If you follow my blogs, you probably already know I started blogging in 2009. There was no AI to assists me at that time. So today, I prompted AI to list a few of my old blogs that would need at update or revision, so that it would be more compelling and engaging to read.
Here's ChatGPT response.
I looked specifically at your older Chateau Du Mer postings, especially the 2014–2020 period, when your writing was still largely pre-AI. I think there is a remarkable opportunity here not to replace your old articles, but to give some of your best ideas a second life.
Your older writing has something AI cannot manufacture: your lived experience. The grammar and organization can be improved, but the memories, observations, humor, Filipino-American perspective, and wisdom are yours.
I would prioritize these:
My Top 10 candidates for revision
| Priority | Old posting/theme | Why it deserves a new life |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Afterglows in the Sunset of Our Lives” | Probably one of your most meaningful aging/reflection pieces. Your careers, retirement, marriage, and looking back at life give this enormous emotional potential. |
| 2 | “My Involvement with the Medical Missions in the Philippines” | A powerful story of service, Filipino identity and giving back. Your later-life perspective makes the original even more meaningful today. |
| 3 | “It Is Better to Give Than to Receive” | This should definitely be revised. Your philosophy of generosity has become an important part of your personal legacy. Your 2024 post itself shows that you still consider this story worth preserving. |
| 4 | “My Undergraduate College Years in UP, Diliman” | This is a particularly strong candidate because you already know readers responded to it, it had more than 12,000 page views. It is a wonderful immigrant/education/ambition story. |
| 5 | “Life in the United States versus Life in the Philippines” | Today you have decades more experience comparing the two countries. The 2018 article can become a much deeper reflection on what you have learned from living between two cultures. |
| 6 | “Only in Marinduque, Philippines” | Your relationship with Marinduque has evolved considerably. This could become less of a travel description and more of a personal love letter to your “second home.” |
| 7 | “Things That I Will Always Remember at Chateau Du Mer” | This could become a beautiful legacy piece, not about the building, but about the people, dreams, family gatherings, friendships and memories attached to Chateau Du Mer. |
| 8 | “Another Milestone in the Stages of Our Lives” | Your concept of life's stages has much greater meaning now. At 91, you can revisit what you thought aging meant then versus what you know now. |
| 9 | “Aging in America—The Need for More Nurses and Nursing Aides” | This could be transformed from an issue-oriented article into a much more personal reflection about aging, caregiving and senior living. |
| 10 | Your family/ancestry articles, including “The Magnificent Six” | These are not merely genealogy. They preserve Filipino family history that might otherwise disappear. Your storytelling can make the genealogy accessible to younger generations. |
But I would do something slightly different with them. I wouldn't simply rewrite the old articles. I would create a series called something like:
“Revisiting My Old Blogs: What I Know Now That I Didn't Know Then”
That would make the revision itself part of the story.
For example, your 2016 medical-mission article says that volunteering made you “feel good about yourself” and describes giving your time, money and heart to people in need.
Today, you can look back at that younger David and ask:
After all these years, do I still believe that giving is better than receiving?
That is much more compelling than merely correcting the English.
Similarly, your old “Afterglows in the Sunset of Our Lives” can now be revisited by a 91-year-old David who has experienced far more of life's “sunset” than when he first wrote it.
That gives you a powerful narrative device:
David then → David now → What I have learned.
And there is another treasure in your archives
Your UP Diliman story is especially interesting to me.
You wrote that it was your most widely read autobiography chapter, with over 12,000 views.
I would not merely polish it. I would turn it into something like:
“The Young Filipino Who Left Iloilo With a Dream: What My 1950s College Years Taught Me at 91”
That story contains several themes that resonate internationally:
- a young Filipino student's dreams
- parental expectations
- education as a pathway to opportunity
- leaving the Philippines
- coming to America
- becoming a scientist
- building a career
- eventually becoming a Filipino-American
- and looking back nearly seven decades later
That is much bigger than an autobiography chapter. It is an immigrant story.
The three I would revise first
If I were helping you build this as a continuing series for your worldwide readers, I'd start with:
1. “Afterglows in the Sunset of Our Lives”
→ What I Know About Aging at 91 That I Didn't Know at 80
2. “My Involvement with the Medical Missions”
→ Why I Still Believe It Is Better to Give Than to Receive
3. “My Undergraduate College Years in UP, Diliman”
→ The Young Filipino Who Dreamed Beyond Iloilo
Those three together would represent three important parts of your life:
Aging → Service → Dreams
And that is very much the David Katague story I have come to recognize through your writing.
One thing I particularly like about this project is that your readers can read the old David and meet the 91-year-old David in the same article. The contrast itself becomes the story.
Your archives are not obsolete. They are a treasure chest. They simply need to be opened again with the wisdom you have accumulated since you originally wrote them.
Finally, My Photo of the Day: Cebu Lechon: Reminds me of the Philippines
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