I have read previously how we have to be more careful about causations in our research. If A appears with B, it could be that (1)A caused B; (2)B caused A; (3)A and B are both caused by something else. Recently I experienced a real-life version of the warning. The story goes like this:
I was cooking in my kitchen. It was dinner time. I stpped on a small region of my wooden floors and felt that it sounded funny-it felt like there were something under it and it was puffy. An hour later my neighbor downstairs came knock on my door and reported she had water dripping from the kitchen ceiling. I went to see it-the region of her ceiling was all wet and there were indeed water dripping.
I went to the building manager and he told me to shut down the water in my house first to avoid more leaking--if assume there was leaking from under my wooden floor, maybe a pipe broke or something. I did shut down the water-by turning an old and dingy wheel. But then 10 mins later when I tried to turn it back on, there was no water. Not a drop in the entire house.
So let's sum up what's happened so far: (a)water leaking under my floor-->(b)I shut down the water supply-->(c)when I turn it back on there is no water anywhere(given that all other units have water running in their houses in my building). What could it be?It is intriguing to think of (a) to be the cause of (c) or of some sort of link, because when there was no (a) there was no (c) and the water was running smoothly. It also makes sense to think so because it would be kind of too easy to think that it could be something with the switch--that it happened to be the case that when I turned that wheel and shut off the switch for the water supply to my apt (something I would never do in a year since I've lived here), the switch happened to stop working so when I turn it on I don't get any water anymore. It seems very unlikly that when nobody turn that switch for years at all it's ok, but when I turn it this once--and when (a) happens that it actually is broken. Well, the result is, it turned out, that this is exactly the case--the switch was broken so when I turn it back on it was still stuck there so no water came(stuck from inside and looked perfectly alright on the outsied). As simple is it were, it was hard to believe at first.
And it was clear that event (a) and (c), although appeared in a series of event, were not related at all, in any fashion of (1)-(3)(in which case (3) is referring to single instead of plural), but actually are two completely independent things caused by two independent factors. Of course statistically speaking when you have large samples this may not happen. But it could also be the case where if we assume that the old and dingy switch at a lot of homes were not usually used for years, and then when an accident somewhere happened in the house, they turn-and the switch broke. In that case you may as well link (a) to (c) in a causation link (if, think in the study of minds), while in reality they are indeed two independent events caused by two independent factors-in this case, a broken pipe and a broken switch.
So, what have we learned from this?It seems like we should indeed be more careful while draw conclusions and generalizations about our experiments.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sleeping, Waking, and Biological Clock
HOW PRECISE?
If you think that our body acts in some kind of randomness, think again. I have recently experienced the power of biological clock. I flew to the US and China within 10 days, and that's what happened: I wake up every morning between 6:30 to 7am. Never once I wake up after 7am, even when I went to bed at 1am. Amazing ah?The brain does all the work, accustomed to the light and dark pattern of the day.
Next Day
I went to bed a little late (I think I fell asleep around 11pm instead of 10) and I got up around 5am to go to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Alas! The clock is tilted. I then work up at 8:30 instead of 7. But, it turns out that I felt more tired--would felt better if waking up at 7am. It has to do with the quality of sleep.
Sleep:More is Less?
Sometimes I do feel that in the morning sleeping 1 or 2 hours more could only make you more tired instead of regaining your energy. This implies that timing, or the time period is extremely important in sleeping, which is what traditional Chinese doctors are always saying. But I always feel that my best sleep time comes in the afternoon when I take a nap. But Chinese medicine tells us sleeping before and around midnight (and possibly around noon) is a golden treasure when your body is repairing your internal organs.So if you can still fall asleep early in the night, you should definitely do it.
If you think that our body acts in some kind of randomness, think again. I have recently experienced the power of biological clock. I flew to the US and China within 10 days, and that's what happened: I wake up every morning between 6:30 to 7am. Never once I wake up after 7am, even when I went to bed at 1am. Amazing ah?The brain does all the work, accustomed to the light and dark pattern of the day.
