I have found the motivation to build some new fractal images. This is one of them
The goal for this image was to make it look like it was painted. I did it in Ultrafractal 5 by merging multiple fBm transformations in a layer and then making slight changes to the fBm parameters on other layers. The render was painfully slow. Once it was rendered it was sharpened in Photoshop.
On another note, I upgraded the blog software that this site uses and it broke some of the integrated features of the gallery. I don’t know what the problem is or how to fix it so I am in the process of removing stuff from the side bar until the problem goes away. Sorry about that.
Phish has started the first half of their summer tour. I like going to livephish.com to see what they played and maybe even download a show. Each show has a comments section on the download web page where people can supposedly give reviews of the show. I have to say that many of the comments are a little weird. They are arguing with each other over ridiculous things, like which show was better or which version of Phish is better, or who is the more devoted Phish fan. That’s like arguing over which tastes better, strawberries or raspberries, or which of Monet’s lilies are better. Like all art, Phish shows are subjective. It’s all a matter of taste and opinion.
I have my list of favorite Phish songs. Sometimes they play them the way that I like to hear them and sometimes they don’t. That’s why Phish is so cool. Every show is different. A song can be different from night to night. That’s real artistry. It’s on the fly creativity and there are not many bands that can pull that off. It’s certainly not worth arguing about.
This year my Lupins are in much better shape than last year.
This is what they looked like last year. As you can see, usually the Foxgloves in the back take center stage, but they are looking whimpy compared the Lupins this year.
The Lupins had bugs eating them last year until I finally sprayed them. No bugs so far this year.
There’s a Hibiscus amoung us…
I know that it’s just one little flower, but last year I only got three to blossom all season. This is the third for this year and it looks like there will be more.
My soil is acidic. That’s what happens when it rains all winter. This time I added lime to the soil before planting to make it more alkaline, and I am keeping this plant wet and fertilized. I hope that it works so that I can see more of these. The blossoms only last a day.
I went outside to re-pot some house plants and noticed a battle going on at one of my feeders. It looked like two female Anna’s were going at it and neither one was backing down. While those two were dog fighting I saw three other opportunistic birds at the feeder. One was a male Anna’s, another female and then a Rufous.
This video has three quick clips of the females and then a little over a minute of one of them getting a good drink when the second bird appeared. It’s all shaky. Sorry about that. In the last clip the bird was threatening to peck my eyes out along, with the other bird’s eyes, but I didn’t catch it with the camera.
I have enjoyed watching the shuttle astronauts work on the Hubble Space Telescope.
On Saturday they were having a hard time getting a bolt out of a handrail. If I were in my garage, I would grab a hammer or a crowbar or something like that, and pound it out of there. If whatever it is breaks I can always go to the hardware store and buy a new one.
The pressure must be so intense on those guys knowing that there is no hardware store in their neighborhood and there will never be another repair mission. If they don’t get it done then it won’t get done. They ended up prying off the handrail and forcing the bolt out. Cool.
The other thing that made me smile was when the spacewalkers took the time to be tourists and snapped pictures of themselves over Houston.
I would like to thank Sheila Macho for putting one of my images on the cover of the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy and for writing the Cover Impressions article.
I saw it last night. At first I was wondering if it was going to work but as the movie progressed it sucked me in. It is full of lots of little tributes to the original series. I am looking forward to the next film.