Something I just can't remember

I remember things from when I was younger than 5 but some how I can't seem to remember not being able to understand English......

I don't remember what it was like not understanding what all these 'Pharang' ( a thai word for foreigners-caucasians) were talking about. Its so weird thinking about it now.....I couldn't speak English fluently until.....8 years ago ? but it feels like I've been speaking it forever.

What life must have been like then ? not knowing English like I do now?.....just doesn't feel like it was rela.

I remember how my parents used to speak in English when they didn't want me to understand what they were talking about......now they have to find a new language

What is a Childhood?

Age ranges of childhood

The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a varying range of years in human development. Developmentally, it refers to the period between infancy and adulthood. In common terms, childhood is considered to start from birth. Some consider that childhood, as a concept of play and innocence, ends at adolescence. In many countries, there is an age of majority when childhood officially ends and a person legally becomes an adult. The age ranges anywhere from 13 to 21, with 18 being the most common.

Developmental stages of childhood

Further information: Child development stages and Child development

Early childhood

Main articles: Toddler and Early childhood

Early childhood follows the infancy stage, and begins with toddlerhood when the child begins speaking or taking steps independently. While toddlerhood ends around age three when the child becomes less dependent on parental assistance for basic needs, early childhood continues approximately through years seven or eight. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, early childhood spans the human life from birth to age eight.

Middle childhood

Main articles: Child and Preadolescence

Middle childhood begins at around age seven or eight, approximating primary school age and ends around puberty, the beginning of adolescence.Adolescence

Main article: Adolescence

Adolescence, or late childhood, begins around the time of puberty. The end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function, and even within a single nation-state or culture there may be different ages at which an individual is considered to be (chronologically and legally) mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks.

History of childhood

It has been argued that childhood is not a natural phenomenon but a creation of society. Philippe Ariès, an important French medievalist and historian, pointed this out in his book Centuries of Childhood. This theme was then taken up by Cunningham in his book the Invention of Childhood (2006) which looks at the historical aspects of childhood from the Middle Ages to what he refers to as the Post War Period of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Ariès published a study in 1961 of paintings, gravestones, furniture, and school records. He found that before the 17th-century, children were represented as mini-adults. Since then historians have increasingly researched childhood in past times. Before Ariès, George Boas had published The Cult of Childhood.

During the Renaissance, artistic depictions of children increased dramatically in Europe. This did not impact the social attitude to children much, however—see the article on child labour.

The man usually credited with - or accused of - creating the modern notion of childhood is Jean Jacques Rousseau. Building on the ideas of John Locke and other 17th-century liberal thinkers, Rousseau formulated childhood as a brief period of sanctuary before people encounter the perils and hardships of adulthood. "Why rob these innocents of the joys which pass so quickly," Rousseau pleaded. "Why fill with bitterness the fleeting early days of childhood, days which will no more return for them than for you?"

The Victorian Era has been described as a source of the modern institution of childhood. Ironically, the Industrial Revolution during this era led to an increase in child labour, but due to the campaigning of the Evangelicals, and efforts of author Charles Dickens and others, child labour was gradually reduced and halted in England via the Factory Acts of 1802-1878. The Victorians concomitantly emphasized the role of the family and the sanctity of the child, and broadly speaking, this attitude has remained dominant in Western societies since then.^{[original research?]}

In the contemporary era Joe L. Kincheloe and Shirley R. Steinberg have constructed a critical theory of childhood and childhood education that they have labeled kinderculture. Kincheloe and Steinberg make use of multiple research and theoretical discourses (the bricolage) to study childhood from diverse perspectives—historiography, ethnography, cognitive research, media studies, cultural studies, political economic analysis, hermeneutics, semiotics, content analysis, etc. Based on this multiperspectival inquiry, Kincheloe and Steinberg contend that new times have ushered in a new era of childhood. Evidence of this dramatic cultural change is omnipresent, but many individuals in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have not yet noticed it. When Steinberg and Kincheloe wrote the first edition of Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood in 1997 (second edition, 2004) many people who made their living studying, teaching, or caring for children were not yet aware of the nature of the changes in childhood that they encountered daily.

