A Visit From Frederik

T’was a night in December and all through the house,
All the gadgets were idle, including my mouse.
The modem was dark, the computer asleep.
(Dreaming ‘ puter dreams of sparks and electric sheep.)

The monitor sat blankly facing my empty seat,
The speakers were quiet, the silence complete.
I had a mug of hot chocolate and a really good book
And was settled under a quilt in my favorite nook,

When out of the speakers there arose a strange sound
And from under my warm quilt I leapt with a bound!
Straight to the desk I flew like a flash
(Spilling the cocoa and mug with a crash.)

The monitor emitted an eerie white glow
That sparkled and glittered like new-fallen snow.
Suddenly out of the glow there stepped a strange being
As tall as my thumb. What was this I was seeing?

He smiled mysteriously, bowed low and then
He said that his name was Frederik Slijkerman!
He waved his small hands and in mid air he drew
Lovely spirals of light which resolved into

Bright letters: ‘UF’! Oh, what can it mean
To a daydream believer and a homecoming queen?

(Yes, I channeled The Monkees. I’m strange like that. Just deal with it, okay?

Anyhow, back to our story… )

Small Slijkerman said “I have something for you,
A program I designed and this version is new.
It makes things called ‘fractals’, images which
Can be intriguing and beautiful, with colors quite rich.

It takes time to learn but before long you’ll see
The rewards are well worth it…well, that’s what’s been said to me.”
“Fractals?” I said. And he answered “I’ll show you!”
Then on my monitor there came into view

The most interesting images, some with shadows and lines,
There were abstracts and things which looked just like vines.
There were marbles and landscapes, geometrics and more,
Flowers and patterns and spirals galore!

I was completely intrigued by what he had shown
And knew this was a program I wanted to own!
Slijkerman said he had as his helpers a few
Very smart tiny people, his bidding to do.

“Tiny helpers?” I thought. “Is this guy insane?”
Then he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
“Now, Samuel! Now, Gilles! Now, Ron and Mark!
On, Kerry! On, Damien! On, Janet Parke!”

One by one they appeared, stepping out of the glow
And each was dressed all in black from small head to small toe.
Like wee Ninja warriors, they crouched and they posed.
(Wary of nano-scaled dangers, I can only suppose.)

Were they here to raise weird mini-Ninja hell?
But Slijkerman organized them all with a yell:
“Into the computer! Storm the files, breach the wall!
Get ready, my friends….now, Ultra Fractal INSTALL!”

In a flash they changed postures and out of deep pockets
Came screwdrivers, cables and plugs to fill sockets,
Tiny flashlights and drills and Swiss Army knives,
Like miniature tech warriors set to attack my hard drive!

Into my computer his helpers they flew
To install UF v.5 like he’d told them to do.
They said not a word but went straight to their work,
Drilling and pounding like techies berserk!

They installed help files, tutorials and then
Updated public formulas just on a whim.
They created some folders, made a nice shortcut, too
And all of this took just a minute or two.

Then they stood back and waited, their job now was through,
And all of them watched to see what I would do.
I clicked opened the program to take a quick look
And after one short inspection, I knew I was hooked!

The grad editor, how it twinkled! I loved the Explore Tool!
Plus transparency, layers and masking…so cool!
Orbit Traps, Harlequin, Doodads and Naru,
Slopes and Sierpinskis and S.F.B.M. II!

I saw Mapping and Merge Modes, I saw Grouping, too,
And Image Import and more stuff that’s brand new.
I knew that much later, nestled snug in my bed,
Visions of spirals would dance in my head.

I slowly awoke from my UF daydreams
And saw the small Ninjas preparing to leave.
They were repacking their gear in their wee pockets now
And I glimpsed throwing knives, nunchucks, even Ninja stars! Wow.

(Although, quite frankly, I didn’t see the need for the Ninja weapons.
I mean, really, what were they gonna do? Engage in battle with anti-fractal paramilitary computer chips? Sheesh. Talk about overdoing it.)

Their stuff was all stowed, they were ready to go
And at a quick nod from Slijkerman, they walked back into the glow.
One by one they melted into the eerie white light
And I knew soon would end my very strange night.

All alone on my desk now, Slijkerman stood quite serene
And he bowed and he smiled and waved his hand at the screen.
“Have fun with UF v.5! It’s my best work to date.
Play, get frustrated, learn…and CREATE!”

He turned toward the glow, looked back quickly and then
He winked at me and became sparkling light once again.
But I heard Slijkerman exclaim, ‘ere he dissolved in the mist,
“Happy fractaling to all…and watch for v.6!”




The image was made to go with my *ahem* poem. I used the image import feature in Ultra Fractal for the UF screen and the quilt hanging on the wall...which is one I made a while back and which really does hang on the wall behind my desk. The desk itself is a simplified (and neater) version of the one I have.


Here's a full view of the quilt: [link] where the colors are truer to the real one. I dulled the quilt for this image so it wouldn't overwhelm everything else.


_{Huge posthumous apologies to Clement C. Moore for my mangling of his classic poem 'A Visit From St. Nicholas'.}