Next Day
I went to bed a little late (I think I fell asleep around 11pm instead of 10) and I got up around 5am to go to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Alas! The clock is tilted. I then work up at 8:30 instead of 7. But, it turns out that I felt more tired--would felt better if waking up at 7am. It has to do with the quality of sleep.
Sleep:More is Less?
Sometimes I do feel that in the morning sleeping 1 or 2 hours more could only make you more tired instead of regaining your energy. This implies that timing, or the time period is extremely important in sleeping, which is what traditional Chinese doctors are always saying. But I always feel that my best sleep time comes in the afternoon when I take a nap. But Chinese medicine tells us sleeping before and around midnight (and possibly around noon) is a golden treasure when your body is repairing your internal organs.So if you can still fall asleep early in the night, you should definitely do it.
Why Do We Need to Plan and Organize in Life
I was born to be a spontaneous person. I have to admit that by now. I can plan; but I don't like to do it a lot of times. My happiest zone is to act completely spontaneously, and enjoy the unexpected life, places, and people, full of surprise. I think that is in my personality-born that way.
Even when I compose music I do not compose by writing notes on a score. I most of the time would prefer to improvise. As a result, I am not able to reproduce most of my compositions-luckily most of them are recorded computer music. So you can hear my mind at the time but I can't perform for you.
But why suddenly I am an advocate of organization and planning?
Well it's not I don't like them. Actually the reason I want them more in my life is because I felt I like them better and better now. First of all, being an adult means more responsibility and planning and organization is necessary for that. Second, I'm not an artist but a scholar. Third, I am not by myself so my other half would not tolerate my total spontaneous actions.
But recently I realized a more important reason--being in order is one of the biggest challenges in life, yet human beings need that for evolutionary reasons--humans developed for hundreds of thousands of years, becoming more and more intelligent, systematic, organizational, sophisticated, etc., only able to reach where we are today. Without these attributes, human beings could not, as of today, live a more than ever exciting life with numerous possibilities shining in the light of the future. Everyone knows it is easier to be chaotic yet being organized is the challenge. Science and technology are certainly the result of these attributes, and they are the driving force of our history. If we evolve in a different direction and listen only to our biological needs(food,survival,sex,etc), we would be like animals with lower intelligence (not that there is anything wrong with that). But being 98% champ ourselves, we do have biological needs, but sometimes it's better to resist them--such as having a big mac or beef cheese burger everyday-they may be delicious and you crave them, but in the end you know self-discipline is good for you.
Second, I find being organized actually has a lot of benefit for our mood, productivity, health, and physical well being overall. When I am very chaotic and spontaneous, I may sleep very irregularly, eat a lot of junk food, sit on the couch watching tv for long hours, not going out for a day, not interacting with other people--all of those made me feel miserable and my health deteriorating--that is when I often get a uneasy feeling of my heartbeat. But just for two weeks I switched my lifestyle--go to bed before 11pm and get up before 7am everyday, it completely changed. I felt much more energetic (even though I slept less but I actually am less sleepy during the day), eager to do things, being productive, wanting to interact with people--all of these things, including my diet habits become incredibly systematic and I couldn't feel better. Being unorganized can be happy at the moment but later I always come to regret it and it caused me more pain; being organized, it felt always so good. Well, it's just the matter of not to sink into that hell again-i have to regulate myself too.
Third, speaking from a physics point of view, spontaneously, the world is going more and more unsystematic, unorganized, and chaotic. This is the theory of entropy。 Without control, the tendency of the universe is to get more and more chaotic, and it requires energy to actually turn them into systematic.
German scientist Rudolf Clausius is credited with the first formulation of the second law, now known as the Clausius statement:
No process is possible whose sole result is the transfer of heat from a body of lower temperature to a body of higher temperature.
Spontaneously, heat cannot flow from cold regions to hot regions without external work being performed on the system, which is evident from ordinary experience of refrigeration, for example. In a refrigerator, heat flows from cold to hot, but only when forced by an external agent, a compressor.
Lord Kelvin expressed the second law in another form. The Kelvin statement expresses it as follows:
No process is possible in which the sole result is the absorption of heat from a reservoir and its complete conversion into work.
