It's the greatest show that was ever afloat

Today was a bit of a loss, since I had office hours, had to grade a final exam, and return some books the library was rather insistent about getting back just because I checked them out in June. Rather embarrassingly, since I got in late, was to learn iTunes on the office computer was playing the Technicolor Web of Sound, loud enough to be heard in adjacent offices, for more than a day. Glad most of that was Sunday.

After work we planned to take in a movie, and set out to discover ... a fire. We weren't sure just where it was from; the smoke looked nasty and smelled worse, like you get when a car hasn't had new oil in six years and the fan belts are about to go. Curiously, although some people seemed to be calling 995 (the fire-fighter and ambulance side of the Singaporean 911 system -- 999 is police), we didn't see any fire trucks or anything. The fire seemed to die down by the time our bus came, and -- at that moment -- it looked like it was coming from one security guard's shack, with a surprisingly unconcerned security guard wandering around outside. Perhaps it was his last day, or was becoming his last. Naturally, I didn't bring my camera.

We got to the mall/cinema about 15 minutes after everything we might want to see, except a Thai kung fu movie, started. So we wandered, discovering the only interesting things in the video arcade were Virtual Bass Finishing; a Puzzle Bobble Game with a mermaid and a hypno-slug character; and a virtual airplane cockpit with a demo landing that was pretty bad, for landing. They almost bounced the nose wheel.

We got home to Turner Classic Movies showing The Maltese Bippy -- Dan Rowan and Dick Martin clowning around -- and The Glass-Bottom Boat. Frank Tashlin directs a comedy starring NASA test footage, research by acronyms, and a professional mermaid. Anytime you have Paul Lynde, Apollo boilerplate splashdowns, Dom DeLuise, and opening credits based around an animated Gemini-Titan flight (with inaccurate reentry), you've got something.

Trivia: One solid stable phase of plutonium contracts on heating, like near-freezing water. Source: Why Things Break, Mark Eberhart.

Currently Reading: Explorers of the Infinite, Sam Moskowitz.