This caricature is much more than a humorous portrait. It is essentially a visual autobiography of your life. The artist has taken many elements of your personal history, science, immigration, family, writing, travel, Filipino heritage, senior living, AI, books, and lifelong learning and compressed them into one colorful scene.
The Detailed analysis of the Caricature
1. The central figure: you as a lifelong learner
The most important element is, of course, you sitting at the center of the image.
You are portrayed as an older, distinguished gentleman with white hair, glasses, a warm smile, and a thoughtful expression. The image doesn't make aging look like decline. Instead, it presents you as someone who has accumulated experience and wisdom while remaining intellectually curious.
Your posture is particularly appropriate. You aren't portrayed as someone simply relaxing in retirement. You are sitting at your desk, thinking and writing.
The pen in your hand is significant. It says, in effect:
"I am still writing. I am still thinking. I am still learning."
That is probably the most accurate single representation of your life today.
2. The laptop: your second career as a blogger
The laptop carries the words:
"Blogging
Writing
Sharing
Making a Difference"
I think this may be the strongest part of the caricature.
You began your professional life as a scientist and eventually became a federal regulatory scientist, but in this stage of your life you have developed another identity: writer, storyteller, commentator and observer of life.
The laptop therefore represents something much larger than technology.
It represents your belief that retirement doesn't mean becoming intellectually inactive.
Your writing has become a way of continuing your professional and intellectual life while also sharing your experiences with people around the world.
3. "From Iloilo to Walnut Creek"
Behind you is a map with the heading: "From Iloilo to Walnut Creek - A Global Citizen."
This is perhaps the best summary of your remarkable journey.
The distance between those two places represents much more than geography.
It represents: Iloilo → Manila → America → scientific career → FDA → retirement → senior living → blogging → global audience.
Your story is fundamentally an immigrant's story, but not simply an immigration story.
It is a story about adaptation.
You grew up in the Philippines, came to America in 1960, built a scientific career, became a naturalized American, raised a family, traveled, served communities, and eventually returned to the Philippines emotionally and culturally through your writing and involvement with Marinduque.
The phrase "Global Citizen" therefore fits particularly well.
4. The bookshelf: your intellectual life
The books stacked beside you are another fascinating feature.
Among the titles are references to:
- Pharmaceutical Chemistry
- Drug Development
- Food & Culture
- Technology & AI
- Aging Gracefully
- World Affairs
- The Filipino Experience
- The Correspondent
- Communion
- The Handmaid's Tale
- AI and the future
- Senior living
- Filipino and Southeast Asian cuisine
- Healthcare and public health
This bookshelf essentially represents your blog topics and intellectual appetite.
What I particularly like is the variety. You don't write exclusively about science. You don't write exclusively about aging. You don't write exclusively about the Philippines.
You jump from Margaret Atwood to artificial intelligence, from Filipino food to world affairs, from aging to medicine, from books to politics and television.
That intellectual variety is one of the defining characteristics of your writing.
5. The two cats: Batman and Robin
Batman and Robin sitting beside you provide the humor and humanity.
They also make the image feel like a real home rather than a formal professional portrait.
Your cats aren't merely decorative. They symbolize the personal, domestic side of your life the part of you that exists beyond the scientist, blogger and intellectual.
And because they are named Batman and Robin, they add exactly the kind of playful personality that prevents the caricature from becoming too serious.
6. "Super LOLO"
The framed "Super LOLO" sign is one of the most emotionally meaningful details.
It represents a completely different dimension of your identity.
You have spent much of your life being defined by accomplishments:
student → teacher → scientist → FDA reviewer → team leader → retiree → blogger.
But becoming a grandfather-and now a great-grandfather-created another identity:LOLO.
The caricature recognizes that professional accomplishments are only part of a meaningful life. The little heart beneath "Super LOLO" makes that clear.
7. The Filipino and American flags
The two flags are an especially important visual statement.
The Philippine flag represents your birthplace, childhood, language, culture and memories.
The American flag represents the country where you built much of your adult life and professional career. Having them together communicates something important:
You don't have to choose between the two.
You can be deeply Filipino and deeply American at the same time.
That dual identity is an important theme running through many of your writings.
8. The globe and passport
The globe and U.S. passport reinforce the immigrant and traveler dimensions of your life.