A change in the entropy (S) of a system is the infinitesimal transfer of heat (Q) to a closed system driving a reversible process, divided by the equilibrium temperature (T) of the system.
dS = \frac{\delta Q}{T} \!
Actually a long time ago when I was in high school, in a paper that we wrote for a science contest, called "Resolving Energy Crisis on Earth", I remember we stated at the out front of the paper, that the energy crisis on earth does not mean that the amount of energy on earth is getting reduced; rather, according to the law of energy conservation, the total amount of energy is constant, whereas there are less and less energy available for human use--to convert them into work, so to speak.The key here is that according to the second law of thermodynamics, as the entropy increases, more and more energy becomes obsolete and cannot be re-organized for use again.
Thus,to sum up, why not become more organized?
Even when I compose music I do not compose by writing notes on a score. I most of the time would prefer to improvise. As a result, I am not able to reproduce most of my compositions-luckily most of them are recorded computer music. So you can hear my mind at the time but I can't perform for you.
But why suddenly I am an advocate of organization and planning?
Well it's not I don't like them. Actually the reason I want them more in my life is because I felt I like them better and better now. First of all, being an adult means more responsibility and planning and organization is necessary for that. Second, I'm not an artist but a scholar. Third, I am not by myself so my other half would not tolerate my total spontaneous actions.
But recently I realized a more important reason--being in order is one of the biggest challenges in life, yet human beings need that for evolutionary reasons--humans developed for hundreds of thousands of years, becoming more and more intelligent, systematic, organizational, sophisticated, etc., only able to reach where we are today. Without these attributes, human beings could not, as of today, live a more than ever exciting life with numerous possibilities shining in the light of the future. Everyone knows it is easier to be chaotic yet being organized is the challenge. Science and technology are certainly the result of these attributes, and they are the driving force of our history. If we evolve in a different direction and listen only to our biological needs(food,survival,sex,etc), we would be like animals with lower intelligence (not that there is anything wrong with that). But being 98% champ ourselves, we do have biological needs, but sometimes it's better to resist them--such as having a big mac or beef cheese burger everyday-they may be delicious and you crave them, but in the end you know self-discipline is good for you.
Second, I find being organized actually has a lot of benefit for our mood, productivity, health, and physical well being overall. When I am very chaotic and spontaneous, I may sleep very irregularly, eat a lot of junk food, sit on the couch watching tv for long hours, not going out for a day, not interacting with other people--all of those made me feel miserable and my health deteriorating--that is when I often get a uneasy feeling of my heartbeat. But just for two weeks I switched my lifestyle--go to bed before 11pm and get up before 7am everyday, it completely changed. I felt much more energetic (even though I slept less but I actually am less sleepy during the day), eager to do things, being productive, wanting to interact with people--all of these things, including my diet habits become incredibly systematic and I couldn't feel better. Being unorganized can be happy at the moment but later I always come to regret it and it caused me more pain; being organized, it felt always so good. Well, it's just the matter of not to sink into that hell again-i have to regulate myself too.
Third, speaking from a physics point of view, spontaneously, the world is going more and more unsystematic, unorganized, and chaotic. This is the theory of entropy。 Without control, the tendency of the universe is to get more and more chaotic, and it requires energy to actually turn them into systematic.
German scientist Rudolf Clausius is credited with the first formulation of the second law, now known as the Clausius statement:
No process is possible whose sole result is the transfer of heat from a body of lower temperature to a body of higher temperature.
Spontaneously, heat cannot flow from cold regions to hot regions without external work being performed on the system, which is evident from ordinary experience of refrigeration, for example. In a refrigerator, heat flows from cold to hot, but only when forced by an external agent, a compressor.
Lord Kelvin expressed the second law in another form. The Kelvin statement expresses it as follows:
No process is possible in which the sole result is the absorption of heat from a reservoir and its complete conversion into work.
A change in the entropy (S) of a system is the infinitesimal transfer of heat (Q) to a closed system driving a reversible process, divided by the equilibrium temperature (T) of the system.
dS = \frac{\delta Q}{T} \!
