Looking for dream-signs....

Hi! I've recently become interested in lucid dreaming and have been studying and practicing for about 2 weeks now.. Haven't had a lucid dream yet but I'm not giving up yet! I do have a question however!! :D

In the book Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming the author talks about dream signs and how
they can be great indications that you are dreaming, and by looking for them during the day you can get
into the habbit of noticing them in your dreams hopefully leading to lucidity. The author breaks them down
into 4 categories which are Inner awareness, action, form, context.
He says that you should go over your dream journal and find your own dreamsigns. once you've categorized your
own signs your suppose to pick one category, whichever one seems to be most frequently present in your own dreams.
After this you are supposed to "Make a habit of examining your daily life for events that fit under your dreamsign category.
For instance, if your target category is action, study how you, other people, animals, objects, and machines act and move.
Become thoroughly familiar with the way things usually are in waking life. This will prepare you to notice when something
unusual happens in a dream."

My problem is that about 80% of my dream signs fall under the "context category" and my question is how exactly
do I make a habit of examing for such things... here's the author's description of context dream signs...

CONTEXT
The place or situation in the dream is strange. You may be somewhere that you are unlikely to be in waking life,
or involved in a strange social situation. Also, you or another dream character could be playing an unaccustomed role.
Objects or characters may be out of place, or the dream could occur in the past or future.

and here are some of my own personal signs that fit under this category..

"my father, step-father and brother are almost always in my dreams, but they live in a different country...
there's no way I could see them in waking life"

"I'm often located in either a movie theatre, a Mall, or a department store"

"In about 90% of my dreams I'm in an enviorment that I don't recognize, that is to say, I don't know where I am..."

and in general everything in my dreams that makes them "dream-like" is context based such as people behaving oddly
or i'm doing something that just seems strange to me on reflection, like trying to surf on a suitcase.

So I guess my question is how do I watch for my dream signs when they are of this nature? Or should I just
pretend at times that my dream signs are present? such as pretend I'm somewhere I don't recognize, or pretend
my brother is present...

Thanks for any help with this as I'm just a little confused with this...
THANKS AGAIN!

How 'bout reality checking 1. Whenever you find yourself thinking about your brother/father/step-father, 2. Whenever you're in a department store/mall/movie theater, and 3. Whenever you visit somewhere new.

Before you go to bed, remember "If I see my dad/brother/step-dad in my dream, then I know I am dreaming, because they couldn't possibly be here." In a way, dream signs that are unique from waking life are the best kind, as then it is easier to distinguish dream from reality.

I personally never use dream signs. I find that they aren't very affective. I think that the mthods such as Mild or Wild are much better.

Though Mild and Wild are sucessful methods, they are not for everyone, you can try them if you wish however if you focus on your recall and use your dream signs you will eventually be able to induce lucid dreams fairly easily, its worth it in the long run, your choice though not mine, if you want my opinion i think you should stick with what your doing.

Thanks for the responses! :)