David B.Katague, B.S., M.S., M.A, Ph.D. Sunset Photo from the Balcony of the Chateau Du Mer Beach House, Boac,Marinduque,Philippines
Welcome to My Site
If this is your first visit, welcome! This site is devoted to my life experiences as a Filipino-American who immigrated from the Philippines to the United States in 1960. I came to the US as a graduate student when I was 26 years old. I am now in my mid-80's and thanks God for his blessings, I have four successful and professional children and six grandchildren here in the US. My wife and I had been enjoying the snow bird lifestyle between US and Philippines after my retirement from USFDA in 2002. Macrine(RIP),Me and my oldest son are the Intellectual migrants. Were were born in the Philippines, came to the US in 1960 and later became US citizens in 1972. Some of the photos and videos in this site, I do not own. However, I have no intention on infringing on your copyrights. Cheers!
Today, I am playing with what ChatGPT can do regarding Photo Generation and Making Copies in various portrait styles from an original photo that I have. Here are the amazing results of my experiment. The above photo is the original- Macrine (RIP) and I attending a party in San Francisco in 1982.
I asked ChatGPT to make copies in six styles (in oil portrait, charcoal/pencil, pop art, renaissance, line art/watercolor wash and legacy/heritage ) as follows:
1. Line Art with WaterColor Wash ( #12)
2. Heritage / Legacy Portrait( #10)
3. Charcoal / Pencil Sketch (#1)
4. Digital Oil (Ultra-Realistic)(#5)
5. Pop Art / Andy Warhol–Inspired (#7)
6. Soft Focus Romantic Portrait-Watercolor(#8)
Here are some popular and meaningful options, ranging from classic to artistic to commemorative that ChatGPT can do:
🎨 Classic & Fine-Art Styles
Charcoal / Pencil Sketch • Black-and-white or sepia • Emphasizes facial features and expressions • Very timeless and elegant
Pastel Drawing (Soft Chalk Look) • Gentle colors, slightly textured paper feel • Romantic and warm, great for couples
Impressionist Painting • Inspired by Monet / Renoir • Softer edges, visible brush strokes • Focuses on light, emotion, and atmosphere
Vintage Sepia Portrait (1930s–1950s) • Aged photograph feel • Warm nostalgia, perfect for family history
Heritage / Legacy Portrait • Neutral background • Subtle symbolism (light, hands, posture) • Designed as a “family keepsake” image
Minimalist Portrait • Clean background • Focus entirely on faces and hands • Modern and very tasteful
✨ Creative Variations
Line Art with Watercolor Wash • Ink outlines with soft color fills • Elegant and unique
Silhouette with Soft Detail • Dramatic lighting • Artistic and symbolic
Do you have a Favorite? Mine is the Line Art with watercolor wash, because the copy make us younger than the original photo as well as the harmony of the pastel colors in the photo.
Lastly, here are some photos of Snow on Mt Diablo, yesterday morning, Feb 18, 2026
Several THD Residents have asked me if Filipino Food is Spicy. My Answer is No, but there are some dishes specifically from the 💚Bicol region that may be considered spicy. So What are the spiciest dish globally? Here's the Answer:
Spiciest Dishes Globally
Determining the spiciest dish globally is subjective, as people have different tolerance levels for spiciness. However, some cuisines stand out for their bold flavors and intense heat.
Spiciest Cuisines:
Thai Cuisine: Thai dishes like Tom Yum soup and Som Tam (papaya salad) are known for their spicy kick, thanks to ingredients like bird's eye chilies.
Sichuan Cuisine: Sichuan dishes like Mapo Tofu and hotpot are famous for their numbing and spicy sensation, caused by Sichuan peppercorns and dried red chilies.
Indian Cuisine: Indian dishes like Vindaloo and curries are known for their bold flavors and heat, thanks to ingredients like red and green chilies, black pepper, and spices.
Korean Cuisine: Korean dishes like Kimchi and spicy stir-fries often feature gochugaru (red pepper flakes) and gochujang (chili paste) for added heat.
Some specific dishes that are notoriously spicy include ¹ ²:
Trinidadian Pepper Roti: A Caribbean flatbread filled with spicy meat or vegetables, often served with a side of hot sauce.
