Saturday, January 22, 2011

Salvador Gutierrez P7 Jan. 17-22

This week in AP Psychology: we learned about socio-cultural theories.  It’s based on how culture, socio-economic status, birth order, school, peers, television, and parents shape your language.  I agree with this very much.  I don’t see any way possible how anyone can disagree with this theory.  It explains how language is different according to the region and decade.  Now that the world is “smaller,” there are even more differences among people and their languages.  I speak English with a southern California accent because I live in southern California.  And speak Spanish with a Michoacán accent because I spend more time with my mom and her side of the family rather than my dad’s side of the family, so I speak as if I was from Michoacán (mom) rather than Jalisco (dad).  When I say Michoacán, I mean San Jose de Gracia because that’s where my mom’s from.  When I say Jalisco, I mean Tepatitlan because that’s where my dad’s family is from.  The words I use is from a mix of Los Angeles (where I live), skaters (friends), Mexican (family), British (extensive watch of Monty Python, The Office BBC, and Fawlty Towers), and Whitney (school).  I am more aware of what I am saying now.  I think about where I got that word from.  This is a very useful tool that I should look into more.  It will help me with dialogue when coming up with video ideas and writing scripts because I will have a better understanding of how the character should speak.  Language is something that will never go away, it just grows and grows.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Salvador Gutierrez P7 Jan. 03-08

This week in AP Psychology:  I learned about sleep, hypnosis, and dreams.  What I liked the most was the stuff on dreams.  Dreams consist only of your past experiences and of what you already know.  Last year, I began a sleep journal.  I would go online to the dream dictionary and see what things meant.  But it turns out that it all depends on your interpretation rather than someone else’s because it’s your dream and your thoughts and feelings.  For example, a horse can mean freedom and stamina to someone but it can also mean grandfather to someone else.
After watching Inception, I began to try to have a lucid dream.  I did all the tricks and no good.  I wrote the letter “A” on both my palms, counted sheep (in order to keep counting once the dream starts and then I would realize I’m in a dream and then I can stop counting and have fun), and I would try to notice the little details that can give away that I’m in a dream (i.e. I’m reading a book and the letters would change every time I would look away, I’m in one location and then I would end up somewhere completely different just by going through the door).  I didn’t continue the sleep journal that I mentioned earlier, but I will try to continue on this journal.  I’m still not able to remember my dreams with the right amount of detail to figure out my unconscious, but I will soon.  Remembering my dreams will help me in life because dreams are like simulations and they can teach you the best possible thing to do in certain situations.