Actually a long time ago when I was in high school, in a paper that we wrote for a science contest, called "Resolving Energy Crisis on Earth", I remember we stated at the out front of the paper, that the energy crisis on earth does not mean that the amount of energy on earth is getting reduced; rather, according to the law of energy conservation, the total amount of energy is constant, whereas there are less and less energy available for human use--to convert them into work, so to speak.The key here is that according to the second law of thermodynamics, as the entropy increases, more and more energy becomes obsolete and cannot be re-organized for use again.
Thus,to sum up, why not become more organized?
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Public Argument in Beijing
People in China are somehow getting angrier and angrier at each other, especially around holiday time. I personally witnessed at least three public humiliating arguments between strangers in one day. Two happened at a shopping center right before the Chinese new year. Rules are observed and then derived by myself:
1. The two strangers, often involves one young and one old;
2. At least one female. This is crucial (often there are more than one female involved).
3. At least one has to be an out-of-towner. Two beijingers never argue like that in public.
4. Very little things can set off the fight. Like getting in the line before someone else while getting on a bus.
5. The first stage of the fight is simple arguments with elevated volume in voice;
6. The moment someone swears, uttering dirty words, the argument becomes a fight.
7. Everyone around enjoys watching.
1. The two strangers, often involves one young and one old;
2. At least one female. This is crucial (often there are more than one female involved).
3. At least one has to be an out-of-towner. Two beijingers never argue like that in public.
4. Very little things can set off the fight. Like getting in the line before someone else while getting on a bus.
5. The first stage of the fight is simple arguments with elevated volume in voice;
6. The moment someone swears, uttering dirty words, the argument becomes a fight.
7. Everyone around enjoys watching.
Film: Amateur
Saw this film at the Cervantis Institute in Beijing this Saturday afternoon. Very European. French girl goes to Spain to search for his biological father, and ended up spending some heart-warming family time with a lonely old man who is the current owner of his father's previous apartment. No big drama, big action. Sometimes, the joy of life is in the most simple and small things. Learn to enjoy "DOING NOTHING">.
Chinese New Year in China: Soundscape
I have not spent Chinese new year in China since 2006, and it's thrilling to re-discover just how great it is this year in Beijing. The greatest thing, besides spending quality time with family, is the fireworks. I'm definitely in for a treat on this, A TREAT FOR SOUND. On the eve of Chinese new year, Feb.3, 2011, the fireworks all over the city started probably god know when in the morning, but really getting intense around after 4pm. The sound of fireworks is all over the city and is seriously NON-STOPPING until after midnight. This works like a symphony. Because there is never a moment of silence, but there is only ups and downs, highs and lows, you can kind of feel the melody there. When a big one comes up the sky near you, it's really exiting, almost making me crying (and making my aunt fell to the ground). After this you hear the rest of them from nearby or faraway. This is truly an exclusive opportunity to experience the sound of fireworks for hours and days, and anyone should not miss this if they have a chance to experience it.
China: Tech Shift
A couple of years ago when I lived in Beijing, we used to go to this electronic product "market" to buy slightly under-priced personal electronic accessories, and CD players and later, MD players, mostly imported legally or illegally from Japan, were the most popular. This year I'm back at Beijing again, and wanted to buy a special battery for my portable CD player(although I do use ipod), only to discover that they're not available anywhere. And for that matter, portable CD players are very rarely seen sold anywhere. The market is filled with authentic and fake mp3 players and ipods and ipads. "who wants CD players when you can have something so much lighter?" wow.
But I still prefer the sound quality of a CD player. There is something to it that I still want to hold on to it a little longer.
But I still prefer the sound quality of a CD player. There is something to it that I still want to hold on to it a little longer.
