wayne manuel

Consult

2011-12-10T18:20:00.001+08:00

I've had 3 work-related trips so far in my career (career!), all care of NTHC. Interestingly all were international travel (Indonesia, Vietnam, and now Tonga). I've not been sent elsewhere domestically, not counting the Tagaytay and Dagupan training, both of which had all of us were present. I feel blessed to be sent, at this age, to such places, and to be entrusted with the task of

Telehealth Year 1

2011-02-23T21:04:00.000+08:00

Last Feb 1, officially marks my first year anniversary at the National Telehealth Center. In celebration of that, I would like to list down the top 3 things I love about the center.1.) The domain of knowledge. Health Informatics, eHealth, telehealth, choose which one you want. It is a very exciting field and still has a lot of potential for growth specially in the Philippines. The center is at

Baguio 2011A

2011-02-20T22:06:00.001+08:00

My 50+ hours in Baguio with the Telehealth people was simply amazing. This post couldn't give full justice to the trip.FOOD: We ate at 50's Diner twice: Day 2 lunch and Day 3 dinner. Chowking for Day 1 dinner. Yellow Cab for Day 3 lunch. Home cooking for Day 2 breakfast, Day 2 dinner and Day 3 breakfast. Day 2 was strawberry picking, Bell Church, Mines View, Camp John Hay (Starbucks + the Manor),

Support

2011-02-13T00:27:00.000+08:00

Even more thrilling than organizing events is being a support person. I remember a time in my life (I'm starting to sound like an old man) when I didn't go to events if I do not have a role, if I were just an audience member. I feel so not at ease when I attend events where my participation in was very minimal.I think I see details that others don't normally see and solutions that others can't

English

2011-02-07T22:42:00.000+08:00

I miss speaking in straight English. I probably sound like a broken record already for saying I miss this and I miss that thing that I did when I was still in Singapore but I really want to reflect on how well I am adapting to the change in environment, how well I am replicating or replacing the things I've experienced when I was still there.Opportunities to speak English at my work in the

Short talk

2011-01-23T02:07:00.000+08:00

Today was the first time (after 6 seminars on Health Informatics) that I managed to exceed fifteen minutes when giving a talk for which I am given 30 minutes to deliver. I either speak too fast or I forget some details that I would like to point out. I guess, after talking about the same topic (Visualizing Health Data) for the past three seminars, I've finally hit my stride. In the first of the

Organizing Events

2011-01-18T23:32:00.001+08:00

One of the things I miss the most in my life in Singapore is organizing events. In both my main circles of friends (NUS Filipino friends and church friends), I was (or I felt I was) viewed as the go-to guy for conceptualizing and planning events. I don't think it's my attention to detail. It's more of the heart or intent of the events or themes of the events that I've organized that give them

Special Christmas

2010-12-27T22:35:00.000+08:00

This Christmas is special for me.This is the first Christmas that I am gainfully employed and thus able to buy gifts I would like to give. I've never really given gifts during Christmas before so I just continued the tradition. Haha. It's just too taxing for me to think of what to give and who to give it to. I prefer to just contribute to Christmas parties in whatever way I can, by bringing

Dead Cat

2010-09-21T09:32:00.000+08:00

Two weekends have passed since we started smelling the stench of something dead in our house. I thought it was just a rat and we did search for it. But searching for a rat, as most people would know, is very difficult due to its size. Yesterday, the stench has become so unbearable.My mother was unable to sleep, which she badly needed to have as she's flying off to somewhere. I slept early as the

Universitas Indonesia

2010-07-30T09:14:00.004+08:00

The university hosting us (Universitas Indonesia) is located in the fringes of the city, less than a kilometer outside the Jakarta border line.It is the oldest university in Indonesia according to Wikipedia. The campus is quite large, much larger than UP Manila. Although the hotel we are staying in looks really near on a map as it is just across the river, we have to go to the other side of the

The September Issue

2009-10-04T22:34:00.001+08:00

"The September Issue" is a documentary on what goes on in the production of the thickest issue of the year for Vogue. The film deconstructs the dynamics between the editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and the creative director Grace Coddington. The film was advertised as mostly about Anna but I think that the star was Grace and her amazing talent of telling a story in pictures. She was just amazing. Her

Mapping Party

2009-06-05T02:48:00.001+08:00

Google PH organized a "Mapping Party" today (Thursday) at Bubba Gump Greenbelt. The venue could have been better as there was no stage that could have allowed everybody to focus on the program. Also, the sound system wasn't that good and there was only one microphone.The format of the program was that the moderator would ask us questions and open the floor for questions. I miss speaking in front

