English, 2009, Good Work!

Learning English at this year in the university has been such a great opportunity to improve my skills in this subject. I studied English at school, but it wasn’t the best way to learn, because we were too many students and some of we knew more about English than others, so my teacher had to teach basic English to all of us. Thus, we didn’t get a good education at English, but here in the university all of that changed. Here, when I did the English test I stay in English level 3, since that I’ve been learning and improving myself at this language.

This semester has been so great at English, I liked so much our teacher Alvaro, I think that he is so fun and relax and I also like that he creates a great atmosphere around us, that makes us be more confident about our English. I think this kind of atmosphere that our teacher creates is very important when we are learning, because this atmosphere is like a push to us in our English that makes us to learn more.

By the other hand, English at this semester has been such a great opportunity to find a way to express myself by these entries, and of course, this is even better when I write them in English because I’m also learning when I do this. I think this kind of learning with blogs is very modern and psychologically talking, is a very nice way to develop our competences at English. Like I said, this kind of learning is a very good example of competence because this way of learn makes us to articulate or resources (language skills, vocabulary, motivation, etc) and move them to a successful development of a specific work: English. But that’s not all; for this to be a competence we also have to develop this competence by ourselves, but always with help: our teacher.

In conclusion, a good atmosphere at class can be a good environment that can push us into a better level of learning, and if we combine that with two different classes of English (blogs and normal classes), this can be even better, because this makes us to learn more. So, I’m glad of being here in this class, but I’m also very sad that we will finish this course next week. I’m very happy and satisfied with the results of this course, I really learned a lot this year.

Some challenges in Psychology

My discipline, Psychology, has too many challenges that now is facing.

For example, in technology we have several issues about scientific area in our discipline. Psychology has two completely different paradigms: quantitative and qualitative. If we use quantitative paradigm, maybe we will use some technological methods. For example, if we want to know about memory and how does it work in humans, we have to use the quantitative paradigm and probably we will use some new technology such as electroencephalograms.

All of us know that science has the power of knowledge in its hands, but there are too many studies that criticize that paradigm and show how wrong they are. This show us that not all is good enough and of course, science has too keep improving itself and show us how good and useful it can be in different problems.

I think that social matters have to be the first challenge that psychology has to face. Our discipline studies humans, his behavior and mind, that’s why psychology has the power to change the society, because all of we (humans) are the society, and today we are not taking serious that problem. But that is not in our hands, today we don’t have the power to change our society like the way we want, because Psychology is not recognize as a serious discipline with the power to do that, and that is too sad, because we study humans, we know humans, we can predict human behavior, but we don’t have the power to make them to believe us.

Education and Psychology must to be lovers and they must to walk together and think together how to make them both better, like good couples. But, that is so far away from reality. Education has been a blind and death discipline, because they don’t take us seriously like we need. We have been produce a lot of knowledge that can be use in education, but education is a lonely discipline, they don't pay us attention, they need a good partner, they need psychology.

So, those are some issues and challenges that psychology has to face, for its good. We can make the world better, but the world has to allow us first to make that real.

This is what I do in my FREE TIME!

Well, I do not have so much time for my free time because I’m always studying and reading, but the activities I enjoy the most when I have some free time are: watch film and series, listen to music and sew clothes.

Right now, I’m watching Queer As Folk, a television series about 4 gay friends in Pittsburg. I use to download the episodes and see them when I have time to do that. I use to watch it in the night and alone because that show has several sex scenes, so… It would be such a shame if I watch it with company, like my mom. I also like to watch films, especially gay themed films; they are my obsession, and I have seen a LOT of films like those.

I also like to listen to music; I always do that, like I said in a post before. I’m almost always listening to music and I love to hear the beats of synth-pop music in the night and dance pop music at the disco. I love to go dancing with friends, but I do that when we have time and of course, when we know that we can relax and just enjoy the day.

I loooove sewing clothes, that is my new hobby. I start to sew my own clothes like two years ago because I get tired of my loose-fitting clothes, so I took the sewing machine and I sewed my first pants. After that, I’m a tight-clothe-boy. I use to sew clothes when I had time, usually during the day on weekends. Lately I start to make my own clothe, I had made a jacket, a sweatshirt and I paint a t-shirt. Now I’m doing another sweatshirt and I had too many ideas to make beautiful clothes, but I have no time right now, that’s why I’m waiting to finish this year and start my own projects making clothes.

Well, those are my hobbies and I love to do them in my free time, they are not all, but they are the most important ones now.

Improving our Faculty! =D

I think the current situation in my faculty is kind of weird. We have facilities, but we really need more.

I think that we need, for example, a better study room that is not at the same time the cafeteria. We also need a good library, a library that has millions of book, old ones and update books too. I think that we need a psychology lab, because one important area of psychology is the scientific one, so we need a lab for experiments and for research. That would be very helpful.

To improve this situation in our faculty, first we need to say what we want as students and teachers. Second we have to agree what is our main need. And third we have to communicate that to our faculty and see what could happen.

I think that would be very helpful because we need as students a good study room, actually we have one, but that room is at the same time the cafeteria and that is not a good solution. A good library definitely would be great facility, always we are doing written works and, of course, we need update books which we already don’t have. The psychology lab would also be very helpful, with that we will do research in our faculty and our career would be recognized as a very important area in humans life.

I think that would be helpful not just for us, it would also can contribute the psychology as a discipline and our country with the results of that researches.

I (L) Music!

If I like music, of course I do like music! I’m always listening to music in my life. I like a lot of different styles of music, but I especially like synth-pop music.

Music is important to me because it is always with me. The music is on when I’m in the computer, when I’m in the subway, when I do exercises, when I take a shower, etc. Also, it’s important to me because music makes me happy and reminds me of some moments of my life.

I’m used to listening to my favorite music for about 4 hours a day. I don’t know if music is good for health, but if it’s dance music and you like to move your body with it, maybe it can be healthy. I think that makes me a healthy guy, because I like going to the disco and dance my favorite music with my friends.

My favorite band is Ladytron. They are a British synth-pop and new wave band. They have 4 discs and I like them all! I also like their clothing style, they always look good and fresh. Here you have one of my favorite singles from their last album Velocifero.



But Ladytron is not all that I like, I also like bands such as Goldfrapp, Bat for Lashes, Little Boots.... and when I had my dark moment in my life I used to listen Goth bands such as Lacuna Coil, Evanescence, Scarling… Now, I don’t listen to those bands very often, but I still like them and sometimes I listen to them.

Wikipedia and Rorschach test’s answers

Since a Canadian doctor posts in famous online encyclopedia Wikipedia the “right” answers of Rorschach test, it has become a new problem in our discipline.
Rorschach test was developed in 1921 by psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. It has 10 inkblot images, which patients have to look at them and describe what they see in it.
The Rorschach test has been a great tool for psychologist, because when people answer this test people show a complete unknown part of them. Now psychologists are afraid that patients can memorize the “right” answers, so obviously it can give a wrong analysis.
The problem started when doctor James Heilman from Saskatchewan posted all the inkblots and the most common answers that people gives when they look at them. He said that he did that as a response when he got frustrated by a debate when he wanted to take down a single Rorschach inkblot plate.
Psychologists said that making the test public can become it useless. "Making images available on the internet will make it obsolete and we will have lost a helpful tool," said one psychologist.
But this is not the first time that this happened. In 1983 William Poundstone published the inkblots in his book Big Secrets how the test is administered.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/29/rorschach-answers-wikipedia

French Fries, my favorite food!

Well, my favorite food is French Fries. Yes, this maybe seems like a favorite dish for little kids, but it is the best in the world for me, at least for now.
The flavor that I like the most for my favorite dish is the salty-delicious-potatoes. People may not think that this French Fries are really food; sometimes people say that French Fries are junk food, but I don’t care, this is MY favorite food.
The best think about eating French Fries is that you can eat them with almost every food, you can eat this alone or with everyone that you like, because French fries are made for everyone because most people like them!
My friends know me for my French fries, because they know that I like them so much and, of course, sometimes I’ve cook them for my closes friends and family.
Well, I suggest that this food has to be eaten whenever you like, with everything you like and with everyone that you like. This is the perfect food to eat with friends, family, boyfriend/girlfriend and people that you don’t like because French Fries have the property to make people happy.
French Fries are perfect if you eat them with a big glass of ice coke and lettuce with a lot of lemon juice.
I like French Fries because I’ve been eaten them since I was a kid with my family because they like them so much as me. I really have great memories eating French Fries.