Manuel Antonio Padilla Gallego III

Sounds long-winded.  That’s the label my parents decided to give me at around the time I was born, which was on February 22, 1968--that's 44 years ago today. Mom said she had a miscarriage before and after I was born, as if to herald the coming of a special child. Unlike her first two births, mine was an easy pregnancy. No trouble at all, according to Mom. It was Dad who was constantly having food cravings of hilaw na mangga at bagoong (that’s green mangoes with shrimp paste). I was certainly different from the rest of my siblings—I was the only boy.

My nickname is Tutu--quite the opposite of long-winded.  Up to this day, I don’t know how this came about exactly.  My father’s nickname is Manoling.  So, when Mom suggested Manolo as my nickname, my Lola Ego (as we fondly called Dad’s mom) objected, saying that I would sound older than Dad.  Manolito, little Manuel or little Manoling, sounded just right and that was open season for all the indiscriminate variations of my nickname that Filipinos are famous for creating with nary a regard for the subject individual’s preference.  Manuelito, Martoto, Marsoto, Manolet, Manoling, Manoleng, Manny, Man Well, Well Man, Manuel, Miguel and so on.

To or Toto (pronounced with the short vowel “o”) is a common (almost generic) Filipino nickname for boys—just like Ne or Nene (pronounced with the short vowel "e") for girls.  The last syllable of my nickname (Manolito) probably facilitated my being called To or Toto and, therefore, it was no wonder that Toto to some would become Tutu (pronounced with the short vowel “u”) to others.

Mom and Tutu

Puttering around the little wall fountain at Villa Caridad

Monique is being carried by Lola Caridad

This was the basis of our portrait by Hidalgo

In a rambunctious mood at the driveway of Silencio

Always liked 2-door convertibles; at a car show in the San Francisco Bay Area
(during our stay with Tita Grace at Atherton, Palo Alto)

. . . in Hong Kong 

 . . . in Venice

 . . . in Paris

2nd year high school

3rd year high school with buddies; Moi, DD, JP, Jun Jun (Atom), Arturo

At DD's home after a study session; DD was really tutoring me

4th year high school


High School Graduation

Crashing at the Isada's in Blacksburg, after a home-cooked meal by Tita Amy

Christmas Party with IIE Buddies, Maria Bothwell and Claire Spino

Patrick Borders as Santa Claus

With Joe Loving, Van Elliot among others at the Rockville, Maryland Package Car Center, Burtonsville Hub

With Gil, Twilight Hub Manager, giving the "finger" to the hot shot engineering college graduate

 
With feeder control

 . . . in Tuscany

Betta's Wedding 

Family Picture at Maite's Wedding

Escorting Mom at Maite's Wedding

That's Me in College . . . a long time ago ("BEFORE")

This resume would kill an Ongsiako (male) . . . off to less stressful pastures!

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/65007685@N08/6069122247/sizes/l/in/set-72157627492500678/)

One of My Favorite Things . . . Singing ("AFTER")

Above are some pictures growing up, including a picture at around the time I graduated from college (before working full-time), my resumé up until I retired from employment in mid-2009 and my picture in 2011 (after I retired from employment).  Talk about the indelible marks of all those years of abuse at work.  It also validates a long-standing observation that Ongsiako men (and I am a fraction Ongsiako) can't handle stress.  I recently found out that my paternal grandmother (Caridad Ongsiako or Lola Ego) may have been bipolar.  Psychological evaluations were not exactly in vogue those days.  I think Dad is a bit bipolar too . . . and so am I.  All in all, I suppose work was fun (to the extent I had to work and put food on the table, among other mundane tasks) but, alas, there is more to life.  In the meantime, . . .

“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This leads me to my other favorite quotes . . .

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return." Leonardo da Vinci

"Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“There is only one success – to be able to spend your own life in your own way.” Christopher Morley

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." John Lennon

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” Thomas Jefferson

“The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination." Voltaire

" I would rather hear the approving voice of one judicious intelligent, and enlightened mind, than be greeted by the loud huzzas of the whole host of ignorance." Thaddeus Stevens

"The lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of the sheep." Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones

"There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God." Ecclesiastes 2:24

"When a crime goes unpunished, the world is unbalanced. When a wrong is unavenged, the heavens look down on us in shame.” Oishi, 47 Ronin

"Mejorar la raza" (To improve the race)


"La cabra siempre tira al monte." (The goat of course lives in the mountain.)

"K.I.S.S." (Keep it simple stupid.)

"A.B.C." (Attitude before Beauty before Competence.)

“Il bel far niente" means 'the beauty of doing nothing'

“It's better to do a little harm for a whole lotta good, than to do no harm for jack shit." Mariah Dillard in Luke Cage