My Therapy for Insomnia

The past few weeks have nearly turned me into an insomniac. In a bid to finish my assignments after long hours of work, I've had some four tough weeks of late nights. I can safely say that I haven't slept before half-past-one (a.m.) during this time. And along with me, everyone else around me also felt it too. Late nights mixed with early mornings can be a nasty cocktail with a bad hangover and results in an overall bad attitude. So its a habit I wanted to break by trying different things. I decided to work out a bit more than usual so that I could be tired and flop to bed by eight. I kicked the habit of drinking a small cup of instant coffee after six in the evening (oh how I miss that cuppa!). I also kicked the habit of eating an apple as some health article said that an apple might not be able to keep the doctor away but it surely keeps you awake like any caffeinated beverage. I even tried to listen to late night radio in order to doze off listening to good music (I discovered that these radio channels play some good songs during that time). But none of these seemed to work. Finally, before it got worse, just as I was about to resort to some form of medical treatment, I remembered that there was a better way. And that was listening to my iPod before going to bed. To be precise, listening to an audiobook on my iPod before going to bed.

I had downloaded 21 chapters of a novel "Murder in the Gunroom" by H. Beam Piper from librivox.org (legally) about eight months back. However, I never had a chance to go through the entire story. No matter how many times I decided to finish it, I was never successful. Once I started listening to one of the chapters, I'd doze off midway. I might have listened to Chapter 12 at least 15 times (or maybe more. I've lost count), but so far have not been able to get past it. To give full credit to the readers, they have done a nice job and I'd love to sit through the entire story. Even the story is not bad. However, those readers also have some hypnotic quality in their voice that gradually lulls you into sleep. Nice. So I decided to give this a try again. I knew that if this didn't work nothing would. And I was not disappointed. I still don't know who the murderer is but the therapy is working like a charm. Now I have gone back to my 11:30 p.m. schedule. And I am yet to go beyond Chapter 12. Feels much better now. So if you are not able to sleep and want a cure, give it a try. Time for my powernap. Until next time, ciao.

Marketing Satisfaction

Last week came with some good news. I cleared my Strategic Marketing course with a Satisfactory grade. Considering the fact that my Marketing skills are not much to talk about it was an achievement on its own. Let's say hypothetically, if I had to sell a gleaming red, one-of-a-kind Ferrari to a very rich Arab Sheikh who had an oil-well in his backyard and an F1 size racing track in his living room, I would still botch up the deal. Which is all the more reason that I was happy that I had managed through the course.

But in the course of working on my assignment, the discovery I made was, the huge number of books that have been written on Marketing. I know this because while researching for my assignments, I must have gone through at least a dozen of them. Each gave a new insight about how one analyzes the market, the opportunities, the SWOT of the product and so on. All these books did make me realize one thing. I was not cut out for Marketing. It is not my cup of tea. There's way too much art of verbal (fast-talking), research and visual representation involved to sell an idea. So no matter how eager or how willing your customer is, if you cannot sell, he will not buy. Which is the reason why I wouldn't be able to sell that Ferrari. But let me try though. Getting a "Satisfactory" grade was good to begin with. But as they say, practice is a whole different animal than theory. And before practice, I'll have to work on my next assignment, IT Strategies for Companies. Ciao.

>> YSR RIP.