Marilyn's Photos - Nov 14 2025 - Hot Tech Fidget Toys

 

Our hot tech gifts include the SHASHIBO shape shifting box, the Tap Drums - a silent fidget for everyone, and the Oloid stainless steel toy, the stainless steel spinning top, the Ferrite putty black over 500 weak magnetic stones, and many more. The fidget toys.  There are a lot of them.  Take a look at  what’s available at kaiko here. These are considered stress relievers.  Fidgeting is commonly thought to relieve stress, but what do scientists really think. It gets complicated right away:  "Cognitive research suggests that fidgeting is associated with how stimulated we are. That is, fidgeting may be a self-regulation mechanism to help us boost or lower our attention levels depending on what is required – either calming or energising us.” It has been found to be a sign of a chronic health disorder - ADHD, to be a common response to stress and anxiety, it may allow better concentration on a task for longer, it may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and it can improve blood vessel functioning.  That’s a lot in the mix there. Are fidget spinner toys a helpful tool? It doesn’t look like it, according to the experts.  So it is interesting that there are so many available. But then whoever is fidgeting is buying them, so that’s who counts. No silent drum fidgeting here - this is the Notre Dame Band known as the Band of the Fighting Irish.  I saw them practicing in the Notre Dame parking lot when we stayed overnight at the hotel across the street.  We were on our way to a railroad convention.  There are 500 students in the bands - 3 concert bands, 3 jazz bands, section ensembles, varsity bands and the University’s marching band.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 13 2025 - Bridge Collapse News

 

Everyone is focused on the U.S. and Trump with the Epstein files and the re-opening of the government there.  No one seems to notice the rest of the world’s news.  Yesterday’s news included the collapse of a new bridge in south-west China.  It was 758 metres long. Cracks appeared on nearby roads and in the mountain slopes.  Then a landslide occurred on Tuesday, causing the collapse of part of the bridge.  It just opened in September.  It is a scary-looking bridge without the collapse as it is extraordinarily tall.  Here’s the collapse  LINK. Wikipedia keeps track of bridge collapses with the first entry in the 312s.  That’s right - bridges have been collapsing for a long time.  Since January 2025, there are 10 entries worldwide. China gets its fair share of collapses as there is seismic activity in its mountain areas, and there are lots of bridges there.  I didn’t retrieve any data on China’s collapse rate, but did notice a number of entries for 2024.   I was able to find out about the U.S.collapse rate.  It has data on condition and collapses -1 in 13 bridges is classified in poor condition. The annual collapse rate averages 128.  The headlines scream out that a quarter of America’s bridges may collapse within 26 years - that’s the all steel bridges.  What about here in Canada. Canada’s infrastructure is aging with over a quarter of local roads and highways more than 50 years old.  This is the sort of timeframe when infrastructure wear out.  Canada’s recent bridge collapse was in 2006 in Laval Quebec when the De la Concorde Overpass collapsed, killing five people.  The cause was poor design, construction and management.  There’s our disaster of the month story.  China’s dramatic collapse did not have any deaths or injuries.  Maybe that’s why it didn’t get that much attention. Look what popped up on a search for bridge - little Dezi on the pedestrian bridge in Port Dalhousie, and the Sydney, AU bridge in the background at the botanical garden.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 12 2025 - Cute Acorn Ornaments

 

t is Fantasy of Trees time, with next week being the set-up week. I will be decorating a tree this year. I have set up the tree to do a pre-test at home to ensure whether there are enough ornaments on the tree and then to decide the styling of the garland and make it. The ornaments were donated last year and are brown coloured glass with some of them in very stylish acorn shapes.  I wondered if I could get more acorn ornaments to make that the tree theme.  I went online to do a search and was deluged with AI content of cute little chipmunks, mice, squirrels, foxes and so on - each cuddled asleep in little acorn.  Don’t forget the little birdies, too.  And then they have a video-effect of moving in some of the ads - but these aren’t accessible to give you the link here.  Too bad as it is all very cute.    I am cynical.  This looks like the same company that has the women’s wear cotton/linen one-of-a-kind dresses for $25 and the cloud sofas.  Remember them? They are gone - you won’t find them on the internet now - they were $45 (ha ha).   Add lazy to being cynical - I can’t bother to prove the point.  The company selling these ornaments is Shein and I expect the dress company,Light in the Box, is a close relative- too bad as the pictures are always wonderful. Here is a screen shot of those acorn ornaments.   I continue along the Painters’ Palette series, with some wonderful colour combinations today thanks to the watercolour artist group.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 11 2025 - Sisters of Mercy

 

Leonard Cohen’s song “Sisters of Mercy” came to my mind. It has a beautiful melody. My remembrance of the lyrics was garbled, so I looked them up.  Always the sacred and profane together.  I looked up the background of the song. The quote from Cohen was  that two young women gave him shelter during a snowstorm in Edmonton.  AI explains it: “They were not lovers but provided a moment of comfort that inspired the ballad.  The phrase also likely refers to the broader concept of women who offer comfort, much like the Sisters of Mercy religious order founded by Catherine McAuley in Ireland in 1831. “  Another story is that he said they were two backpackers in the hotel lobby and he invited them to his room where they fell asleep and he wrote the song.  There are further variations on this as background to the song. There are many interpretations of the lyrics.  AI weighs in with its four-point overview of core theme, inspiration, symbolism and lyrics. Makes me think of first year English essays.  If you go to songmeanings.com website, you will find 24 interpretations/entries for the meaning of the lyrics. Reading through the comments is fascinating to a point - like reading more first year English student papers or listening to the discussion in an English class.  Are there Leonard Cohen jokes?  Here’s one of his own: “This is a song I wrote when I thought I might never be able to sing again - quite worrying when I never could sing in the first place.” Let’s make a guess of what this is.  It is the centre of a china “egg plate” - it has the indents for devilled eggs around the outside.  One of the watercolour artist uses it to mix paint, so you can see all the colours.

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Marilyn's Photos - Nov 10 2025 - Glass Skin

 

That got my attention - glass skin.  Let’s find out what glass skin is.  OK, even before that, what is K-Beauty.  Because glass skin is promoted as a K-Beauty trend.  Glass skin comes from the Korean phrase “yuri pibu” which translates to glass skin.  There are a lot of Korean culture trends now - K-pop likely being the best known.   All the pictures are very young, attractive Asian women.  “Luminous, smooth, and clear” - from within.  That’s how it is promoted by the experts who promote it, and the leader in the field is Alicia Yoon. She says that there are two key parts to achieving glass skin: “The first is to nurture it with ingredients that support overall skin health, like essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. For hydration, you'll want to seek out humectants like hyaluronic acid or glycerin, and to calm and protect the skin, you'll want to load up on antioxidants. Secondly, target any specific issues with powerful-yet-gentle active ingredients to amplify your results. For instance, since many factors like excessive sun exposure, pollution, and other external and internal stressors can lead to both uneven skin tone and accelerated loss of firmness, Yoon says both brightening and firming ingredients (like retinol) are also great to incorporate into your skin routine.” Doesn’t this have that “influecer” tone to it? And I expect that there are a lot of products one is going to buy, and then one is going to spend a lot of time doing all sorts of “exact routines”.  I’d rather watch the snow storm than work on a beauty treatment.  And there’s lots of snow to watch right now. This picture was taken a year ago at Sunshine Express.  Today’s Chrysanthemums are white with snow on top and brown underneath from severe cold.  Time to get the winter greens.

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