In the domains of psychology, education, and to a lesser degree sociology and cultural studies few observers before kinderculture had studied the ways that the information explosion so characteristic of our contemporary era (hyperreality) had operated to undermine traditional notions of childhood and change the terrain of childhood education. Those who have shaped, directed and employed contemporary information technology have played an exaggerated role in the reformulation of childhood. Of course, information technology alone, Kincheloe and Steinberg maintain, has not produced a new era of childhood. Obviously, numerous social, cultural, and political economic factors have operated to produce such changes. The central purpose of kinderculture is to socially, culturally, politically, and economically situate the changing historical status of childhood and to specifically interroge the ways diverse media have helped construct what Kincheloe and Steinberg call "the new childhood." Kinderculture understands that childhood is an ever-changing social and historical artifact—not simply a biological entity. Because many psychologists have argued that childhood is a natural phase of growing up, of becoming an adult, Kincheloe and Steinberg coming from an educational context saw kinderculture as a corrective to such a "psychologization" of childhood.

Geographies of childhood

The geographies of childhood involves how (adult) society perceives the very idea of childhood and the many ways the attitudes and behaviors of adults affects children's lives. This includes ideas about the surrounding environment of children and its related implications. This is similar in some respects to children's geographies which examines the places and spaces in which children live.Modern concepts of childhood

The concept of childhood appears to evolve and change shape as lifestyles change and adult expectations alter. Some believe that children should not have any worries and should not have to work; life should be happy and trouble-free. Childhood is usually a mixture of happiness, wonder, angst and resilience. It is generally a time of playing, learning, socializing, exploring, and worrying in a world without much adult interference, aside from parents. It is a time of learning about responsibilities without having to deal with adult responsibilities.

Childhood is often retrospectively viewed as a time of innocence, which is generally viewed as a positive term, connoting an optimistic view of the world, in particular one where the lack of knowledge stems from a lack of wrongdoing, whereas greater knowledge comes from doing wrong. A "loss of innocence" is a common concept, and is often seen as an integral part of coming of age. It is usually thought of as an experience or period in a child's life that widens their awareness of evil, pain or the world around them. This theme is demonstrated in the novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies. The fictional character Peter Pan was the embodiment of a childhood that never ends.

Nature deficit disorder

Main article: Nature deficit disorder

Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, refers to the alleged trend in the United States^[2] that children are spending less time outdoors,^[3] resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems.^[4] With the advent of the computer, video games and television, children have more reasons to stay inside rather than outdoors exploring. “The average American child spends 44 hours a week with electronic media”.^[5] Parents are also keeping children indoors in order to protect them from their growing fear of “stranger danger”.^[5] Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children.^[6]

Healthy childhoods

Role of parents

Main article: Parenting

Physical health

Further information: Childhood obesity, Childhood immunizations, and List of childhood diseases

Child protection

Further information: Child labor, Child labor laws, Risk aversion, Child abuse, and Protection of Children Act

Childhood play

Further information: Play (activity), Playground, Imaginary friend, and Childhood secret club

Play is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children.^[7] It offers children opportunities for physical (running, jumping, climbing, etc.), intellectual (social skills, community norms, ethics and general knowledge) and emotional development (empathy, compassion, and friendships). Unstructured play encourages creativity and imagination. Playing and interacting with other children, as well as some adults, provides opportunities for friendships, social interactions, conflicts and resolutions.

It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them. Play allows children to create and explore a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers.^[7] Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills. However when play is controlled by adults, children acquiesce to adult rules and concerns and lose some of the benefits play offers them, particularly in developing creativity, leadership, and group skills.^[7]

Play is considered to be so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child.^[8] Children who are being raised in a hurried and pressured style may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play.^[7]

Street culture

Main articles: Children's street culture and Children's street games

Children's street culture refers to the cumulative culture created by young children and is sometimes referred to as their secret world. It is most common in children between the ages of seven and twelve. It is strongest in urban working class industrial districts where children are traditionally free to play out in the streets for long periods without supervision. It is invented and largely sustained by children themselves with little adult interference.

