Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Crazier Than Average

Last Saturday at the SF Giants Fanfest and I met Coach Ron Wotus... yes, Gina, you're pissed off at me, but I don't care, for you were at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and you sent me a pic from Rainbow Drive-in. So here's my picture for you... Both Ron and Dave are great gentlemen, very personable and it pumped me up even more for the upcoming season.



Today was also the greatly anticipated reward for being the Most Spirited High School in the Bay Area competition. Flo Rida came and performed four songs at our school. I'm impressed with how well our students responded, for they conducted themselves like the INSPI(RED)they are. The picture is of Jocelyn, one of my friends and co-workers, Flo Rida, and little ol' me.

Hoops Game Commercial

I must say that I do rely upon my AV students a lot. I ask them to make quick commercials in just a day while they still need to study for tests, work, practice for cotillions, and somehow the thing gets done. And this has been true for the most part throughout my years at EC. So, thanks to all the AV commissioners through the years, especially for preserving our memories and inspiring new ones.

Now... come to this Thursday's basketball game @ SSFHS...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

25 semi-random things about me

25 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME

1.I am born on the only day possible to have 3 Zodiac signs. Ophiuchus is in between Scorpio and Sagittarius. http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/bcp/zodiacal/zoo.htm

2.I was crazy enough to self-publish a poetry anthology written by two of my creative writing classes. I haven’t been able to market further because I found a serious error in the book. http://www.amazon.com/Eloquent-Graffiti-DerekPadilla/dp/1401033210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233808241&sr=8-1

https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=12540

3.I was fortunate enough to be awarded the 2000 Hero of the Bay by KNBR and the San Francisco Chronicle. Three students wrote essays about me and somehow the panel picked me among all the firemen, police, volunteers, teachers, etc.

4.In descending order of percentage, my ethnic heritage is Pilipino, Irish, Norwegian, Chinese, and Spanish. However, upon meeting many people for the first time, they will assume I am Hawaiian or Samoan. This is perfect for getting local discounts in Hawaii.

5.I have survived two serious car accidents in which the cars flipped over. In one of the accidents, the emergency crews used the jaws of life to cut the door off to get me. Then after securing me to the board, one of the firemen slipped since we were on a slope down an embankment. The result jarred my back even further. My mom and girlfriend were picking pieces of glass from my matted hair for a week.

6.I have been a Maid of Honor or Honor Attendee, whatever May wants to call it. http://psychoverse.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-best-friends-wedding.html

7.As much as my family gives me hell for giving my brother a best man’s speech/toast that lasted 20 minutes, they are all secretly happy because no one was getting up to imbibe from the free bar saving an estimated thousand dollars.

8.2007 was one of the worst years of my life. The year started with a horrible kidney stone (http://psychoverse.blogspot.com/2007/01/just-stones-throw-away.html) and a couple weeks after finally ejecting the rock, a vein in my right leg exploded (http://psychoverse.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-body-declares-war-on-me.html), most likely due to a softball injury six months earlier. In September, my grandmother passed away. (The one bright spot being my brother marrying Mary Anne)

9.The first time I ever traveled on a plane, I was 20 and it was on EVA air from SFO to Taipei (stopover on my way to Manila). This also happened to be one of the best summers of my life, for when I got back from the Philippines, I went backpacking in Northern California.

10.During that backpacking trip, I also hitchhiked by myself. When we returned from hiking after 3 days, our car had a flat tire, so I had to find a way to the nearest town, which was over 40 miles away. The two guys who picked me up ended up both being in the teacher credential program at SFSU, which I would enter a couple years later.

11.I grew up in Candlestick Park. I have been attending Giants and 49ers games since the late 70s. My parents had 49ers season tickets for over 30 years. Tailgating was our form of family bonding with all the cousins. At Montana’s last game, it was a rainy night and Uncle George brought a side of beef via Old Clam House and we all dined on prime rib.

12.Intermission: Similar to these 25 Random Notes, there used to be an American Express Advertisement in which you commented on yourself. You all should do this also. http://psychoverse.blogspot.com/2006/12/american-express-ad-my-version.html

13.The first time I can remember slow dancing with a girl I liked, it was at a buddy’s garage party to New Edition’s cover of “Earth Angel.”

14.I have lived some interesting El Camino High School moments:
A.The day of the “all-nighter” of my junior homecoming was the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake—some of us interpreted the moment as god giving us an extra day to prepare.
B.The Bell Game my senior year was disrupted when a bomb blew up the scoreboard just before the end of halftime… that game never would have been continued if that happened in today’s world.

15.During one of the massive food fights in the Shoreline lawn at Summer Jam, I was hit by a foot-long hoagie still wrapped in plastic, a piece of cheeseburger in which the cheese oozed between my toes, and an army boot.

16.I have never done illegal drugs. I have never smoked weed or even a cigarette. However, I got really close to being addicted to Vicadin after one of the car accidents.

17.The two best play experiences I ever had were watching a UC Santa Cruz production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the forest and Shogun Macbeth at SFSU.

18.I was once a part of an independent publishing company, first called Rough Copy Productions and then Fish House. We published our own comics: Spasm, Ash & Gas, Strudel War, Sci-Fi, Volcanic Partners. Although we will never get credit, we started the craze of plastic/acetate/invisible/see-through cards in the early 90s.

19.During elementary school, I took piano lessons and was second-chair violin in our school orchestra.

20.I spent 5 years working/managing a Baskin Robbins. My favorite things were to design my own flavors and decorate cakes. I have tried over 300 flavors of ice cream. My favorite flavor there… strawberry cheesecake. I make a kick ass Queen Anne cake.

21.It makes sense that I love Dead Poets Society, but I have some weird obsession with Drumline. You can see a bunch of entries at my blogsite that discuss this subject and which films I find more captivating… search Drumline Battle… a back-and-forth discussion I had online with my brother.

22.My blog, WikiPadilla, was christened such after one of my students wrote on my board… “If you want to know all the answers to life, just check out WikiPadilla.com.” I wish I thought of that myself.

23.I have met 98% of my friends on facebook. I just had to become friends with the other “Derrick Padilla’s” out there and a couple friends of friends.

24.People used to confuse me with Ed Mulitalo of the Baltimore Ravens, especially when we were in our early 20s. He was actually a thrower and football player at Jefferson that I did play against. I once had a conversation with someone at Denny’s and the girl didn’t realize I wasn’t Ed for nearly 15 minutes.

25.Both my brother and I have middle names taken from the titles of Western films, instead of our mother's maiden name. But if you put my middle name and mother's maiden name you get my former pen name... and I sound really Irish.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

The Most Spirited High School in the Bay Area

Thanks to all of the friends and alumni of El Camino High School. Your voting efforts have succeeded in Flo Rida coming to our school.