Kinkaku-ji

What an amazing and memorable Historical Site, it has been my wallpaper for a long time. Golden building seems more valuable and mysterious, just like the secret. I think Japanese keep this site well, and preserve it from the unwitting disaster. The peaceful lake elegantly fuses the inverted image and the environment.

Varese Sarabande 25th Anniversary Celebration

經過一連串的收集電影配樂以及閱讀了大量的文獻, 比較確定了研究方向將邁向電影配樂的情緒與語意分析來進行了, 最近買了這張唱片, 發現裡面有好多電影都是未曾看過的, 以後也可能沒有太多時間去看, 不過絲毫卻不影響我對於他們的表面理解, 透過短短的主題, 至少我可能推測出來一些電影情節的蛛絲馬跡, 對於這樣的推測, 我仍覺得相當有趣, 畢竟我們已經不經意地聽了太多的音樂, 這個社會已經植入了大量的訊息在我們腦裡, 無論是喜歡或是不喜歡, 我們都已經是如此, 以後只會更加複雜.

So Cute!

姑姑和 Uncle 在 Santa Cruz 的玩樂畫面! 超可愛的小鬼...

Topics

Project 的 Title 遲遲未能決定, 因此方向也不能夠很明確的鋪陳出來, 還記得大三下第一次開始研究的心情, 那時候什麼都不會, 所以會有初生之犢不畏虎的膽識. 一路也懵懵懂懂地理出了一番頭緒. 如今, 見識過了相當多卓越的研究, 也漸漸地明瞭自己的本領, 對於提計畫的焦慮不減反增, 過往的經驗反而成了一個絆腳石. 而且會常常陷入一種迷思, 我做研究究竟是為了什麼, 能對人類帶來多少幫助? 我如果領了經費, 能否不愧撥錢給我的單位嗎? 越想越多, 於是就卡住了, 上腦果然是很要不得的.

Nightmarket 2007

夜市, 我們所創造的叢林, 讓置身其中的一切, 有了截然不同的聽覺體驗. 鬧哄哄的夜市喧鬧, 迴盪不已的自身耳語, 都是新鮮的一次感官歷程. 五花大綁的裝置藝術, 隧道提供了絕佳的擺設條件, 讓等待釋放的聲波, 享受無比自由的碰撞. 作品與士涵, 仲理, 珮茵, 芷瑄一同完成, 也獲得台灣國際兒童電視影展負責人王耿瑜邀請參加明年的影展. 檔期相當尷尬...不過仍然值得期待~

MMM 2008

"Probabilistic Estimation of a Novel Music Emotion Model" is my new accepted paper and will be presented in the 14 th International MultiMedia Modeling Conference @ Kyoto, Japan, on 9~11, January 2008. I believe I will hold this chance to contribute my idea on topic "Music and Emotion" in this conference.

尚青春否?

搜尋電影配樂文章的同時, 偶然看到這篇文字特別有感觸, 而且網頁的配樂是情書
http://blog.pixnet.net/kytu/post/1942176 順道拿出了電影重新咀嚼一番, 戴了好的耳機, 電影裡的未曾察覺的聲響格外逼真, 校園電影就是有青春的魅力, 如同不能說的祕密一番, 逝往的情懷總是詩篇般地美, 這半年來, 親眼目睹了兩個年輕人的發光發熱, 而我卻是停留在原地許久許久
我, 很想用力, 心卻無法提起精神, 是憂鬱了吧, 是憂鬱了吧, 是憂鬱了吧,那種無間道的惡循環心情, 每天每夜似乎沒有什麼不同的罪惡感受揮之不去, 以前總是滿滿的行程, 那種陽光般的精彩, 就像印和闐的魔力被馬車奪去般, 巴不得回到那個沒有犯錯的時間點, 讓每日在沙發上疲憊睡去的淚痕能拭去, 巴不能回到那個沒有暖化的, 沒有汽機車的, 沒有電腦網路的, 沒有謾罵的, 沒有利害衝突的, 沒有第四台的, 沒有數不盡的表面進步的, 姑姑寄了張我小時後的照片給我, 真愛這種泛黃的美感, 一下拉的好遠好遠.距離遠了，心也遠了，然而，唯一不變的是偶而想起。時空的魔力, 還有後續的威力, 持續上演中, 誰也無法避免年華老去. 重要的是, 這個曾經存在過的靈魂, 有沒有讓他自己曾經深信不疑過自己.