US Media Reports on China
Nowadays apparently, since China is rising in the world, we can expect to see all sorts of reports on China in US media, even those small topics or topics that we Chinese thought Americans won't care (or understand) in the past. Much like when a local musician is the serious subject of academic inquiry of some art or musicology student in a US institution pursuing a Ph.D. Here is a NYT article on Chinese traditional humor talk show performer Guo Degang, a comic and clown character who became controversial after making his fortune in Chinese public..http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03beijing.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1
10 Things I Hate About Beijing (2011)
Despite how much I love this city:
1. When you take the subway anywhere, you have to put all your bags through the x-ray security check machine.
2. Crazy drivers everywhere on the street.
3. People do not dare to make their voice heard in the situation they are being treated poorly.
4. Government employees (even those assuming low-level positions) do not give a damn to citizens asking for help.
5. People go super crazy (always) in the buffets of KTVs and elsewhere acting like free food is of the utmost importance and they have not had meals for days.
6.Sometimes people are more judgmental and have certain fixed ideas about how to live your life.
7.People are not as straightforward when they deal with you(sometimes I really like the way Americans do things in this respect)
8.The law is really not all that powerful in many aspects.
9.Kids are too burdened from school work.
10. Those long walks through the subway connection tunnels.
1. When you take the subway anywhere, you have to put all your bags through the x-ray security check machine.
2. Crazy drivers everywhere on the street.
3. People do not dare to make their voice heard in the situation they are being treated poorly.
4. Government employees (even those assuming low-level positions) do not give a damn to citizens asking for help.
5. People go super crazy (always) in the buffets of KTVs and elsewhere acting like free food is of the utmost importance and they have not had meals for days.
6.Sometimes people are more judgmental and have certain fixed ideas about how to live your life.
7.People are not as straightforward when they deal with you(sometimes I really like the way Americans do things in this respect)
8.The law is really not all that powerful in many aspects.
9.Kids are too burdened from school work.
10. Those long walks through the subway connection tunnels.
US Again
After spending a few months in China, I almost forgot what US is like--China is becoming more real to me. Beijing is one face of China---very modern, fast, exciting, diverse, historic, political. It is a great city, probably greater to me than any US cities. Then there is the other faces of China, Fujian, Guangdong, Gulangyu, mountain areas....these are very local, very indigenous in many senses, but full of flavors. Just not these cookie cutter moles.
US. I couldn't imagine what it is to be in US when I spent a long time in China. It kind of becomes a impression in TV and films. I don't even remember what it is like to speak English to everyone; the way Americans behave and say things; the way waiters take your order; the taste of Panera's panini sandwich...but I know it is exciting and scary at the same time. It doesn't have great Chinese food whenever I want. But the spirit of Americans, their manners, I couldn't resist.
Anyways,now that I'm here again, everything seems so real again. Sitting in a coffee shop and surfing the a-lot-faster-than-CHINA internet, it feels almost like I have never left--although I'm in a different city now. I have mixed feeling toward the US. In this bad economy, perhaps it is not very easy to turn the bad things good. Hard.
US. I couldn't imagine what it is to be in US when I spent a long time in China. It kind of becomes a impression in TV and films. I don't even remember what it is like to speak English to everyone; the way Americans behave and say things; the way waiters take your order; the taste of Panera's panini sandwich...but I know it is exciting and scary at the same time. It doesn't have great Chinese food whenever I want. But the spirit of Americans, their manners, I couldn't resist.
Anyways,now that I'm here again, everything seems so real again. Sitting in a coffee shop and surfing the a-lot-faster-than-CHINA internet, it feels almost like I have never left--although I'm in a different city now. I have mixed feeling toward the US. In this bad economy, perhaps it is not very easy to turn the bad things good. Hard.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Music rhythm, Linguistic rhythm, and Aesthetics
Today something struck me when I was watching the CCTV New Years program 2007. During one popular song of that year, "吉祥三寶", actually a Mongolian song, due to the programming, the song was sung first in Mandarin and then in Mongolian. It was very obvious that it sounded dull in Mandarin but much more interesting and likable in Mongolian.
From this phenomenon, which I'm confident that most Mandarin speaker would agree with me, I see the first reaction by me is that Mandarin is very monosyllabic (and having a low variability in terms of syllable structure), in contrast with Mongolian.
Meanwhile this doesn't mean all Mandarin songs are dull to listen to. There are plenty of them that people find likable, but this one is just not one of them.