Young children's street culture usually takes place on quiet backstreets and pavements, and along routes that venture out into local parks, playgrounds, scrub and wasteland, and to local shops. It often imposes imaginative status on certain sections of the urban realm (local buildings, kerbs, street objects, etc). Children designate specific areas that serve as informal meeting and relaxation places (see: Sobel, 2001). An urban area that looks faceless or neglected to an adult may have deep 'spirit of place' meanings in to children. Since the advent of indoor distractions such as video games, and television, concerns have been expressed about the vitality - or even the survival - of children's street culture.

First and Second visit to England

I have many fond memories of my first visits to England. The one that stands out the most is somehow is the one where my parents took me to the Madame Tussuad's and we had to walk pass the 'torture' section and I couldn't stop crying. They took me there again on my second visit..I do not know why and I remembered to close my eyes but I still cried my hearts out anyway....

I remember being absolutely terrified of those wax models but thinking about it now, I find that that was one of my many fond memories....strange huh?

A visit to my old house

Sunday was the election day, I'm not entirely sure who or what we were voting for but I was just voting for the party I think I agree with....

Anyways, we had to go vote in the area of the house we were registered at and I was registered at our old house. So, after we were done voting, we paid a little visit to the old home where my 'nanny' now lives and house sit with her family. ( thats another story for another time )

Visiting the old house after so many year brought so many good memories back, they all came rushing back like it was just yesterday.

My mum's wardrobe has a top shelve ( on the left) and that was where my mum kept all the children exercise books...out of my reach. When I was little I was obsessed with books, more specifically children exercise books and children encyclopedias. I had so many animal books, then, it was obvious I was going to grow up to be some kinda of vet or biologist ( I don't know what happened between then and now...) Anyways, every time my mum bought me these exercise books ( they had simple logic problems, maths, thai and etc in them ) I would go through them so quick that my mum had to ration them out to me one at a time and keep the rest in her wardrobe, ou of my reach. I used to find a way to climb up and get those books anyway.

When I visited the old house,I went over to the wardrobe and now the shelve seems to be more out of reach for my mum than me.......

Everything in that house seemed smaller as well, and the street in front of our house.

The smell was the best. I went around the upstairs opening all the wardrobes, cupboards and draws and smelling them. The drawers where we kept all the videos still smells the same ( kinda damp, old and stale), to me it was the nicest smell. the smells didn't bring back a certain memory, it was more like, a feeling of being a kid living in that house again

Childhood memories...Nothing.

I have found nothing on Childhood memories. I need to find a library with lots and lots of books ....that aren't all about design!

The internet is just awful. I've typed in a million different words for 'childhood memories' and have found nothing apart form 'essays' written by...who knows!

There seem to be a few books written no this subject matter but I don't think I will find any here.


So, I guess the scientific stuff will just have to have to wait.

Chidhood Photographs

Fern, me and Fon at our old house. I don't actually remember them wearing those pajamas when they were little but I know that they used to love them and both of them slept with those silky things until recently... I think Fern still keeps hers in her bed...... They're 25 and 27.....

My 8th birthday at our old house

The boy next to be was my childhood ( best best best ) friend. he lived next door( still does) and we used to be inseparable.

Me, Pong and Emmy

Fon and me

Me and dad's old old car

Me in London

Some of these photos are actually too old for me to remember but I just like them and they do bring good memories back

Calvin and Hobbes

I love Calvin and Hobbes
I'm not a big reader of comic strips but I do love Calvin and Hobbes.

Calvin and his best friend Hobbes.


reading these strips is like looking at the world from a completely different point of view, its refreshing and witty. ( also, kinda philosophical )

Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair are named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher.

Calvin and Hobbes is set in the contemporary Midwestern United States in an unspecified suburban community. The strip depicts Calvin's flights of fantasy and his friendship with Hobbes. The strip also examines Calvin's relationships with family and classmates. The dual nature of Hobbes is a recurring motif. Calvin's friend Hobbes is a live anthropomorphic tiger to him, while other characters see him as a stuffed toy. Though the series does not mention specific political figures or current events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, and the flaws of opinion polls.

Thoughts on Chilhood memories research.....