Amazing Kenting!

Secret

不能說的秘密, 心情其實錯綜了那個寒假的臨演, 過去幾年的懵懂回憶, 暑假兩訪淡水的遊歷...
還有對於周董才華的羨慕, 黃秋生的演技及尊敬, 杜篤之的配音與後製, 當然...第二女主角很可愛...親自見證了一個明日之星的崛起...

Gödel's friendship with Einstein

Gödel had a most distinguished coach for his citizenship exam: Albert Einstein, who had earlier earned his own citizenship and who was concerned that his friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his chances. Einstein accompanied Gödel to the hearing. To everyone's consternation, Gödel suddenly informed the presiding judge that he had discovered a way in which a dictatorship could be legally installed in the United States, through a logical contradiction in the U.S. Constitution. Fortunately, the judge, who was apparently a very patient person, took this in good part and awarded Gödel his citizenship. (See [1][2] .)Einstein and Gödel had a legendary friendship, shared in the walks they took together to and from the Institute for Advanced Studies. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely…to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel". (Rebecca Goldstein, ISBN 0393051692, p 33)

Atrabilious

1 : given to or marked by melancholy : gloomy
*2 : ill-natured, peevish

"Atrabilious" is a somewhat rare word with a history that parallels that of the more common "melancholy." Representing one of the four bodily humors, from which it was once believed that human emotions originated, "atrabilious" derives from the Latin "atra bilis," literally meaning "black bile." The word "melancholy" derives from the Greek "melan-" and "chole," which also translates as "black bile." In its original sense, "atrabilious" meant "melancholy," but now it is more frequently used to describe someone with an irritable or unfriendly temperament. A word with a meaning similar to that of "atrabilious" is "splenetic," which is named after the organ in the body (the spleen) once thought to secrete black bile.

Performance listening

When performers listen to works that are part of their own repertoire, they may experience a form of vicarious performance. For conductors, instrumentalists, and vocalists, arms, fingers, and vocal cords may subliminally re-create the gestures and performance actions involved during actual performance. In such cases, listening may be mediated by an acute awareness of the listener's body. For example, musical passages that are difficult to execute may evoke a heightened sense of tension -- whether or not the sonic gesture conveys some musical tension.

Kinesthetic listening

This form of listening is characterized by the auditor's compulsion to move. Feet may tap, hands may conduct, or the listener may feel the urge to dance. The experience is not so much one of `listening' to the music, as the music `permeating' the body. Kinesthetic listening is best described as `motivation' rather than `contemplation'.

Emotional listening

Emotional listening is characterized by deeply felt emotion. The music engenders feels of sorrow or joy, resignation, great satisfaction. Occasionally there will be overt signs of emotion, such as the sensation of a lump in one's throat, imminent or overt weeping, or smiling. The emotions may be related to current events in the listener's life, but the feelings are more apt to seem non-specific and to arise `from nowhere'.

Ecstatic listening

The term `ecstatic listening' is meant here in a very concrete and technical way. On occasion music will elicit a sensation of "shivers" localized in the back, neck and shoulders of an aroused listener -- a physiological response technically called frisson. The frisson experience normally has a duration of no more than four or five seconds. It begins as a flexing of the skin in the lower back, rising upward, inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and sometimes across to the cheeks and onto the scalp. The face may become flush, hair follicles flex the hairs into standing position, and goose bumps may appear (piloerection). Frequently, a series of `waves' will rise up the back in rapid succession. The listener feels the music to have elicited an ecstatic moment and tends to regard the experience as involuntary. Goldstein (1980) has shown that some listeners report reduced excitement when under a clinically-administered dose of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone -- suggesting that music engenders endogenous opioid peptides characteristic of pleasurable experiences. Sloboda (1991) has found evidence linking "shivers" responses to works especially loved by subjects.

