Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
Nothing to note today. Just that my boyfriend and I apparently were in movie watching mood. We were able to watch three movies before we called it quits for today.
Scream VI (2023). We definitely liked this better than the 5th installment. I should’ve known the objective of GF in this installment, I mean this was a “re-re-quel” after all. The acting was on point for each character, especially GF. One of the things that I actually enjoyed in this franchise was the big reveal, and the actors chosen to be GF did not shy away to show how unhinged they were. Especially for this installment. I also appreciated the fact that these newer installments were not scared to be stab happy. Even Sam, whose weapon of choice was a knife. I would watch the next installment hands down – if we ever get a next installment.
Halloween (2018). Despite knowing of The Shape, I actually only watched one movie from this franchise. Don’t ask me which one, I would not remember. It could be the first one. Maybe. Regardless, I do not remember much of it. My hun decided that he wanted to watch this one. Boy, I was on the edge of my seat. To say that I was stressed was an understatement. I had my dog on my lap for most of the movie because I needed comforting apparently. If Ghostface was stab happy, The Shape was the one-and-done kind of deal. His purpose was to kill, and that he did. He went on a rampage for one night. Pretty much killing on anyone he got his hands on, well, seemed like as long as they were alone. He didn’t really touch the little kids. Teens or preteens seemed to be fair game. And of course, Laurie. I liked it though. I am considering watching the other movies in this franchise.
Cabin in the Woods (2012). This one fell on the campier side of the horror genre. It did its job. It definitely was full of cliche but you know what, I enjoyed it. There were some parts where we were laughing, there were some parts where I just muttered “what the fuck”, and questions on what if they had chosen a different killer. