Mystery Solved?

The sleuth has a report. I tried to eliminate a recent anti-virus software upgrade as the culprit by disabling it while rendering my Dancing Light fractal, but to no avail. I then rendered another fractal over a 12 hour period, and this on was fine. My conclusion is that the file has a problem somewhere. I may try to recreate it with another equation and the same coloring algorithms to see if that is the problem. I really do like the look of the fractal, but who knows what it would look like when rendered. There are always neat surprises to find.This fractal, called Wind, was just an attempt to see if I could still render more complex fractals. Not much in the way of transparencies, masks, etc. However, I am always interested in the closeups from various sections of my fractals such as this one from Wind.In my store, I used closeups on quite a few items including many Coral Fractal items. These two postcards show a detail on the left and the entire image on the right. Both are interesting in their own right.

The Choices

So, I have done a little e-research (ie, looking through several websites). Here are my final selections:

No Sweat- dedicated to no sweatshop labor, not organic-$18.50

Janice's- Organic cotton sweatpants-$44.95

Kasper Organics- French Terry organic pants-$26.95

Justice Clothing-another no sweatshop but not organic clothing source-$21.50

I eliminated the $50-$60 range of sweatpants from the organic crowd. I am pretty torn between organic on one side and union made on the other. I think I will go with the French Terry.

(edited) OOOOPS. Then I tried to order. Out of stock was the issue for two choices, so I went with Justice Clothing. This process took far too long.(end of edit)

That fractal rendered into nothingness again. I have saved it as another file and am trying to re-render it, but I do not have great hope. It is too bad as the image looks pretty neat. Ah, well.

Ghost Appears, Dancing Light AWOL

Here is a closeup of the ghost fractal. I like this even better than the original. My dancing light fractal is still AWOL, so I am redering it for the fourth time. Like they always say, "Fourth time's a charm." You can see why I called this one Ghost.Today was pretty productive. Did some grading, then went on one of those never-ending and always-increasing errand runs. It started with a wonderful massage. Then off to Target for a new pair of sweats and a floor lamp so I can read at night in bed. Neither were to be found, and I hopped over to another mega-store, Home Depot, for the lamp. They had it. The sweats, however, made me think as I am trying to change my buying habits to support more local and fair wage goods. I think I will go online and find an organic, fair wage pair for some ridiculous price compared to the 5 bucks that the non-existent Target ones were supposed to be. I'll bite the bullet and hope that most of that cash is actually going to the producers and manufacturers. Any suggestions?

Dan Riles and the Case of the Mysterious Fractal

I have rendered this fractal three times now, and it never appears in the destination folder. I actually quite like the image and am interested in how it differs when rendered. However, it has gone missing. A full disk search turned up nada. I, like other famous boy detectives, shall have to gather my trusted side-kick and head out into the neighborhood to look for clues and solve this mystery. Meanwhile, the next fractal that I am rendering may not disappear, so I hope my next post will actually have something to show.

On another note, I have found that live bookmarks make it so easy to keep up with the few blogs that I now read. I pop them in a folder in my bookmark bar (Firefox) and just hover over them to see if there is anything new. The wonders of yesterday's technology that I am just now appreciating.

Home Again

The trip was a success! Our parents met before we even got there, and they hit it off. We then spent Saturday evening together with dinner at one of my parent's favorite restaurants, Zinnia. The walls are really lavender in there.On Sunday, after a brunch at the St. Louis Bread Co. (history on how it became Panera), we headed to the orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Then, Sunday night, there was the contra dance.

After a long day of travel yesterday, we got back around 4:00. It was a wonderful trip. We were greeted by several large boxes on the landing! A down comforter, quilt, and a set of pyrex cookware. Our registry items arriving, beginning with an asparagus cooker, adds another level of reality to the whole wedding process. The next few days will be filled with things like photographers, invitations, and much more.

Last night, my computer restarted and dumped the newest fractal I was working on. I have restarted it, but you, dear reader, will just have to wait for a new fractal image.

Glazed Grin

Dance euphoria can lead to a grin glazed over the face. I felt that I had such a look for a vast majority of the night. Many folks who had not danced for a while came out to the dance and it was a treat to see them all. This is a community that I have been part of for about 16 years, and friendships that long, formed through dance, food, and conversation, are a wonderful thing. It was heady and exciting, and a warmup for our wedding. I found that the warning to eat during the wedding played out here because with all the catching up with people, I hardly got a bite in. Also, I did not drink enough water. Notes for the July event!

Happy Dan is going to sleep!
G'night

Final Fractal for a Few Days

This is my final fractal for a few days. The original image from which I created this looked like a ghost of a spiral floating in a blue space. I then did all kinds of coloring and such to it to create this, and am going to do a closeup of the spiral which looks really good at high resolution. It will require a re-render when I return. I may be able to post while traveling, but I am not counting on it.

We are scheduled to fly out of here around 5:oo. However, there are strong gusts and rain, so I do not know how that will affect the plane.

It seems that interesting thoughts occur to me in the morning when I am in a rush to get to school. I should find a way to capture them for later. Voice/data recorder might be the thing.

Communication Corollary

Having sent out an email about an impending dance Reena and I are hosting in St. Louis, it is amazing how voices from the past, both near and far, have come whispering in. A high school friend, a contra buddy, a prospective Haverford student's mother who I have never met, a teacher at a former school, and more. It is a wonderful web of new and old connections rippling around this event in time. It is as if all these connections are there all along, and this event and this email shone light or set in motion fibers of my social network that had lain dormant. Wonderful memories, new stories, and a feeling of extended community all have come from this experience.

It is a veritable cornucopia of good feeling!

Communication

Email and blogs, along with other Internet features, have created such a different style of communication from snail mail and telephone. I remember as a kid that I would call a person up, and if they weren't there, then the phone would just ring. Later, answering machines at least let them know you had called and the topic you wanted to talk about. Letters could be copied and sent individually to many people. Most notably chain letters served this purpose, but mostly they were a one-to-one type of correspondence similar to the phone.

Cell phones have changed the magnitude of this type of communication, but I do not think they have changed the manner of communication. The expectation when dialing a person is that they will be available and that they will pick up. Any person can be asked any thing at any time. I resisted getting a cell for quite a while, and it was only the airport connection and long distance features during a year of St. Louis to Boston dating that I was convinced to finally get one. I still have issue with the prevalence of personal conversation in public space and the interruption of time with people caused by answering cell phones. I replaced my first cell with a combination cell and pda. I couldn't carry two electronics around, and syncing everything was a nightmare. I wanted one without a keyboard that I could afford, and this Kyocera 7135 was what I came up with. I bought one on eBay, and it was set up to work with my provider, Verizon. Getting them to make the change, well that is another story.

IM, Blogs, and email insert an element of multi-party communication that formerly happened face to face in the same physical space. IM is most analogous with the conversation happening "instantly." Blogs create an extended conversation space for people to weave in and out as they choose. I have also found that people of like minds wander in and out of each other's blogs allowing for connections that were not possible before. Email combines elements of the two creating a disjointed conversation space that has a fluidity that can be a strength or weakness for communication.

I am fascinated in the changes that these communication tools have wrought on the psyche, habits, and cultural norms of the people using them.

Another form of communication is the parent-teacher conference. I have finished a full day of those and am looking at a half day of them after teaching tomorrow. This time, no one came in with an agenda, and all went fairly smoothly.

Well off to grading and curriculum; I will leave you with the latest fractal called Snowflake in honor of the recent weather that did not close my school on Monday despite the over 350 area schools that were out.

Snow and Deep Sea

Today snow fell, and blew, and drifted, and fell some more. It was a lazy day, as snow often makes the day feel. Besides shoveling twice, I lounged and read most of the day. A little fractal work, some web browsing, and back to reading. Oh, I ate as well. A very basic day.

My accomplishments:
I re-read Ringworld (or find it on Bookfinder for less) for mental fluff and fun. Hadn't read it in ages. Here is a very small image of the cover I have that Blogger resized beyond its resolution.

I added another fractal to the store. This one reminds me of a deep sea jellyfish, glowing and pulsing and waiting for prey. The blues and greens surrounding the glowing figure have some neat sworls and accents.

And then there was snow, and more snow. I shoveled, I watched it, and I still have snowflakes that I scanned!

How My World Turns

What is yesterday's news is still today's news. Yesterday's post had two things: my new monitor and my new fractal. Well, just look what this busy beaver has been doing to avoid grading and creating curriculum!