Distance listening

Distance listening is characterized by an ongoing iterative recapitulation of the music up to the current moment in the work. As the music unfolds, the listener attempts to thread together past events and to build a complete scenario or over-view of the entire work. The distance listener is apt to make mental notes of the advent of new "sections" in the work. Distance listening may be likened to the task of memorizing a list of words. Beginning with a few words, the memorized words are iteratively repeated, each time adding a new word to the memorized list.

Directed listening

Directed listening entails a form of selective attention to one element of a complex texture; the listener purposely excludes or ignores other aspects of the music. For example, the auditor may attend to a single instrument for a short or prolonged period of time. Directed listening may ensue as a result of a listener's special interest, or may result from suggestions made by others. When a listener is concurrently viewing a notated score, it is possible that a visual attraction or interest in a particular aspect of a score may cause the listener to selectively attend to the corresponding sounds. The Norton Scores use a highlighting method to draw attention to various parts in orchestral scores. These scores thus dispose listeners to adopt a directed listening mode.

Memory scann listening

When an auditor knows a work by memory, a special type of signal listening called scan listening is possible. An auditor may approach a memorized work with a question concerning the occurrence of a certain event: For example, the auditor may be interested in knowing whether the composer has used timpani in a given work; or does the word "but" occur in the lyrics to "Row Row Row Your Boat?" The scan listener will mentally execute a speedy rendition of a work in order to answer a given question. What distinguishes scan listening from signal listening is that the auditor tends to be impatient: the tempo of the music can be doubled or quadrupled to advantage for the scan listener.

Innovation listening

A variant form of allusive listening is one based, not upon the recognition of similarities to previous compositions, but upon the identification of significant musical novelty. Innovation listening is characterized by a vigilant listening-in-readiness for a musical feature, gesture, or technique that is unprecedented in the listener's experience. Composers may be especially prone to engage in innovation listening.

Feature listening

This type of listening is characterized by the listener's disposition to identify major "features" that occur in the work -- such as motifs, distinctive rhythms, instrumentation, etc. The listener identifies the recurrence of such features, and also identifies the evolutions or changes which the features undergo. The "feature listening" mode may be considered superficially to be a creative union of two other listening modes: retentive listening (identification and remembrance of features), and signal listening (recognition of previously occurring features).

Fault listening

Fault listening occurs where the listener is mentally keeping a leger of faults or problems. A high-fidelity buff may note problems in sound reproduction. A conservatory teacher may note mistakes in execution, problems of intonation, ensemble balance, phrasing, etc. A composer is apt to identify what might be considered lapses of skill or instances of poor musical judgment. Fault listening tends to be adopted as a strategy under three circumstances: 1) where an obvious fault has occurred, the listener switches from a previous listening mode and becomes vigilant for the occurrence of more faults (this is a type of signal listening); 2) where the role of the listener is necessarily critical -- as in tutors, conductors, or music critics; or 3) where the listener has some a priori reason to mistrust the skill or integrity of the composer, performer, conductor, audio system, etc.

Retentive listening

The goal of "retentive listening" is to remember what is being heard. Retentive listening is most commonly encountered when music students perform ear training or dictation exercises. Unlike many other modes of listening, retentive listening is very much a problem-solving behavior. A composer in the process of improvising might use retentive listening skills to recall a fleeting passage or an appealing juxtaposition of notes.

Identity listening

A listener engaged in asking any "what is" question regarding the music is engaged in what might be called "identity listening." Typical "what is" questions are: What is this instrument I am listening to? Is that a Neapolitan sixth chord? What is the meter signature? What language are the lyrics in? Who might the composer be? What is the style of this music called? etc. Identity listening often employs allusive listening as a problem-solving tactic.

Reminiscent listening

In reminiscent listening, music serves to remind the auditor of past experiences or circumstances in which the music was previously heard or encountered. The reminiscent listener's primary focus of attention is on the remembrance of past events -- or more particularly, on the remembrance of emotions experienced in conjunction with the past events.

Allusive listening

Allusive listening may be said to occur where a listener relates moments or features of the music to similar moments or features in other musical works. (`This reminds me of a passage in Bartók ...'). Allusive listening may be viewed as a form of referential listening in which the referential connection is made to the domain of music itself. Philip Tagg (1979) has made extensive use of allusive listening as a tool for studying musical meaning. Tagg has created musical "dictionaries" by asking listeners to construct lists of musical works of which a given work reminds them.

