No sleep
Man, I am so tired. I have had about 3½ hours sleep in the last 48 and it’s beginning to take its toll. We have had problems with darn near every system we have over the last couple of weeks, but especially in the last four days. It has even gotten to be a bit comical. We are about to start taking bets on what is going to crash next.
Let’s see: The advertising database has crashed half a dozen times or so, the web site has had issues with responsiveness, the archive indexes got corrupted, the newsroom database ran out of disk space (3 times). I wonder what’s next? (I really just need some sleep. It’ll all be better after some sleep.)
It’s funny how things work in the IT field, even more funny when you work for news organizations. I worked for ten years at the Associated Press before I came to the Democrat-Gazette. You see, there is always a deadline. I wonder what it is like to work for a company where you get to leave all your broken stuff at 5 p.m. and not think about it until 8 a.m. the next day?
You see, with a newspaper (or wire service) there are always deadlines. You just can’t walk away from something that isn’t working, especially if it is critical to your ability to publish, because it could result in tens of thousands of people not getting their newspaper — man, you don’t want to mess with folks not getting their paper. Besides, the Democrat-Gazette has never been unable to publish because of a technical issue, and that is a tradition that we plan on upholding.
Still, there have been times that it has been worse. There was the time we put in a brand new network I was at the office and literally awake for more than 37 hours straight. That was definitely worse.
Then, there was the time when I was working at the Associated Press (I sure don’t miss that gig) when I had to stay at work for 20+ hours trying to help gather election returns one election night. There was an extremely close ballot issue being contested that night and it was very important to get all the votes counted that we could. I was finally able to drive home and, at some point, must have fallen into that strange netherworld of half-asleep/half-awake when everything seems extra vivid. I felt a peaceful calm drift down over me and the Interstate seemed to fade into a breezy pasture with golden grain blowing lightly back and forth. To my left, a beautiful herd of bay colts entered the scene … they were galloping gracefully, slow-motion sytle, with their manes flowing elegantly behind their heads.
I suddenly slammed on the brakes because I thought I was about to plow into the herd of horses crossing the Interstate. Of course, there was nothing there but a wet spot on the road …
Still, don’t you hate when that happens?
A guy I work with described it this way: "It’s like a bomb went off in your head." I can’t agree more.
Great post. The newspaper IT field is definitely pretty unique and exciting. You’ve got to “do it for the love”.