First, my new monitor is installed and working well, so here is a ripple effect from that. This necessitated creating a craig's list account. I thought I already had one, but it was not in my list of accounts and passwords. A quick check on Ebay told me that this was a reasonable price, I hope.

Next, many hours of this morning went to editing the midnight bubbles into the various templates for my online store, Patterns: Recursion and Repetition. I created a new section for this fractal. This one, I even took time to make a clock which is a little more time that the others which only require creative resizing of the image.

I even did the pile of dishes (see Clippings: School on the horizon (hyperlink crazy!)) Having been in the middle of fighting off a cold, these little chores tend to build up to an Augean Stable-sized task. Luckily with scale in effect, the flow of water coming out of the faucet is sufficient for the job, and the job is equally scaled down. Perhaps, I too am scaled appropriately in relation to Hercules and this task and my water flow? Perhaps this metaphor is being examined far too carefully, splitting hairs as it were.

The Anticipation

Yes, when you wait 6 days for a fractal to render, the anticipation mounts. This one had some unexpected treasures and a big disappointment. I saw the circle in the middle, but it didn't register in my brain. It is now hacked in photoshop. Before it was just a teal disk. The little spirals of orange dots and the finer detail was not available in the preview mode, so they are a nice extra. See for yourself. Was it worth the wait?

In other news, I unpacked my display. Wednesday, I pulled up in front of my house as the UPS truck pulled away. I called in the number, and after a while they called back. Evidently, if I had run madly after the van in the first place, I could have stopped it and got my package. Instead, I stared dumbly at the little adhesived slip of paper stating that the just-departed truck would not be back until tomorrow during a time in which I was guaranteed to still be at work. They would then try this one more time before sending my new monitor back to Dell! Grrr. Signature required, so they wouldn't just leave it. I found, however, that the local UPS center is close to work, and just down the road from next year's building site. I picked it up Thursday after school, and today I unpacked it. Yesterday, the fractal was still rendering, and while I could have switched monitors in theory, I did not want to risk it. The monitor is now about 25 inches from my face compared to the previous 12" or so. Much better. Also refresh flicker is not bugging my eyes.

The Slow Cooker

I managed to create another fractal that is taking days to render. Before setting it up on the slow cooker, I rendered a few fractals for tees such as the green one in my last post.

Reena, recently returned from DC, is walking by singing "Stargating" so off I go to watch and then sleep.

Enjoy this simple fractal:
And here is how it looks on a tee and a bag:

Echoes

Well, I guess there is a silent readership, or this is just a conversation between JD and me. Either way, I will still forge ahead as if many people were reading. Happy Birthday JD. Here is a cake.

Probably not the one you were looking for nor as tasty as Anna's.

I just Googled (with Firefox) myself, and my blog doesn't even show up. A link from Alis's shows me as well as a mention of the upcoming dance in St. Louis celebrating my upcoming wedding. The remaining links are interesting stratigraphy--Broadside Electric, Community School, Acumen Consulting, and even my foray into speleology. The Dan Riles in New Jersey wrestling, however, is not me.

In other news, since the fractal tee-shirt that I ordered was so-so in quality, I have removed most of the fractal clothes and just left the print items on for those. However, the spirograph tee was great, so I went ahead and added a section for all spirograph designs for tees. The organic cotton shirt is a nice beige color. I am now working on some fractals that should work better on fabric. They are simpler. Here is one called Simple Green. If I ever get famous, I can be sued by a cleaning solution manufacturer.

The Orders Are Rolling

My orders, that is. I have now received all the orders I made from my CafePress Store (see link to the left). I have been happy with all the items except for the fractal shirt I ordered. I am probably going to take off the fractal art clothing because the printing process is not detailed enough to create the image. I ordered the coral fractal shirt. On the other hand, the green wings spirograph shirt is great as is the magnet. My previous order of spirograph calendar and tiles was also good quality. I just received a notebook (red snowflake) and the fractal calendar. I loved the print quality, but February did not print on the calendar. They are reprinting it, and I hope it will turn out ok. The images look great!

I do not know the readership of this blog. Either there are readers who do not comment, or there are no readers. I know JD is out there looking in time to time, but who else? I would love to know. What parts of this blog are interesting to you?

On the note of bugging you, here is a fractal that reminds me of a flea.