I've thinking a lot about flames lately. It seems that there is almost a religious fervor about them and I would like to understand what the big deal is. I think that if you have seen a hundred flames you have seen them all, so why is everyone so excited about them? What prompted these thoughts was an e-mail on the apo mailing list. Apparently there was some complaining going on in Deviantart about how not everyone's flame is declared a masterpiece, or something along those lines. They do a lot of flames over there. The trouble with places like this is that we are surrounded by people who like the same stuff that we do. We upload images and we tell each other how great our art is and we have no reason not to believe it. I've learned to enjoy the feedback, but then I put some time between me and my masterpiece. In almost every case, after a little time, I see that my pride in that image may not have been so justified after all. I can always build a better image and so can just about anyone else. I think that if we look at our flames from an outsider's perspective would see something different from what we keep telling ourselves here. After looking at 100 or 200 flames, an outsider would start to see that maybe flames are a dime a dozen, that they are easy to come by - which they are. Outsiders don't care that a tremendous amount of work went into gifting us all with Apophysis and they sure don't care about the math. All they see is a bunch of fuzzy shapes and patterns, which at first glance are beautiful, but after 2 or 3 hundred of them, they all start looking the same. So why the fervor? Part of has to be because Apophysis is free and easy to use. I have to ask, where is the creativity in Apophysis? Is it messing with the triangles and gradient? Is that all? We mess with the triangles and gradients and that makes us artists? I don't get it. For me, using Apophysis is like walking along beach and looking for seashells. It's more of a process of discovery than it is one of artistry. There's not a lot of creativity involved - not any more than if you were to find a beautiful seashell. Sometimes you get lucky and find something amazing, but that's not because you are a talented artist, it's because you're lucky. I suppose that there is artistry in recognizing pleasing shapes and colors. Or maybe not. I don't need to be an artist to recognize a beautiful woman, it just happens - OK bad example. How about a flower? Then there is the scripting part of it - the means to the end. I do understand the excitement about that. Scripting is cool but it's not the end product. It still makes fuzzy patterns in the end, but it is cool. The sheep thing is a mystery to me. Apparently you can upload parameters and become popular. I've never done it but I can't help but wonder if it's like counting comments or the hot 20 in this place. The screen saver must be cool. I'll have to get it. Just random thoughts. I'm not trying to say that Apophysis and flames are evil. I have been using Apophysis since it became publicly available as a front end to UF3 and I am going to continue using it. I'm still in search of the lost flame. It's out there. Keith