Recovering from Post-Reservist Syndrome
Sheesh. Reservist ain't no joke. 3+ weeks of it can really (un)screw your brains.
First, the preface. Upon receiving that dreadful tear-along-dotted-line letter, you get that stinking, low feeling that you're in their possession - "Ha! There you are..."
Next, the recruit book-in phase. The night you tear yourself away from your beloved (and) work (I love my RSS, Eclipse and Gmail!!!)... just before booking in.. feels damn close to what a recruit feels on a Sunday night. damn low morale. (But Love did promise a hero's home-coming, so I have salvation)
Then, the adjusting to all the army-this-army-that way of life.. and the waiting.. and the waiting and waiting. With paranoid cadets, forming some kind of sublimal and ambient atmosphere of fear, running all over the shop under the watchful eyes of their all-powderful instructors (and all the seafood in vicinity)
BAM! Exercise starts! Since my brain can only contain one world at a time, my "real life" outside of camp was tuned out.. I'm no longer a programmer.. my lingo, orientation, matters-at-hand, were all tuned-in to the military channel. Exercise, overnighters, sleep deprivation. (Gmail?.. what's the big deal about that?)
Series of exercises tapers to an end - another transformation takes place. I have almost a thousand emails to clear weekly - mostly from the RSS feeds that I subscribe. Love says orbi that I spam myself. I'm starting to believe. I have to get back to feeling that "technology matters" again. Dropping the military world (and concerns), I have to crawl back an email at a time. Each reminding myself why I'd cared for software and technology so much.
Anyways, I'm finally done. No bold fonts in Gmail - no unread. I've caught up with the world - the very fast and ever evolving world of IT. When the next in-camp comes, hopefully I can transit between my superman suits more smoothly and cope without having to fully drop the other world everytime.