I may be next :(
I received an MSN message from my Aussie-based brother last Monday if I'd heard that an ex-CNA reporter, Derek Cher, had passed on during the weekend.
I'd actually missed the news, as I didn't have a chance to read Monday's paper. The reason being that since Sunday lunch, I was in the office all the way till Monday 7am, then after a trip home to shower and take a nap, was back at work from 10am till about 1am Tuesday morning. That's when I dragged a matress out of the office storeroom, and crashed out for 7 hours.
I was up at 8am, and after a wash-up and a change of clothes in the men's room (always, always have spare shirts and undies in the office, you never know when an accident may happen), I was back at it until... 10 minutes ago, when we finally wrapped up production.
And the sad part is that this is not my record 'chiong'. It's unfortunately part and parcel with being under-manned and in major magazine production mode. I spend most of the month managing and coordinating articles and review units, then do a 'burst' and throw out 2 dozen articles in a 3 day period.
And I've also noticed that I can't write during normal office hours, because of all the issues and fires that crop up that I have to deal with each day. From Sunday to Monday, I wrote 10 major reviews. Then from 10am Monday till 7pm, I managed 1 article.
What's this have to do with the unfortunate death of Derek Cher? Well, I don't recall ever meeting Derek, we were on different 'beats'. I'm a consumer technology journalist, and he was a finance and business presenter on CNA. But we both graduated from Curtin University, Perth, West Australia, abit a few years apart, and he was a year-mate of my sister-in-law, hence the MSN message from my brother.
Apparently, Derek had a heart attack while he was at his desk on Saturday morning - he'd just left CNA to work for a securities firm. He was 29, and in good health and physical shape.
It's a bit scary for me. I'm 6 years older, and definitely no where near as healthy, and I regularly pull 48 hour production sessions each month. Am I worried that something similar may happen to me? With my blood pressure? Yes. But sometimes it's also down to managable stress. For some strange reason, the stress of a production deadline is something I'm actually comfortable dealing with (with the help of strong coffee literally IV'ed into my bloodstream). When I was in PR for a brief stint, the stress nearly drove me mad.
My prayers are with Derek and his family. I'm heading home for a solid 10 hours of sleep (taking the morning off).
Night!
I'd actually missed the news, as I didn't have a chance to read Monday's paper. The reason being that since Sunday lunch, I was in the office all the way till Monday 7am, then after a trip home to shower and take a nap, was back at work from 10am till about 1am Tuesday morning. That's when I dragged a matress out of the office storeroom, and crashed out for 7 hours.
I was up at 8am, and after a wash-up and a change of clothes in the men's room (always, always have spare shirts and undies in the office, you never know when an accident may happen), I was back at it until... 10 minutes ago, when we finally wrapped up production.
And the sad part is that this is not my record 'chiong'. It's unfortunately part and parcel with being under-manned and in major magazine production mode. I spend most of the month managing and coordinating articles and review units, then do a 'burst' and throw out 2 dozen articles in a 3 day period.
And I've also noticed that I can't write during normal office hours, because of all the issues and fires that crop up that I have to deal with each day. From Sunday to Monday, I wrote 10 major reviews. Then from 10am Monday till 7pm, I managed 1 article.
What's this have to do with the unfortunate death of Derek Cher? Well, I don't recall ever meeting Derek, we were on different 'beats'. I'm a consumer technology journalist, and he was a finance and business presenter on CNA. But we both graduated from Curtin University, Perth, West Australia, abit a few years apart, and he was a year-mate of my sister-in-law, hence the MSN message from my brother.
Apparently, Derek had a heart attack while he was at his desk on Saturday morning - he'd just left CNA to work for a securities firm. He was 29, and in good health and physical shape.
It's a bit scary for me. I'm 6 years older, and definitely no where near as healthy, and I regularly pull 48 hour production sessions each month. Am I worried that something similar may happen to me? With my blood pressure? Yes. But sometimes it's also down to managable stress. For some strange reason, the stress of a production deadline is something I'm actually comfortable dealing with (with the help of strong coffee literally IV'ed into my bloodstream). When I was in PR for a brief stint, the stress nearly drove me mad.
My prayers are with Derek and his family. I'm heading home for a solid 10 hours of sleep (taking the morning off).
Night!
posted by shawncentric at 11:11 pm
1 Comments:
take care..eat healthy, sleep early..!! no more lasagna!! =)
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