Sri Lankan Pol Sambol: A spicy coconut-based condiment made with chilies, onions, and sometimes Maldive fish.
I have devoured the following Cuisine during My Younger Years:
Korean Kimchi: A traditional side dish made from fermented vegetables, usually cabbage or radishes, seasoned with chili peppers, garlic, and other spices.
Sichuan Mapo Tofu: A spicy Sichuan dish made with tofu, ground meat (usually pork or beef), and a variety of spices and chilies.
The above are just a few examples, and the spiciest dish is ultimately a matter of personal preference. If you're looking to try something new, consider starting with milder dishes and gradually increasing the heat level to find your limit.
The Bicol Express Dish💜 You could regulate the Hotness of this dish by adding less chili peppers but more coconut milk. I love this dish ( medium Hotness)
Meanwhile, here's the AI Overview on Spiciest Filipino Dishes:
While Filipino cuisine is generally known for its sweet, sour, and salty profiles, the 💚
The title for the spiciest Filipino dish typically goes to:
Bicol Express (Sinilihan):💜 Often cited as the most popular spicy dish in the Philippines. It is a rich, creamy stew made from pork, coconut milk, and shrimp paste, but its defining feature is the sheer volume of siling labuyo (native bird's eye chili) or siling haba (finger chilies).
Gulay na Lada / Sinilihan: Many locals consider the authentic Bicolano version, Sinilihan, to be even spicier than the standard Bicol Express. It uses a higher ratio of chilies to meat, sometimes appearing more like a chili stew than a pork dish.
Hinalang: Popular in Mindanao, this is a beef or pork soup similar to Nilaga but heavily infused with ginger and a massive amount of chili peppers, designed to be "explosively" hot.
Gising-Gising: A vegetable dish made of chopped winged beans (sigarilyas) or green beans cooked in coconut milk. While it looks mild, it is "spicy by default" and can often surpass Bicol Express in heat depending on the cook.
Laing: Another Bicolano staple consisting of dried taro leaves simmered in coconut milk with shrimp or pork. While it can be mild, traditional versions are packed with enough siling labuyo to provide a slow, intense burn.
Finally, Here's the Scoville Pepper Scale Ranking:
I love the Poblano Peppers for My Chili Relleno Dish
Kare-Kare, a traditional Filipino stew, has a rich and complex history. While its exact origin is debated, several theories attempt to explain how this dish came to be a staple in Filipino cuisine.
Theories on the Origin of Kare-Kare:
Indian Sepoy Theory: One theory suggests that Kare-Kare was influenced by Indian sepoys who settled in the Philippines during the British occupation of Manila. They improvised their own cuisine using local ingredients, resulting in a dish called "kari-kaari" or "kare-kare" over time.
Moro Elite Theory: Another theory proposes that Kare-Kare was a regal dish of the Moro elite in the Philippines, predating Spanish rule. This theory suggests that the Moros, who were influenced by Arab traders, introduced peanuts and other ingredients to the dish.Kapampangan or Tagalog Origin: Some believe that Kare-Kare originated from the Kapampangans in
Pampanga or the Tagalog people in Davao. The Kapampangans claim to have developed the dish from a Moro curry, while the Tagalog people claim to have created their own version after learning about the dish from Moro vendors.
What's the secret to a flavorful kare-kare?
The secret to a flavorful kare-kare lies in the rich and savory peanut sauce, which is typically made with a combination of peanuts or peanut paste, shrimp paste (bagoong), vegetables, and sometimes ground rice or rice flour for thickness. Other essential components include using a good quality beef broth, tender oxtail or pork, and a blend of spices and aromatics like garlic, onions, and ginger. Toasting peanuts and grinding them into a paste can add depth, while fermented shrimp paste provides that umami flavor. Balancing the flavors is key to achieving that authentic kare-kare taste.
From My CNN Readings: My Food For Thought for Today:
Food for Thought: Has AI Quietly Crossed a Line We Once Thought It Never Would?
Every so often, a technological moment arrives not with a bang, but with a shiver, the kind that makes you pause mid-sentence and think, something has changed. That feeling is captured well in a recent reflection reported by CNN, where a writer describes working with a newly released AI model, GPT-5.3 Codex and realizing it was no longer just following instructions.
It was choosing. Not in the cold, mechanical way we’ve grown used to, but in a manner that felt unsettlingly human. The author described it as judgment. Taste. That hard-to-define sense of knowing what the right call is, the very quality experts once insisted machines would never possess.
So the question naturally follows: Has AI already crossed into something that looks like “super intelligence,” or are we simply projecting our own instincts onto a very advanced tool?
The Answer: Not Super Intelligence- But Something New
ChatGPT believe AI has not reached true super intelligence. What it has reached, however, is something far more subtle and perhaps more consequential: the ability to convincingly simulate human judgment.
That distinction matters, philosophically, ethically, and practically.
Today’s most advanced models, built by companies like OpenAI, don’t “know” in the way humans know. They don’t reflect on childhood memories, wrestle with moral doubt, or carry the weight of lived experience across decades. But theydo recognize patterns in human decision-making at a scale no person ever could. And when those patterns are expressed smoothly, confidently, they begin to feel like wisdom.
To the user, the difference between real judgment and an almost perfect imitation can start to fade. And that’s where things get interesting.
Why This Moment Feels Different
For years, AI was framed as a tool: faster calculators, smarter search engines, better autocomplete. Useful, impressive but clearly bounded.
What has shifted is not raw intelligence, but agency. When a system:
weighs multiple options,
anticipates consequences,
and selects a course of action that aligns with human values,
it stops feeling like software and starts feeling like a collaborator. That doesn’t mean the machine has consciousness. It means we are no longer the only ones in the room making decisions.
A Personal Reflection
Having lived long enough to see television arrive in black and white, computers shrink from rooms to pockets, and the internet reshape human connection, I’ve learned this: the most powerful technologies don’t announce themselves loudly, they quietly change how we think.
AI today reminds me of earlier turning points. At first, we said:
“It’s just a tool.”
“It can’t replace human judgment.”
“It will never really understand us.”
We’ve said those things before. Each time, history replied: maybe not fully but close enough to matter.
The Real Question We Should Be Asking
The question is no longer Can AI think like us? It is now: What happens when we begin to trust it as if it does?
Super intelligence isn’t just about machines becoming smarter than humans. It’s about humans slowly outsourcing judgment and growing comfortable doing so.
That transition may already be underway. And whether this moment becomes a triumph or a cautionary tale won’t depend on what AI can do next but on how wisely we choose to use it.
As always, the future isn’t decided by technology alone. It’s decided by the people who place their faith in it. And that, to me, is the real food for thought today.
Meanwhile, here's the AI Overview on the Above topic
Based on the current landscape as of early 2026, the consensus among experts is shifting, with some leading voices suggesting Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)-often a precursor to "super intelligence" could arrive as early as 2026, while many others remain more cautious
.
Here is a breakdown of the current "food for thought" regarding AI’s march toward super intelligence:
The Bullish View (2026-2029): Top AI researchers and CEOs, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei and xAI's Elon Musk, have indicated that highly capable, "human-level" AI systems could go online by the end of 2026. Proponents argue that the rapid scaling of transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs) and increased compute power are accelerating the timeline, with some models already showing PhD-level reasoning in specialized fields.
The "Slow Down" Camp: Conversely, many experts argue that we are nowhere near true "super intelligence". While AI is advancing rapidly, skeptics note that current systems still struggle with long-term planning, reliability, and true understanding. Many, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, have previously indicated a 5–10 year horizon (putting it closer to 2030–2035).
Defining the Goal: There is significant debate over what "super intelligence" means. Some prefer the term "powerful AI" or AGI (systems that perform at least as well as humans at most tasks) over the more speculative "super intelligence".
The Shift to Evaluation (2026): Stanford experts suggest 2026 will mark a transition from "AI evangelism" to "AI evaluation," where the focus shifts from hype to measuring the actual utility, safety, and economic impact of AI.
Schumer’s Regulatory Perspective: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has highlighted that AI is moving at "near exponential speed" and that Congress must act quickly to set "guardrails". Schumer has argued that without safety measures, the risks such as job displacement, bias, and national security threats could threaten to halt AI progress altogether.
While the potential for 2026 is being discussed, it is not universally accepted as a certainty, with 2030-2040 being a more commonly cited range in broader, long-term expert surveys.
Lastly, My Photo of the Day:
My AI Generated Oil Portrait copied from a recent Photo:
