The snow coming down is light fluffy and quite beautiful.

This and that ~ the day after Christmas

On those frigid dark mornings I sometimes dabble in a bit of fun. I took a photo of a bare tree in the pasture and 'developed' it into something else. 

Not quite sure what it is, but I do like the colors. Very abstract.

Can you tell that it is dark and below zero outside?
I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas colored fractal...

I don't know why I enjoy 'making' these odd shapes and designs, but it just ends up pleasing me and it is a challenge to work in a graphic program that makes unbelievable worlds.

Or a bit of other worldly...

And...then I decided to see what I could do with a Mandelbulb I made.

Sort of cool. Interesting shapes and patterns.

But then I took it to another photo program and did some manipulations.

Okay this one I like. I mean I really do like it.

Well the sun is coming up. It is about -7 and that is with no winds. The sky has beautiful orange and pale blue colors in it.

Rich's daughter and her family are coming today along with Mom. The house is prepped and tidy. Well, tidy for me.

I need to gather my outdoor gear for chores this morning.

I do love cold. I have the appropriate gear to wear in it and be very comfortable.

So have a great day whatever you are doing.

Playing with Fractals

It is cold outside!  And I mean cold!  We are having our first deep freeze of the year and it will probably get to -12 F here tonight.

The above and below fractal are something I've been playing with.  Since I don't fully grasp the idea of the IFS formulas yet, I like to take a few formulas and just keep changing them in ways.
 
These are in panorama view.  I sort of like them in their simplicity, but they are nothing to write home about.

I had intended on talking about photography and my last trip down the valley before the latest rain/sleet/snow event occurred but then I was looking at the things I was doing tonight and decided to talk about them.

These are different quick renders from the program Mandelbulb 3D.  It is a rather delightful program that I've been exploring for years.

Some of the artists have been pushing this program beyond what I could even imagine.  They are coming up with astonishing images that look like they were drawn for a movie set.

I come up with...
simple stuff.

I don't have the time nor do I have the rendering power to come up with those stunning masterpieces.
However I can come up with beautiful work of my own.

I prefer fun but sometimes our group is given a challenge and I ... find that I can create strange... or a bit 'dark'.

Or I find something colorful and whimsical.

Last night I revisited Incendia which is another fractal program.  Since I went to Windows 10 it seems to want to flicker like mad.  But I got through that issue last night and used the program and some editing to create a 'sculpture' of sorts.

I haven't mastered this program very well, but I do enjoy using it to combine with Mandelbulb 3D and JWildfire.  Sometimes the results are incredible and sometimes I just flat fall on my creative face.

This one was done with JWildfire and more than one fractal 'flame'.

My final edit of the first two Mandelbulbs in this post is as follows.

Shhhh, I've been playing

Just messing a bit with different fractal programs.

Incendia and JWildfire.

Variations of one set of parameters in Mandelbulb 3D

I've been experimenting with Mandelbulb 3D again.  Part of the group I am in offers up daily challenges along with a partner to do 'Tweaks' to Ping Pong back and forth.

The idea is to get a set of parameters and then create an image and pass that image and parameters to another person.  That person 'tweaks' it by changing colors, editing formulas, and other things.

Then that person sends the new 'Pong' back to the other artist.

I sometimes add a little something like this space ship for fun in the backround.

Then there are times that I just plain get stumped and can't seem to make any headway....

The above ball and the fractal below are from very similar formulas but the colors and the 'camera' angle have been changed, as well as the added backround created in Incendia from a few years ago.

This one feels like Pandora's box...

Here are the parameters for it:
Mandelbulb3Dv18{
g....si....j0...u....2I...Uuu9j8jgwyzIK.LL1hKp.Enyp50xMG5.o2ccMxJ80yzI29elNYX0.E
................................taLtAwUXd.2........Y.dD.................o.2...sD
....z6....kF.....I.1/......e....n1....E4.....scpGaullomD/IE8hYbEd/E7/dkpXk1....k
.VkAnAnD1A../2UNaNaNal5zzOaNaNaN2MzjOaNaNadD..2...........U0.....y1...sD...../..
.zHnAnYDC.PwAfjHMwXBd87fnWE7zUCQ1Ipzk.mDfE.R0gmewvvv6XLv/V36zapxC1uKgTmDeixacIFH
ewHW70ltuHy3ziuREnK5Y1kjU.....YA....A.........sD.2....sD/.G.....................
.............oAnAt1...sDHdw.zw1...................................EgVOfEO....k1.
.....Ksulz1.......kz.IjfO0EP.o7.G....I1....G....a/...s3...E9....j....ca1....THzG
...U.SBec/zcK7HU....UNXBq...1QozrTzx..UPAI91pRxD6oa4dabdnz1...........I.8.UF4N2.
.sM93P58iz9.3yuedc8tz0...........6U0.wNj4/...........s/wQOr9PExD..........E/EOYz
eO77..EwD0xQi./EteRlZ.N99y9.5eK59wuuzIUUXtTE0p...IG6kndUE.28xolvU8Okz0UwLr24K6zD
/6U0.wzzz1....................................xN2/.C272FImlMR.2.WWuVcmyBui8J.UdY
fVtNHBMNB0EEjE2FZv3imZ5.2xGA2VHOHmdH.6bQC7LkeB7bC/UQmtYQfx5obF2.sEYE27uTET4F.U1F
0Fo/.0xN2/.C272F...obFoUpnlMR.YBAWXifGZdCVpUZpcQl2XAic4Qb/......................
E....AU2V2U.....I....A....kL4x4PYZaPbZoMjBLM.........................MU/4.......
..................I9.1......610E........c.A...................zD................
........................kz1.............................Uz1........sz.........yD
........Uz1..........Y0..../....1....2IPVdLOiR460x4S.65.........................
.Qk0.................UnAnAnA9Wzj/......DgznoAnAnAnhuz...........................
.............timemit............................................................
................................6....E/...E/....T7pPo34RZFKEWB5.mp4.............
..........U/4M...........................................................y1BnAnA
nAnQz.........xDbNaNaNatNzfaNaNaNaNxz.........zD................................
............................................}
{Titel: Wings 12 box of secrets}

If you need to know how to use parameters please see my blog instructions atMandelbulb 3D Parameter Sharing.