Go GATTSome

This week is by far the most fruitful week of my life. There haven't been a stop in activities the whole week. No time to catch my breath at all for there was so much things to learn and explore.

Of course there was the very tiresome Exercise Heron from Monday through to Wednesday, where my battalion Commanding Officer [CO] came down, and together with all his planning staff, delivered some really unusual Operational Orders [Ops Orders] to kick start our Exercise. Well, that's my CO: a young high-flying punk that pushes the system. I certainly admired his determination to be unusual, but definitely not his manner of speech and the egoistic air that he used to direct the orders. He is kinda like Glenn Ong's Short-fart, haha, tiny yet provocative, and certainly not very friendly.

It was a computer simulation program termed JCATS [Joint Combat Arms Tactical Simulation], which kinda runs like the very famous EA game -Command & Conquer, that we used to execute our plans. The entire process was robust and insightful, if only one can remain awake through the long nights. I was very uncomfortable seeing so many soldiers getting killed on my screen as the exercise got underway. We clashed head-on with the enemy and were expecting ourselves to hold up with superior fire power and technology but the truth is that men still died in the hundreds! We certainly don't have that much people to be sacrificed in a War! The many battles of a war can be won on the account of tremendous bloodshed on both sides, but our country will cease to exist the very next day because there ain't able-bodied men left to run our businesses. Attrition warfare is definitely not the way to go for the SAF.

The whole doctrine of fighting till our death irks me alot, especially after i've starting reading The Art of Manoeuvre by eminent American Strategist Robert Leonhard and Sun Tzu's Art of War, where both authors expressed the acme of victory as winning a war without firing a single shot; to use manoeuvre [Pre-emption, Dislocation and Disruption] to render the enemy irrelevant to the fight and to defeat the enemy's will to fight with Force, which is of course the product of Mass and the Rate of Change of Velocity [F=MV/T]. Surprise! Surprise! Physics in War Strategies! =) This means that a small army [like ours] can in-fact defeat a sizeable foe with outstanding acceleration, command and control and trickeries. It is all about fighting and winning the war on terms favourable only to us and not the enemy. Heresy! That's not a fair fight! Heck with that man, you wanna be a hero when the lives of thousands of men are directly at your mercy? I don't think so.

War is after all, the clash of opposing human wills. The erosion of human's psyche eclipses the most powerful weapon in the world. Why? The enemy will not even react fast enough to press that god-damn button! But still, the reality remains that a Company Commander [OC] has no say in all those higher level bullshit; we plan according to our bosses' intents and hopefully boss and other OCs don't screw up [that much], so that we can all go home. The week ended with me going through the mundane Appreciation of Situation test - the final year examination equivalent of my current course. Not much of imagination involved there, but still it's the basic of planning at our level.

But this week's biggest takeaway was not learnt in the classroom. It was over supper! I was contemplating what to get for Marie's Birthday BBQ at East Coast Park, so i solicited some ideas from my good course mates. A never heard before concept of 5 knowledge of love sprouted out. They are expressed as the acronym GATTS - Gifts, Affirmation, Touch, Time and Services. These 5 genies are the essentials of everyone in their love life and friendships, or so i've been told. Every individual will have a combination of any one, or all, of these 5 genies, which will make them feel valued by someone who should express the correct preferences. The central source for tension in any relationship is that the couple expresses to one another his/hers own preferred combination, instead of the preferred combination of the other half.

A case in point is the issue of valentine gifts. Azrul's GF [Uni] wanted to buy him a pair of Levis' jeans on valentine's, which Azrul will never wear 'cos he doesn't wear jeans. So Az declined the offer to Uni's displeasure. There! Source of tension. And why did Uni want to buy a pair of jeans when she knew Az's fashion tastes [or the lack of? haha]? She is likely to be a person whose knowledge of love is to be presented gifts, hence she wants to buy her sayang a pair of jeans as a show of her preferred mode of affection 'cos she likes them, not considering the fact that what she prefers may not be what Az prefers. And the solution for Az? Simply reciprocate that unintented hint and buy her gifts the next time, with her favourte colour to boot. But of course, Uni was mature enough to resolve the tension by listening to Az's point of view and settled for two cartoon tomes instead.

Back to my problem for a gift. After some serious discussion, i found out that my original gift idea will be, at best, grudgingly accepted and chucked aside as it does not conform to Marie's GATTS. My past b'day gifts from her were bought, not made [time], with cards [words of affirmation] and chocolates. So voila! I've got the general solution. Gifts [bought] and cards with chocolates!

A detailed cross reference with my female course mate further reveals that gifts for gals might not be of practical usage, but rather cuddly and adorable. This is of course, unheard of in the guy's world [many dudes suggested watches, perfume or jewellery to demonstrate maturity and gravity. Horrors! I'm not a miser, but i'm not fantastically rich too]. They should be wrapped with more layers to increase the sense of excitement, and summed up with some innovative words of affirmation and chocolates [not more than 2 mouthful due to girls' inherent fear of obesity]. Naturally, the favourite colour must be utilised in as many aspect as possible, but not excessively. Man! The art of GATTS!

After much planning, i proceeded to buy the stuff - A damn cute pink bear wrapped with translucent plastic paper as the main gift; an IKEA photoframe to frame the postcard up [To satisfy the guy's concept of practicality. =P]; some Ferrero Rochers [Only two mouthful, so two Rochers. =)] and a giant pink box to conceal everything inside, tied up with pink ribbons. There The perfect gift!

True to the prophecy, it was a hit with Marie! Yippee! Now ladies and gentlemen, besides wearing sunscreen, you should all go GATTSome. No need for love counselling anymore boy, simple DIY will do.

To top it all off for the week, Debbie replied for a second time to a testimonial that i've crafted out for her on Hi5. To talk about luck! I saw her on Hi5 after accepting a friend's invitation, and she accepted my request to add her. Yeah... She rejected my testimonial though, stating that i've overflattered her, which is of course not the truth. But she did give me her new email add to contact her with. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel! What a week! Now, i've levelled up to -2 perhaps? Man, i feel good!