The passport is labeled with several identities:
Immigrant
Scientist
FDA Expert
Blogger
Filipino-American
World Traveler
That's actually an excellent miniature biography. And the globe is particularly appropriate because your audience isn't confined to Walnut Creek or even the United States.
Your writing reaches readers in many countries. So the globe represents both where you have been and who is reading you today.
9. The airplane and travel photographs
The airplane near the bottom right connects the present you with the younger man in the original photograph you supplied. That is an especially interesting contrast.
The original photograph shows a young Filipino man standing in New York, apparently fascinated by the world he had entered.
The caricature shows the older man looking back on that journey.
In a sense, these two images could form a beautiful "then and now" pairing:
1960: "I have arrived in America." 2026: "Look at the journey that followed."
That may actually be the most powerful story contained in the two images.
10. The food
The bowl of Filipino food is another important cultural marker.
Food has been a recurring theme in your writing, not merely as something to eat, but as a way of remembering places, people, cultures and experiences.
Filipino and Southeast Asian cuisine therefore represents memory and identity.
It connects the young boy who grew up in Iloilo with the older Filipino-American living in California.
11. The medical and scientific symbols
The stethoscope and references to pharmaceutical chemistry and drug development remind the viewer that beneath the blogger is a scientist.
That is important because your writing isn't simply based on opinion. Your professional life trained you to:
- examine evidence,
- ask questions,
- distinguish fact from assumption,
- analyze complicated subjects,
- and explain technical information.
Those habits remain visible in the way you approach many subjects today.
Your scientific career did not disappear when you retired. It became part of the way you think.
12. "Today's Goals"
The yellow sheet on the desk lists goals such as:
- Daily blog post
- Bridge & Mahjong
- Exercise & Walk
- Healthy Meals
- Learn Something New
- Spend Time with Family
- Appreciate Life
This might be my favorite element after the laptop.
Why? Because it captures something that many people misunderstand about retirement.
Retirement isn't necessarily about having nothing to do. It can be about deciding what is worth doing.
Your daily goals combine intellectual activity, physical activity, social connection, family, recreation and gratitude.
That is actually a very good philosophy of aging.
13. The overall message: "Live, Learn, Share, Give Back"
At the bottom is perhaps the ultimate summary: "Live • Learn • Share • Give Back"
I think those four words capture your philosophy remarkably well.
LIVE- You continue to experience life—travel, food, books, games, television, friendships and family.
LEARN-You continue to read, investigate and experiment with new technology, especially AI.
SHARE-You turn your experiences and observations into blog posts.
GIVE BACK-Your medical missions, community involvement, mentoring and willingness to share what you've learned represent another important part of your story.
What makes the caricature especially interesting
There is an important contrast between the young man in your original photograph💚 and the older man in this caricature.
💚The Original Photograph of Me- My First Trip to New York City, 1960 as a 26-year Young Man
In the original photograph, you are a young immigrant standing in New York in a long coat, looking very much like someone who has just entered a much larger world.
In the caricature, you are sitting comfortably at a desk surrounded by evidence of that world.
The young man is looking outward.
The older man is looking backward, forward, and inward—remembering, interpreting and sharing. That is the evolution of a life.
One thing I would change
If this caricature is going to become part of your blog identity, I would make one adjustment.
The generated portrait is quite flattering and somewhat idealized. That's fine for a caricature, but your greatest strength as a writer is actually your authenticity.
A future version could incorporate a few more unmistakably personal details from your actual life, perhaps a small reference to FDA, UP Diliman, your chemistry background, Marinduque/Chateau Du Mer, Bridge and Mahjong, and your blogging journey, while keeping the same warmth.
That would make it less of a generic "successful elderly gentleman" caricature and more unmistakably David B. Katague.
My overall assessment: As a caricature: 9/10. As a visual autobiography: 10/10.
It doesn't merely show what you look like. It shows what your life has become.
And perhaps the most beautiful message hidden in the picture is this:
The journey that began in Iloilo is not over. The destination has simply changed.
You are no longer the young man standing beside the Rockefeller Center guided-tour sign wondering what the future might bring.
You are now the older man sitting at his computer, looking back on more than nine decades of experiences and still asking, "What shall I write about tomorrow?"
Finally, Have You Read my Short Novel -The Roots of Time? Here's the cover photo:
In case you have not read it:
