The Fifth Generation - book!!

I finally completed reading this book titled 'The Fifth Generation' by Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck. I have been reading this book since a long time. It is about the fifth generation project that was launched by Japan in early 1980's. The project was to come up with a new generation of computer systems which were extremely fast as well as intelligent. It was designed to be a 10 year project with lot of funds assigned to it by the government of Japan. The idea was for Japan to make a strong position for itself in the computer world. The book talks about this whole project in detail, the fifth generation conference that was held to declare to the world about this project, and how various countries reacted to it. It talks in detail about how skeptic US was and a group of people motivated by this project who felt that US needs to respond to this challenge and in turn start working on it.

Eventually at the end of the 10-year period this project failed and had to be canceled. Of course the book does not talk about that as it was written while this project was in progress. The authors give details about research in the area of Artificial Intelligence at that point of time and all the logistics involved in getting funded for various research projects. It showed the perspectives of different countries towards research. The main idea was that in US a research project was considered important enough to be funded if it had applications for the defense department. Some parts of the book gets boring, but other parts of it had interesting and useful information. Good read for one who is interested in computer science research and especially for one who wants to know the history of Artificial Intelligence research.

Bread Upma and Mint Lassi !!

Today I am going to write on how to make 'Bread Upma' which is actually my husband's recipe - a quick and tasty snack or possibly even a meal. Along with it is the drink 'Mint Lassi'. I first got to taste mint lassi back in India when a neighbor of my parents offered it to me. I had never heard of it before and loved the taste. I got the recipe from her right away.

MINT LASSI

Ingredients: (for 2 glasses of Lassi)
Mint leaves (1/4 bunch)
Cilantro leaves (1/4 bunch)
Grated Ginger (1/4 teaspoon)
Green Chilli (1 small)
Yogurt (2 cups)
Water (1/2 cup or adjust according to the consistency desired)
Salt (1/2 teaspoon or as per your taste)

Preparation:
Make a fine paste of the mint leaves, cilantro leaves, ginger and chilli. Add the yogurt, water and salt and blend the mixture (Add ice cubes if you like). The lassi is ready.


BREAD UPMA

Ingredients: (serves 2-3)
Onion (1 medium size)
Tomatoes (2 medium size)
Green Chillies (3)
Grated Ginger (1/2 teaspoon)
Mustard seeds (1 teaspoon)
Jeera (1 teaspoon)
Oil (3 tablespoons)
Tomato puree (1 cup)
Bread slices (10) - wheat bread also should be fine, but tastes slightly better with white bread
Cilantro leaves (garnish)
Salt (3 teaspoons or as per your taste)
Lemon juice (2 tablespoons)
Corriander powder (1 teaspoon)
Turmeric powder (1/2 teaspoon)
Red Chilli powder (1/2 teaspoon)
Cumin powder (1/2 teaspoon)

Prepartion:
1. Toast the bread slices and cut them into small cubes (say 9 cubes per slice)
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard and jeera. Once they are fried, add chillies and ginger and fry. Then add the onions and fry until golden brown. Then add the tomatoes and continue to saute.
3. After the tomatoes are cooked well, add the tomato puree and let it cook for a few mintues. Then add the turmeric powder, corriander powder, red chiili powder, and cumin powder and mix well.
4. (Optional) For enhanced taste you can add about 4 tablespoons of the mint-cilantro-ginger-chilli paste from the above (Mint Lassi) recipe.
5. Add the bread cubes and mix well so that the onion-tomato paste gets onto all of the cubes.
6. Take off from the stove, add lemon juice and garnish with cilantro leaves and your dish is ready.

"Get Motivated" - Seminar!!

I attended the "Get Motivated" seminar last Tuesday in Dallas. A friend from my Toastmasters club told me about it. She had a couple of extra tickets she was giving away. I am so thankful to her for telling me about this seminar as I had an awesome experience there. The seminar had very renowned speakers like Zig Ziglar, Gen. Colin Powell, Coach Avery Johnson, and many others who spoke about various aspects of life.



The seminar started at 9:00am and went on till 5:30pm with a one hour lunch break. The seminar was held at the Reunion Arena and about 12000 people attended. We reached there about 15-20 minutes late, and when we entered the arena it was an overwhelming experience to see so many people - cheering and listening to the speaker who was on the center stage. After that we had excellent speakers one after the other all day and I came back home completely charged up. There are a number of different ways people get motivated. Listening to such speakers definitely motivates me a lot, of course I have to continuously work on it, else the effect starts fading out. At the gate we received a workbook which had articles by the 'Get Motivated' organization and the gist of what each speaker was going to talk about with space for notes. At the end of the seminar we also got a motivational DVD which had a talk by Zig Ziglar and Krish Dhanam.

We missed most part of the first speaker. Then came Brian Tracy, a leading expert on sales. He spoke all about sales and how to master it. One didn't have to be a salesman to find his talk useful. He showed how every aspect of life is actually a sale, whether it is convincing our kids to do something or putting an idea across the table at work. He spoke about the key principles/skills needed for sales negotiation. He motivated everyone to think of ourselves as the 'presidents of our lives' and hence are responsible for every aspect of our life. The next speaker was Bryan Flanagan who is a training expert. He spoke about the different stages of growth and figuring out which stage each of us are in. He also spoke about different categories or kinds of people(Bold, Expressive, Sensitive, and Technical) . Understanding these categories and behaving accordingly in our interactions with others would yield better results. The first thing he mentioned during his speech was Toastmasters clubs and how it helped him when he started out in his career. That was a great encouragement, especially as it was coming from an established speaker like him. Gen. Colin Powell, our former secretary of state spoke about core-values and sticking to them. He spoke about his life experiences, and his thoughts on immigration. It was a great pleasure listening to him speak. Phil Town, a financial expert spoke about the stock market and gave us a quick and simple tutorial on stock investment. It was a very informative session. I was never interested in the stock investments earlier, but now I have a new found interest.



Goldie Hawn, actress, oscar winner, and comedian spoke about being happy. Her speech was an entertaining and funny one. She motivated everyone on doing things that make us happy. Fame, fortune, success, or money need not make one happy. But knowing what is important for us in life and acting accordingly is what will make one happy.



Then of course there was Zig Ziglar who is known as the master of motivation. His speech was centered around living a balanced life. It is wonderful to see a person at the age of 80, so enthusiastic and energetic. His key message was that "if everything at home is fine, then life remains good!!". Then we had other speakers such as Peter Lowe, the person behind these seminars, Keith Craft who spoke on Leadership Capacity, and Bill Bartmann who is a self-made billionaire who spoke about the secrets of success.



During the break there was a small question-answer session with the Cowboys quarterack -Tony Romo and of course the audience cheered the most for him. There was short performance by this year's America's Got Talent winner - Terry Fator.



Finally the seminar ended with my most favorite speaker Avery Johnson - Mavericks team coach. He spoke about the qualities needed to win. His key point was to be excited and enthusiastic each and every day in life. If we are the enthusiastic person in a team, in the family, at work, in a club, or any organization, we automatically pass on the enthusiasm to everyone else around us. It helps us as an individual in getting where we want to be. I am out of words to express what an excellent speaker he is. He knows how to charge-up people. Now I know what it takes to coach a basketball team and motivate them each and every day.

On the whole an excellent seminar, absolutely worth going to if you get a chance. The tickets are also very reasonably priced with the group discounts.
Here's a link to their website: http://www.getmotivated.com
I hope I stay motivated!!!