• What are childhood memories(definition, etc.)
• Why are childhood memories important? why do I think its good?
• See if there are any scientific research into childhood memories
• effects of a childhood on a person ( grown )
  
• ask other people about their childhood memories
• Try and write down as many of my childhood memories as possible.
• What reminds you of your childhood memories?
• triggering those forgotten childhood memories (smell, image, sound etc)
  
• favorite and least favorite memories
• False memories?
• Feeling and thinking like a child again
• What makes a childhood a childhood?
• psycho analysis into childhood memories
• books on childhood?
• articles?
• internet articles?
• blogs?
• what does it look like? what does it taste like? different for everyone cos its personal
  
• the feeling you get when remembering a childhood memory
• childhood memories in design
  

Peanut butter [is] the pâté of childhood.”

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us. ~Oscar Wilde, "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Memory is what tells a man that his wife's birthday was yesterday. ~Mario Rocco

In childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking out. In memories of childhood, we press our nose to the pane, looking in. ~Robert Brault,

Childhood is a short season. ~Helen Hayes


"We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until...we have stopped saying " it got lost", and say " I lost it" ~ Sydney J. Harris

Come back distant memories....

So...its time for me to try and remember my childhood memories.

Of course I remember them but, tell me if I'm wrong,

The only time that we ever bring up our childhood memories are when something reminds us of that certain memory and we say...

' O yea, when we/I were litltle.........'

Its a lot harder to sit in front of a computer and try to remember those distant memories.....

what helps? These are somethings that help trigger those memories....

Going places you've been
a certain event that happens ( like your dad doing something silly, like he did all those years ago?0
food
a friend
a feeling
a smell
a sound
when you see something
or just dreaming

First trip to the Uk....never quite manage to leave :)

one of my youngest ( well, or oldest?)memories are funnily enough the ones of my first and 2nd trip to the Uk. I think I was about four the first time I visited England and then again when I was five. There are so memories from those trips that stand out to me....more than any other.

I can't think of many more memories of my life before that....may be another distant memory when I was three....my first trip abroad to Hong Kong.

So, when I think of myself when I was three-five, the first things I think of is of the time I was travelling? And I must have been in Hong Kong for....a week? and about the same amount of time in the UK.

out of my 5 years living....those are the things I remeber the most?

It intrigues me why ??

It's strange rig

Decision time.

Libraries
Muji Pens
Geometrical patterns- espcially, the neubau moduls
Childhood memories
Balance
Wordplays in Graphic design...I'm sure theres a better word for it....got it ! Typographic Design
sustainable design
simplicity




So far, these are what I think is good, and worth researching about.......

So, Libraries would be really interesting to do research on, like finding out about the biggest libraries, the most beautiful and crazy libraries!

I love libraries anyhow as I love books. I can spend hours in libraries and not get bored, especially the design section where there are lots of pictures for me to look at.

The only problem is that I'm not going to be able to go to all these libraries I will be finding out about as they will be all over the world....does that matter much as long as I can prove that they are good?

This round room is called the Rotunde, its the main reading hall of the city library in Stockholm

Muji pens are...literally, the best pens in the world. I do use other pens but none seem to write as well and as comfortably as the Muji pens. They are truly GOOD. However, the pens I'm talking about at the moment are just a specific type of Muji pens and I dont know if that would mean that my research would be too....narrow??

I mean how much research can you get into about one type of pen....or may be that is what would be great about researching into this one. How do I make interesting research out of this one? I will have to compare this pen to all the other black pens I can find and find out why it is so good.

This would be a different type of research from my other ideas, it seems limited but perhaps I can find ways to 'un-limit' these limitations??


Geometrical patterns to me are beautiful. I know I've always favored them in my designs but I am interested in them even more now. I came across the book Neubau Modul, as I've mentioned in my previous posts. I still don't know whether its all geometric patterns that i find good or this particular collection of patterns. May be I like them so much more as they are all put into one very beautiful book. bBt in general I think all geometrical patterns are good. They are interested and I would definitely would like to understand them better, then perhaps, choosing this would be a good way for me to do that. At the end of the day, I do think that they are GOOD.