Thus comes the question: Does Mandarin vocal music have a tendency to prefer certain rhythmic types in music when text setting, thus to complement the feature (low variability in syllable structure) of its linguistic rhythm? If so, to what extent does this principle apply and to what genres/times? How about other languages? Can we in general find a foundation for the preference of musical rhythm in a certain culture as related to linguistic rhythmic features in similar ways?
In fact, while this might be viewed as an explanation of the link between m/l rhythms, such as proposed by Patel (also touches upon variability index), this is actually counter Patel's argument about English and French, because in his study instrumental music rhythm tends to have the same relative value on nPVI as the linguistic rhythm, keeping them consistent. So this might shed light on how are we going to see the whole picture. Is it possible that the preferred instrumental musical rhythmic type in a given culture is shaped by its linguistic rhythmic feature, where vocal music serves as a medium state? (first have preferred vocal music rhythm that can compliment the linguistic rhythmic feature, then expand to music)?
From this phenomenon, which I'm confident that most Mandarin speaker would agree with me, I see the first reaction by me is that Mandarin is very monosyllabic (and having a low variability in terms of syllable structure), in contrast with Mongolian.
Meanwhile this doesn't mean all Mandarin songs are dull to listen to. There are plenty of them that people find likable, but this one is just not one of them.
Thus comes the question: Does Mandarin vocal music have a tendency to prefer certain rhythmic types in music when text setting, thus to complement the feature (low variability in syllable structure) of its linguistic rhythm? If so, to what extent does this principle apply and to what genres/times? How about other languages? Can we in general find a foundation for the preference of musical rhythm in a certain culture as related to linguistic rhythmic features in similar ways?
In fact, while this might be viewed as an explanation of the link between m/l rhythms, such as proposed by Patel (also touches upon variability index), this is actually counter Patel's argument about English and French, because in his study instrumental music rhythm tends to have the same relative value on nPVI as the linguistic rhythm, keeping them consistent. So this might shed light on how are we going to see the whole picture. Is it possible that the preferred instrumental musical rhythmic type in a given culture is shaped by its linguistic rhythmic feature, where vocal music serves as a medium state? (first have preferred vocal music rhythm that can compliment the linguistic rhythmic feature, then expand to music)?
Meter Perception at Different Tempo
Today we're in Music in Southeast Asia, and this piece came up, which most of us grad students distinctively perceived as duple meter but Ben Pachter argued that it is triple. At first I didn't get it, but then I thought about the Irish fiddle melody, and then I realized this is really triple grouped into a higher level of four beats, so it's triple basically rather than a dotted duple. The tricky thing is that (1) the faster tempo here created the confusion. At a slower tempo (such as French suite) and with the absence of the higher level duple grouping, there is no chance that we can misperceived it. (2)The triplets did not really appear in this example, so the confusion.
There is something here between the interplay of tempo and rhythm perception.
There is something here between the interplay of tempo and rhythm perception.
Identifying Complex Meters
Rules of the process of identifying complex meters (e.g.Middle Eastern music). First step: identifying the level of counting, which can be misleading.If one level doesn't work well, often moving to the next level is a must. Sometimes both levels can work. What are the rules that govern this perception? What are the cues implicitly used in identifying meter?
Minimalism
Minimalist music employs the minimum number of musical elements and builds up the whole piece using the very limited inventory. It is often said that what's interesting here is that what appears to be repetitive actually sounds very different every time you listen. I don't see that. I think it's interesting to manipulate a small amount of parameters to shift very gradually in a low rate. It's kind of like a linguistic continuum:Before you realize it its already so different that you cannot recognize it.
It would be very intriguing to look at the semantic/emotional response out of the minimalist music. It's not cyclical in the sense of gamelan; when I listen to this I think it has the power to freeze my mind, like I'm thinking deeply into something or a memory. When I'm in this state of mind I might also produce such music.What is the link here?
Another point we recently talked about often is that there are so many parameters in music that can actually play a role in the perception of the semantics of the music--or emotional response. No one parameter (such as pitch in major and minor) can do all the trick. The rich relationship here is worth exploring.