Garuda Mall

2009-04-30T22:47:00.001+08:00

I intentionally left out most of the details about my afternoon in Garuda Mall in the previous post. If my memory serves me right, the garuda is like the phoenix, rising from the ashes kind of mythical bird.The cinema was nice enough. The cost for a ticket is almost the same as that in the Philippines at 110Rp or S$3.5. The commercials before the movie had these permits that were shown with the

Bangalore Day 3: Malls

2009-04-28T08:51:00.001+08:00

The third day of my Bangalore trip was a free day. When I checked out of Park Hotel, I didn't have anything planned as I just didn't do any form of research. I didn't even ask the concierge at the hotel for information which worked very well in the past trips I've had.Having no Rupees, I tried to find a money changer which proved difficult. It's funny that I only changed money 12 hours before my

Bangalore: Last Minute

2009-04-23T22:42:00.000+08:00

Everything about my trip to Bangalore was very last minute. I thought that it only takes 2 days to get a visa to India because somebody told me, without knowing that the processing time is different for non-Singaporeans. The formal invitation letter was sent to m4 on a Monday (13 April) afternoon. Upon receiving the letter, I checked the embassy for all the requirements and found out that for

Environmental Awareness

2009-04-06T23:55:00.001+08:00

I did not participate in the Earth Hour last last weekend. It's not because I forgot or anything but because I think I already am contributing enough awareness about the environment to those around me and using environmentally sustainable practices in everyday activities.Several times during the day and the days before and after that, I brought up the topic of Earth Hour in most of my

Preserve

2009-04-04T00:57:00.001+08:00

Holding on to a past or to a heritage is something considered by nation builders and by ordinary people.On the frontpage of the Philippine Daily Inquirer the other day was a historic house being sold to a mall developer. Conversationists pointed out how important it is for future generations to remember the past by having reminders. And in remembering, it would foster a sense of identity that

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2009-03-29T22:43:00.001+08:00

It is a movie with laugh-out-loud moments but a not so convincing story line. The trailers did not make me expect anything so there was no great disappointment. It was fun remembering where I've seen the actors like that guy from SNL, that female reporter from Iron Man, Andy from "The Office", the congressman from Evan Almighty who also played the father of Speed Racer.I just couldn't relate with

No time

2009-03-25T23:48:00.001+08:00

I have always been prepared for an answer to questions on why I don't have time for anyone anymore. I've seriously been very busy with my Design Project. It's been a long time since I've seen Cecilia, Oliver and the others. I had to say no to a birthday party last Saturday because I have to really finish that project.It's definitely not because of spending so much time with the Ateneo/La Salle

New Again

2009-03-19T00:36:00.002+08:00

I love to use on of my old bags again. It got very dirtied on my trip to Taman Negara which forced me to wash it. If not for that trip, it would not have occurred to me to really wash that bag and now it looks really really clean and shiny.My urban planning project requires us to analyze an area in Singapore. The assigned area for me is the Boat Quay conservation area. The guest lecturer we had

Ultimate Dream

2009-03-15T23:52:00.001+08:00

As mentioned in a previous post, right now, my ultimate dream is to be a mayor. I'm not very sure how I will get there but I think it involves becoming popular and getting equipped to actually performing the tasks.I realized the other day that it could be a very selfish move because it exposes your whole family to privacy intrusions. It was while watching the most recent Heroes episode wherein

Watchmen

2009-03-14T01:16:00.000+08:00

Watchman is a visual marvel. Although it is 162 minutes (2.7 hours) long, there's not much parts that I wish were taken out. Based on a twit by my brother, which I cannot be bothered to confirm, the movie is rated PG13 in the Philippines while it is M18 (originally R21) here in Singapore. Yes tehre was a lot of blood and the themes are a bit heavy for young audiences.Several sources say that the

21

2009-03-13T01:19:00.000+08:00

So I turned 23 yesterday. Some people greeted me on Facebook the day before my actual birthday. So I changed my birthday to December 11 to decrease the chance of people who are doing so just because they saw it there. Some guy from the PR firmed hired by Google in the Philippines greeted me happy birthday via a phone call. I had more people call me this year to greet than in past years. I usually

Seasons

2009-02-23T22:37:00.000+08:00

I'm in the middle of watching the one and only season of "Aliens in America" regarding a Muslim Pakistani high school exchange student in a small town in the USA. The shows revolves around the themese of family, friendship, cultural adaptation, spirituality, fitting in, growing up, and a lot of other things I could really relate to.It is entertaining and funny. But there is always that nagging

Memories

2009-02-17T00:09:00.001+08:00

I was about to write something about the dust in the air making the night sky extremely bright, but I realized I've written something about that already. I just finished watching the first episode of Dollhouse which is about wiping out memories of people and implanting them with dead people's memories so that they could perform specific tasks for specific missions. It's something similar to the