'Childhood memories' is a little different from the other three ideas. The fact that it is not something physical that can be touched or seen makes it a different kind of research. I haven't put that much thought into yet but i mean, it would be pretty interesting right? ( finding out more about why certain childhood memories stand out more than the other, other peoples childhood memories, the psychology of it all?)

but I also have to consider the fact that 'childhood memories' are only good when the memories are good? To those to did not have that much of a childhood or did but not a good one childhood memories would be 'bad' or even non existent.

I will have to be thorough and considerate in my research. Those of us who are lucky enough to have had a childhood, always remember certain events or likes and dislikes as the memory of our childhood.

Going to the cinema for the first time, fighting over a really ugly toy with your sister, believing that your closet is in fact a door way into Narnia,these are all childhood memories. I think that they are good....but i don't quite know why yet and I'm sure that there would be an explanation for it somewhere......now I'm just very curious.

me with a wax doll from my first trip to the Madame Tusaude's. I cried the whole time when my parents took me through the torture section of the museum, I remembered to shut my eyes on the second trip but cried anyway.( I have no idea why my parents would do that to me again)

I wish I could find another picture I had taken next to the wax doll of Arnold Schwarzenegger. I looked absolutely tiny next to him. That was my most favorite wax doll because when I was little, I was obsessed with the actor. I watched all his movies, even predators and terminator...I must have been about 5? weird kid.....


Balance....this is another one of my idea that I have not put much thought into. Well I have put a little bit of thought into it but I don't even know where and how I would start to research this.

I've just always thought that everything is good, when its balanced, not too much, not too little.
Design looks good when its balanced. A building can stay up because there is balance within the construction. but the balance I am talking about is not trying to stand up straight, but i mean the balance of things. Yin and Yang, good and evil, black and white, the golden raito etc etc.

This seems like it could be an infinite research, there is so many things that I could apply this to.


May be the better word wold be Equilibrium? Everything is good, when its just the right amount.
One musician would tighten the strings, and the other would cry, "Not too tight because you will break the string." The other would counter by saying, "Not too loose because the string will only buzz and rattle- in the middle is just right."




Wordplay in Graphic design....this one, I find really hard to define and I don't like that. but the designs themselves, i like.

( editting the post....I got it...Its Typographic Logo Design that I've been looking for !)

clever word plays in Graphic Design and puns are great! ( especially the really awful ones) As mentioned in my previous post, I think its a really great way of getting your message across. Its witty, visually interesting and effective



er.....what exactly to you call these??

When I first thought of these, as I have a couple on my Design Context blog already, I thought they are really 'good' but now, I'm a little bit worried. I still think they're awesome but may be not fit for this project as the other ones? I guess there is no right or wrong and they are interesting but may be not....'good'

I mean the question is ' what is good?' and answering it by saying ' wordplay in Graphic design is good...' seems a little strange, its funny, interesting, clever, creative, but not sure about 'good'

Interesting wordplay logos are good?

ahhhh I dont know, I think they're so clever and creative but I might have to reconsider?


This blog post is getting a bit long but I just want to sum up and put all of my current thoughts about good into one post.

By writing this, I'm helping myself decide on the 5 researches I am going to do. Indecisiveness is a murder.


Sustainable Design.....This one is also tricky.

I'm only just becoming more interested in sustainable, or Eco friendly design. The practice is huge and the industry is complicated and needs to be well researched but I do believe that it is the future of design. Clients are becoming more and more ethically concerned in their products, and therefore, as Graphic design, I need to be looking at the future trends of design. I am also personally becoming more aware of the problems being caused by over consumerism and one of the problems are us . We are the seller of all things, we advertise things people don't need. I make packaging, make people want to buy products, etc.

When we can help, we should help.

However, this is a big issue which I still don't know anything about. I don't know if its just a little too big for a summer research. but I feel like, this would be an important step for me as well in my design career as I feel like this is what I am interested in, so may be I should start now??


Simplicity.

Keeping it simple. This sentence is something that you here often, it might feel like a bit of a cliche but i still believe it what it stands for......

The simplest solutions are the best solutions. Why complicate things when the simple solution solves it just the same, if not better??

but i think.....I will leave it at that. for now