It would be very intriguing to look at the semantic/emotional response out of the minimalist music. It's not cyclical in the sense of gamelan; when I listen to this I think it has the power to freeze my mind, like I'm thinking deeply into something or a memory. When I'm in this state of mind I might also produce such music.What is the link here?
Another point we recently talked about often is that there are so many parameters in music that can actually play a role in the perception of the semantics of the music--or emotional response. No one parameter (such as pitch in major and minor) can do all the trick. The rich relationship here is worth exploring.
The Sittaford Mystery
Having gone through all my other Christie collections, such as Destination Unknown;White Horse Hotel; The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; The Body in the Library; The ABC Murders; Partner in Crime; Murder on the Oriental Express; Murder in Mesopotamia; Dumb Witness;Murder under the Sun; Death on the Nile, and so on, I'm not so pleased with the ending of Sittaford. The process of solving the case was very good; Emily and Mr.Enderby was lively portrayed; but the whole table turning business and especially Major Burnaby's motive is not very convincing.
Dinosaur and Human
Today I saw two different relevant information on the history of the earth. One is a book on the origin of language and music, the other saying that "it's official" that the cause of dinosaur's extinction is the asteroid. I felt two things: one, the dinosaur lived on earth for 160million years before it happened;and they were considered one of the dominant species on the planet. Our human have only a few thousand years of recorded history and we sometimes think that we know everything and we are so great. It's way too short, and there is no reason that we should be thinking we're doing good or we're going to do good for long. Second, the whole business of prehistory is hard. I would like to know how evolutionary linguists I read today made this endeavor from speculation to hard science. The dinosaur is the same. Human is too small in the universe and even in the history of earth it is not worth mentioning yet. The future is uncertain. Somehow I have always felt, like Einstein's example of a two dimension cow trying to understand the three dimension world, there is something that human is not capable of understanding. It is simply beyond our understanding because of the scale--we are too small. This includes whether god exists. Don't ever be arrogant; don't think you are sure that you know everything. It's not possible.
Do dreams mean?
Dreaming is a big part of my life---although lucid dreaming is hardly possible for me so far. Yesterday I dreamed i was bathing, a rather uncommon theme in my dream. Then I realized why ancient Chinese people trying to use dreams to predict the future luck---it's all about chances. Most dreams if we do remember, are insignificant---just a reflection of your daily or remote (but deep) experiences. But dreams with a low frequency of appearing is precious. What does that mean then? what is the significance of this uncommon happening? There you go.
I sometimes think that Chinese philosophy has a different way of seeing things. Fengshui is one thing. When one is stuck in some state of mind, rather like "possessed" sometimes than some more scientific terms, but it's kind of cool to think of it in terms of being possessed and fengshui and all that. Sometimes people simply cannot control themselves even on their own behavior, thus came the idea of being controlled temporarily by someone else, some mystical power. It's true that we sometimes don't understand why we cannot control even our own behavior even though we think we can.
It happened to turn out that dreaming of bathing is a very good sign, meaning either healthy or lucky/happy, so I'm glad about it and rather believe it.:)
I sometimes think that Chinese philosophy has a different way of seeing things. Fengshui is one thing. When one is stuck in some state of mind, rather like "possessed" sometimes than some more scientific terms, but it's kind of cool to think of it in terms of being possessed and fengshui and all that. Sometimes people simply cannot control themselves even on their own behavior, thus came the idea of being controlled temporarily by someone else, some mystical power. It's true that we sometimes don't understand why we cannot control even our own behavior even though we think we can.
It happened to turn out that dreaming of bathing is a very good sign, meaning either healthy or lucky/happy, so I'm glad about it and rather believe it.:)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
10 MOST INTRIGUING MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH QUESTIONS:6
6.Music Preference
Recently I met a Chinese traditional Zheng player (18 stringed zither), and we happened to talk about musical preference(what type of music you listen to, etc).What struck me is that she strongly identified that she does not like listening to Chinese traditional music in general or Zheng music in particular, but she does enjoy playing Zheng. In other words, she only enjoys Zheng when she plays it but in her leisure time she never ever want to listen to this type of music in any circumstances (unless she has to learn a new piece and wants to hear others' playing). Instead, she likes listening to popular music of China and does that a lot in her free time.
