Jurjen's world

I already designed very fashionable shoes two weeks ago. I did that after I saw a fashion show of Alexander McQueen, which had some ridiculous shoes in it. So I thought: why should I not be able to think of something completely ridiculous, yet cool looking. So I did.

Anyway in that blog post somehow in the comments catsuits were mentioned, so I thought: hey, I already design shoes (I guess I have to be gay now ), why not try something else, like a catsuit. So some thoughts crossed my mind and I ended up with something I thought would be worth putting on paper. While drawing it it evolved in something not so much a catsuit anymore, but hey who cares? I don't.

I better stop talking and show you what I came up with, right? The quality of the picture isn't really very good. I made a picture of the sketch and it is actually to dark to get a good result. I try to get a better snap sometime soon!

design sketch of a 'Catsuit' or at least some piece of clothing. Pencil on paper.

For those who wonder how to get into this thing. There is a zipper on the back of the suit (on the light brown line) that goes from the bow all the way up to the collar. The boots have buttons on the inner leg, which are light brown.
I guess that should work right?

When we are talking about climate change it might give the impression that we are talking about raising temperatures and melting pole ice. Of course this is part of it, but in this context I like to see climate a bit wider then just the weather but as our natural environment.

Personally I don't think the change of the weather is such a big deal. Of course sea levels can raise, more heavy rains or hurricanes may occur. These are serious things and we can not ignore those changes. We need to act upon them, invest money and take action, but it's something we can very well protect ourselves from. Nature also needs to adjust, it might mean not everything will survive, perhaps polar bears will not survive. Don't get me wrong, this is a very sad thing, but this has always happened in nature. We might get new species in return. The world will change, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Unfortunately the change in weather is not the only environmental issue we are facing today. The biggest issue we are facing today is the scarcity of resources. There are a lot of people today on our planet and they all want a lot of stuff. In a balanced natural environment, you can use everything around you as a resource and give back your waste as a resource for other elements. Like humans take oxygen to breath, and give back carbon dioxide back which is used by trees that make oxygen out of it again. Animals eat plants and there defecation works as fertilizer for the plants again.
We only remove things from nature

Today we remove so much from nature and give so little useful things back that this balance is seriously damaged. An example of a very serious problem is fertile soil. For many years now we are using the soil to the max. Heavily using fertilizers and cultivate an enormous amounts on small pieces of land. The soil has no time to recover and by now on many places the earth is just empty. Not useful anymore for cultivation. A year ago National Geographic wrote a nice article about it.
Nothing will grow anymore in our soils

So we take an awful lot from our earth, and we process it in such a way that the waste it eventually gives cannot be used by nature again (or it takes up to 100.000 years to do so). How is nature suppose to maintain its balance when we keep acting like we presently are? We cannot expect that to work! Fortunately most people start to realize that too. But is our focus right?

I notice how much the world is focusing on CO2 emission today. It is a very hot item, and it sells. Cars with low CO2 emissions, even websites that are “carbon neutral” while they mean carbon dioxide neutral. I have to admit I'm skeptic about it. I see hybrid car with low emissions, but I wonder how well those batteries are for our environment. These things are pure poison!

And those CO2 neutral websites, so they plant a tree for every amount of energy they are using. But what about all those toxic elements inside those servers? Are they eventually going to end up in India where they burn the plastic from the copper wirings and everyone over there ending up dead or serious ill because of the destroyed environment it has created? You can read more about it in this Greenpeace article
We just dump our waste somewhere

I think we need to keep thinking what we are actually doing instead of yelling about a populair item as CO2 emission where the consequences are yet quite speculative. Since there are more urgent and evident environmental problems around, I think we are better off asking ourselves questions like: Why is everything packed in 10 layers plastics? Why do we travel so much? Why do we buy so much stuff we actually don't use? Why do we light out everything at night without anyone being there?

Most of those things we can easily change, and those actions would really make a difference. And we need to make a difference because else we are digging out own graves. In the mean time we can keep investigating the unclear defined problems like global warming.
Picture from an initiative of multiple organizations in the Netherlands called hier, that started a campaign that changing the climate start here with your self and your own actions!

I love browsing the internet, because you stumble upon all kinds of creative things. Browsing one of several blogs I visit on a regular basis, I found a nice Flickr group Cool Dudes and they sure are cool! Of course Lego always get me warm inside , but look at those fellows, aren't they amazing?


I like Pulp Fiction very much too, so that second image is an absolute winner!

The same blog brought a fashion show of Alexander McQueen to my attention. Loyal readers may know I kind of like fashion shows, I think they can be really creative and quite impressive shows to watch. Well this one sure was creative, its the spring 2010 collection. Of course these are museum only pieces, because there is no way these are going to be used as clothing


Look at those shoes, aren't they magnificent?

Here is the show (in two parts) if you would like to check it out:



I kind of feel sorry for the girls, they have to walk an enormously long runway on those shoes. It must have been hell