Programmatic listening

While listening to music, many listeners imagine certain situations or visualize certain scenes -- such as rolling waves, mountain vistas, city streets, and so forth. In programmatic listening the listening experience is dominated by such forms of non-musical referentiality. Musical works that are overtly programmatic in construction may be assumed to enhance or promote such a listening mode. However, programmatic listening may arise even in the case of ostensibly non-programmatic works.

Lyric listening

In music containing a vocal text, a listener may pay special attention to "catching" the lyrics and attending to their meaning. Lyric listening is possible only when the music contains lyrics in a language which is understood by the listener. Where the lyrics of a work are well known to a listener, the lyrics themselves may act as mnemonics for a form of "sing-along listening."

Sing-along listening

This form of listening is characterized by the listener mentally "singing-along" with the music. This mode of listening presupposes that the listener is already familiar with the work. Distinctive of this listening mode is a highly linear conception of the work in which a replay of memory is synchronized with an actual rendition. The listener's behavior is not unlike that of a recording which, when started at any given point in the music, can continue forward to the end of the work. Where a work is particularly well known to a listener, sing-along listening may occur as a purely mental activity without the mnemonic assistance of an actual performance.

Signal listening

Truax coined the term "listening-in-readiness" to denote the state of a listener waiting for some expected auditory event. E.g., rather than laboriously count hundreds of bars of rest, a percussionist may recognize a certain musical passage as a cue or "alarm" -- signaling the need to prepare to perform. In effect, the music is heard in terms of a set of signals or sign-posts. Similarly, a dance couple may wait for a dance tune with a desired tempo before proceeding on to the dance floor. A more sophisticated example of signal listening occurs when listening to a work known or assumed to be in sonata-allegro form; the listener will wait for features in the music that signal the advent of the next structural division, such as the advent of the development section, or the beginning of the second theme in the recapitulation.

Metaphysical listening

Metaphysical listening is also similar to distracted listening insofar as the listener may not be especially attentive to the on-going perceptual experience. But the listener may be engaged in thinking about questions of some importance related to the work, such as: what motivated the composer to write this work? what does this music mean? why do I find this work so appealing? etc.

Tangential listening

Tangential listening is similar to distracted listening except that the listener is engaged in thought whose origin can be traced to the music, but the thought is largely tangential to the perceptual experience itself. An auditor is engaged in tangential listening when preoccupied with thoughts such as: why did the concert organizers program me this work? Isn't that the oboist who played at the last chamber music concert? I wonder how much money the guest artist makes in a year? Tangential listening behaviors may occasionally approach what might be called metaphysical listening:

Distracted listening

Distracted listening occurs where the listener pays no conscious attention whatsoever to the music. Typically, the listener is occupied with other tasks, and may even be unaware of the existence of the music.

Preface of I am a strange loop

看來, 我的閱讀能力, 特別是英文理解, 需要靠這兩本書綠皮+藍皮洗鍊一番了. 褪去書皮, 綠皮書意指 - I am a strange loop. 藍皮書 - The Emotion Machine. Douglas Richard Hofstadter 用字相當精鍊, 非 Native Speaker 尚待捉摸. Preface 提到了他的童年經歷, 妹妹的失語, 間接讓他開始接觸大腦方面的理論. 還有提到了他崇敬的 Kurt Godel 對他後設數學 (Meta-) 的影響力, 以及程式寫作. 年輕時在 Stanford 地下室操作唯一的電腦, Burroughs 220, 思索巨大電子腦的意識. 對於 I, 我, 或稱意識 (consciousness), 被認為是一個海市蜃樓的概念. 1980 年, Godel, Escher, Bach, 必選為普立茲非文學類的首獎, 一種新文體誕生. 然而, 雖然書很成功, 但對於大眾不能領略他在書中的言外之意, 感到有些遺憾. 2003, Ken Williford 與 Uriah Kriegel 邀請參與寫作意識的自我指涉理論的篇章. 當時寫作對象是對心智有興趣的哲學家, 這次的對象則是全民眾, 從逗趣圖片可推敲. Strange Loop, 意指 self-referential (自我指涉) 的結構, 是本書闡述的要義. selves and souls, 也可能是其中的 loops, 也包括現在與回憶, 類比與思考, 與翻譯. 驚!!! 28 歲就寫完了 GEB 的草稿...28 歲...28 歲...28 歲... 雖然我還沒能精確掌握他的內文, 心是充滿期待的, 兩位大師的原文作品, 不可錯過. 每逢勞心的夜晚, 挑個幾頁來查照生字, 放在心裡醞釀一番, 相信是有收穫的. 沙拉寶庫般的隱喻與類比, 日常生活中雋永的小道理, 讓我們更著迷於我們自身.

Sinking

I like this figure, which reveals the finite boundary of this globe. Color may be the most favorite part, gradually changing from orange to dark. Day is transiting to night.

Still

Rock Climbing

Rock climbing, broadly speaking, is the act of ascending steep rock formations. Normally, climbers use gear and safety equipment specifically designed for the purpose. Strength, endurance, and mental control are required to cope with tough, dangerous physical challenges, and knowledge of climbing techniques and the use of essential pieces of gear and equipment are crucial. Although rock climbing is an outdoor activity, many cities are home to indoor rock climbing gyms which can be formatted to match the physical (but not necessarily mental or technical) skill level needed for outdoor climbing.

Euphemism

the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant; also : the expression so substituted

Example sentence:
Aunt Helen would never say that someone had "died"; she preferred to communicate the unpleasant news with euphemisms like "passed on."

Did you know?
"Euphemism" derives from the Greek word "euphēmos," which means "auspicious" or "sounding good." The first part of "euphēmos" is the Greek prefix "eu-," meaning "well." The second part is "phēmē," a Greek word for "speech" that is itself a derivative of the verb "phanai," meaning "to speak." Among the numerous linguistic cousins of "euphemism" on the "eu-" side of the family are "eulogy," "euphoria," and "euthanasia"; on the "phanai" side, its kin include "prophet" and "aphasia" ("loss of the power to understand words").

委婉語，英文叫Euphemism。 (文章允許轉貼，請具作者名字：梁煥松)
越發展得成熟的文化，豐富多彩的語言，委婉語必定越多。就是因為種種的原因，不把意思講明白，而要用另一個含蓄的說法。中文的委婉語 ，一說出來，大家必會說：哦！我明白啦！ 例如中國人很怕把「死」字直接講出來，於是有「去世」、「逝世」、「仙遊」、「往生」、「歸西」，廣東話有「去左」、「過身」、「唔係度」等等。
又如不想把某些形容詞直接講出來，恐怕使人難受，如：
把「盲」說成「失明」；把「聾」說成「失聰」；把「跛」說成「不良於行」； 或近年大陸把「失業」說為「下崗」等等。英文中也有很多的委婉語(Euphemism)，尤其是近年的講究Non-discriminatory(不帶歧視色彩) 的語言，經過傳媒和廣告撰稿人的加鹽加醋，以及注重政治正確(Political Correctness)的公務人員的「潤色」，更是五花八門，例如：

形容聾人，不說Deaf，說Hearing-impaired (聽覺有障礙)；形容窮人，不說Poor，說Disadvantaged (得不到好處)；形容二手貨，不說Second-hand ，說 Pre-loved(曾經有人愛過)；形容性別，不說Sex(男性、女性的「性」)，說 Gender(文法中，名詞的陽性和陰性「性」)；形容貨品便宜，不說Cheap(使購買者「自我感覺不好」)，說 Affordable(易於負擔)等等。

但我覺得有時做得太過份了！請看一個Lame(跛)字，越說越隱晦和累贅，有以下的「發展史」：lame → crippled → handicapped → disabled → differently-abled
最後一個differently-abled，簡直是爛英文之尤。

有關委婉語，可參考下面的詳細資料：

Camarilla

a group of unofficial often secret and scheming advisers; also : cabal

Example sentence:
A resistance group has sprung up and is plotting to overthrow the tyrant leader and his camarilla.

Did you know?
"Camarilla" is borrowed from Spanish and is the diminutive of "cámara," which traces to the Late Latin "camera" and means "room"; a "camarilla," then, is literally a "small room." Political cliques and plotters are likely to meet in small rooms (generally with the door closed) as they hatch their schemes, and, by 1834, "camarilla" was being used in English for such closed-door groups of scheming advisers. The word is relatively rare in formal English prose, but it still finds occasional use in news stories. Some other descendants of the Latin "camera" include "camera," "comrade, " "camaraderie," and "bicameral."

Newton's Rings

The phenomenon of Newton's rings, named after Isaac Newton, is an interference pattern caused by the reflection of light between two surfaces - a spherical surface and an adjacent flat surface. When viewed with a monochromatic light it appears as a series of concentric, alternating light and dark rings centered at the point of contact between the two surfaces. When viewed with white light, it forms a concentric ring pattern of rainbow colors because the different wavelengths of light interfere at different thicknesses of the air layer between the surfaces. The light rings are caused by constructive interference between the light rays reflected from both surfaces, while the dark rings are caused by destructive interference. Also, the outer rings are spaced more closely than the inner ones. Moving outwards from one dark ring to the next, for example, increases the path difference by the same amount λ, corresponding to the same increase of thickness of the air layer λ/2. Since the slope of the lens surface increases outwards, separation of the rings gets smaller for the outer rings.

eBoy

eBoy ("Godfathers of Pixel") is a pixel art group founded in 1998 by Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital, Kai Vermehr. Based in Berlin, Eboy's founders collaborate with Peter Stemmler in New York to produce graphic design work for companies.

Their work makes intense use of popular culture and commercial icons, and their style is presented in three-dimensional isometric illustrations filled with robots, cars, guns and girls. Their unique style has gained them a cult following among graphic designers worldwide, as well as a long list of commercial clients.

eBoy has worked with named brands and companies such as Coca-Cola, MTV, VH1 and Adidas, plus many more.

• eBoy - Official website
• eBoy's famous London poster

Gabor Filter

A Gabor filter is a linear filter whose impulse response is defined by a harmonic function multiplied by a Gaussian function. Because of the multiplication-convolution property, the Fourier transform of a Gabor filter's impulse response is the convolution of the Fourier transform of the harmonic function and the Fourier transform of the Gaussian functionwhere

and

In this equation, λ represents the wavelength of the cosine factor, θ represents the orientation of the normal to the parallel stripes of a Gabor function in degrees, ψ is the phase offset in degrees, and γ is the spatial aspect ratio, and specifies the ellipticity of the support of the Gabor function.

Gabor filters are directly related to Gabor wavelets, since they can be designed for number of dilations and rotations. However, in general, expansion is not applied for Gabor wavelets, since this requires computation of biorthogonal wavelets, which may be very time-consuming. Therefore, usually, a filter bank consisting of Gabor filters with various scales and rotations is created. The filters are convolved with the signal, resulting in a so-called Gabor space. This process is closely related to processes in the primary visual cortex. The Gabor space is very useful in e.g., image processing applications such as iris recognition. Relations between activations for a specific spatial location are very distinctive between objects in an image. Furthermore, important activations can be extracted from the Gabor space in order to create a sparse object representation.

Why Drop or Stick?

A random walk, sometimes called a "drunkard's walk," is a formalization in mathematics, computer science, and physics of the intuitive idea of taking successive steps, each in a random direction. For example, the path traced by a molecule as it travels in a liquid or a gas is a random walk.

Chance, or the word random is used to express lack of purpose, cause, order, or predictability in non-scientific parlance. A random process is a repeating process whose outcomes follow no describable deterministic pattern, but follow a probability distribution. The term randomness is often used in statistics to signify well defined statistical properties, such as lack of bias or correlation.

這些不帶動機的水珠，朦朧黃昏下發出閃耀光芒，多麼像是大自然賞賜給人類的美麗小水鑽，一串又一串縈繞在我心頭，她的美麗…讓我目瞪口呆、不知所措，儘管，落下是最終的命運，動盪於風中的，緊繫欄杆的，確又那麼地像人生，在抓著與放下間，呼吸著

Hedgehog's Dilemma

The hedgehog's dilemma states that the closer two beings come to each other, the more likely they are to hurt one another; however if they remain apart, they will each feel the pain of loneliness. This comes from the idea that hedgehogs, with sharp spines on their backs, will hurt each other if they get too close. This is analogous to a relationship between two human beings. If two people come to care about and trust each other, something bad that happens to one of them will hurt the other as well, and dishonesty between the two could cause even greater problems.