This also struck me because I feel that I have the same kind of feeling. I played Chinese traditional erhu music since i was 9 years old. In the beginning i really liked it and remember listening to it all the time in my free time. But now (or for quite some years) I have came to be just like her, enjoyed playing very much (especially in an ensemble) but never want to listen to it in any other time for any purposes other than learning. I also do not find myself listening to traditional Chinese music at all at my free time when I can choose my own music.
So what is in this paradox? I think it is more than just a matter of musical preference or musical taste and how it discrete when some one actually produces the music and when some one choose to listen to the music. I think it also has to do with ones familiarity to the music. I think I lost my interest in listening probably partly due to the fact that I have came to play and master virtually all repertoire on the instrument and knew every piece in detail. That way it might have deprived the joy of listening to something when you become so conscious about it. I try to think of another example, such as piano music, and I think i do have a tendency to not want to listen to the pieces that I already mastered. I also remember Nikolaj Znjaider saying that violin has been ruined for him--he can never enjoy and appreciate and respect a recording like listening to a pop song that you like.
But if I want to generalize this it might need further study: does that mean, say, if a musician played some standard repertoire in classical music then s/he would never be able to enjoy listening to it other than when s/he plays? And why is that? Does that say something deeper? Why could s/he still enjoy playing it? When does s/he get tired of that?
People say that one of the characters of music is that you can listen to the same piece of music for a thousand times or for decades and still appreciate it and every time you'll find something new. But is that really the case? if so, to what degree?
Time Management for Graduate Students
Why being a graduate student is so busy, that it is possibly even more busy than many others who have a job? Earn less but more busy? That is actually true. The key to this puzzle lies in the fact that a graduate students have to play so many different roles simultaneously. For instance, a graduate student has to take courses (often heavy-load seminars); teach courses; do research on their own; deal with other career-related activities; other activities. Thus, a graduate student in daytime is a student and a teacher (and a researcher). You think you can have your job done by 5 or 6pm, but hello, if your daytime is filled with going to classes and teaching classes, when do you want to do your homework and do your lesson plans and gradings? Night time is the only answer. Plus you have to research and write papers at night time too. Conclusion: there is no way that you can have a regular evening like normal "job" people do no matter how hard you work during day time. Thus, is time management for graduate students possible? (in order to have a regular "relaxing" period?)
After three years of being a grad student, I figured that out(not the solution but the dilemma). I used to blame my time management skills that I could not have regular night times doing whatever I want to do but have to work hard all the time. But now I know it's impossible. Regular people go to job to complete their task; but we go to classes (either take or give) only to be assigned our task; and that is not even the bigger part of the whole task (research!), so how can we not working after hours?
What should I do?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Shuo, Welcome to the 21st Century
I have been going through a transformation recently. Before 2006, I felt that I was the kind of person who prefers to dig up century old music and books, does not care about what's going on in the real world today. That's why I didn't care about economics or environmental science either. Now it's different.
The reason is complex. Partly I felt being more realistic and practical after being in the US for three years and seeing others going around searching for jobs, which is not the best time. Another reason is tied to my fundamental personal philosophy that makes sense for the change--not being afraid of doing what I want to do, because there is nothing I could lose. I also feel that personal interest and real-life situations, making a good living, are two different things, and one do not necessarily have to live in the bubbles of the dreams and not getting real. I heard that when I told someone once that I wanted to study astronomy physics because it was intriguing. Now i understand how that feels. To get real.
I have been speculating how music can be real: music is everywhere, but why do people say that it's hard for a musician to make a living? It is hard in many cases. I've searched online, library,to get to know music education, music therapy, music and technology, music industry...I want to bring more wonderful music to use to make life better.
DON'T EVER FEAR THAT YOU MIGHT GET LOST DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. A simple idea is all it begins with. Simple Ideas matter. As long as you go for it, and do not afraid of lose. Because all success come after failure. And it takes time.
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