很害怕暴露出自己最深入的一面，每每若無其事避重就輕、或就捲縮畏藏，卻又在單獨時希望有人瞭解自己

Group-dynamic game

Group-dynamic games are experiential education exercises which help people to learn about themselves, interpersonal relationships, and how groups function from a group dynamics or social psychological point of view.

Group dynamics can be understood as complex from an interpersonal relationships point of view because it involves:

• relationships between two people
• relationships between a person and a group
• relationships between groups

Group-dynamic games are usually designed for the specific purpose of furthering personal development, character building, and teamwork via a Group-dynamic milieu. The group leader may sometimes also be the game leader, or between peers, the leadership and game-rules can change.

Some games require large spaces, special objects and tools, quietness or many before-game and after-game needs. When aged, frail or disabled people ("special needs") are involved, existing games may need modification to be used.

The use of group dynamic activities has a history of application in conflict resolution, anger management and team building and many other areas such as drug rehabilitation and drama therapy.

Temerity

: unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger or opposition : rashness, recklessness

Example sentence:
The official was thrown into jail for having the temerity to publicly disagree with the dictator.

Did you know?
When it comes to flagrant boldness, "temerity," "audacity," "hardihood," and "effrontery" have the cheek to get your meaning across. Of those synonyms, "temerity" (from the Latin "temere," meaning "blindly" or "recklessly") suggests boldness arising from contempt of danger, while "audacity" implies a disregard of the restraints commonly imposed by convention or prudence. "Hardihood" implies firmness in daring and defiance, and "effrontery" suggests a shameless disregard of propriety and courtesy. If you're looking for a more informal term for a brash attitude, you might consider "nerve," "cheek," "gall," or "chutzpah."

John Barleycorn

: alcoholic liquor personified

Example sentence:
"Eureka was, after all, the last home of Carry Nation, that ax-wielding foe of John Barleycorn, Demon Rum and all their evil ilk." (Charles Allbright, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, November 19, 2003)

Did you know?
"Inspiring bold John Barleycorn! / What dangers thou canst make us scorn!" Robert Burns wasn't the first to use "John Barleycorn" as a personification of liquor when he penned those lines in his poem Tam O'Shanter in the late 1700s. The term had been part of English vernacular for more than 150 years before Burns's heyday, but the poet played a key role in popularizing it by carrying it into literature. "Barleycorn" undoubtedly became part of that euphemism for alcohol because barleycorns (that is, grains of barley) are a key ingredient in malt liquor. And "John" has long been used as a generic name or personifier in English.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

Mythomania

: an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating

Example sentence:
The therapist speculated that Sharon's mythomania, which makes her want to embellish even the most minor details of her life, may have been triggered by a specific event.

Did you know?

We wouldn't lie to you about the history of "mythomania." It comes from two ancient roots, the Greek "mythos" (meaning "myth") and the Late Latin "mania" (meaning "insanity marked by uncontrolled emotion or excitement"). One myth about "mythomania" is that it's a very old word; actually, the earliest known uses of the term date only from the beginning of the 20th century. It was predated by a related word, "mythomaniac," which appeared around the middle of the 19th century. "Mythomaniac" initially referred to someone who was obsessed with or passionate about myths but was eventually used for individuals affected with or exhibiting mythomania.

World Music

World music is, most generally, all the music in the world.^[1] More specifically, the term is currently used to classify the many genres of non-Western music which were previously described as "folk music" or "ethnic music". However, "world music" does not have to mean traditional folk music, it may refer to the indigenous classical forms of various regions of the world, and to modern, cutting edge pop music styles as well. Succinctly, it can be described as "local music from out there",^[2] or "someone else's local music".^[3]

Music from around the world exerts wide cross-cultural influence as styles naturally influence one another, and in recent years "world music" has also been marketed as a successful genre in itself. Academic study of world music, as well as the musical genres and individual artists with which it has been associated, can be found in such disciplines as anthropology, Folkloristics, Performance Studies and ethnomusicology.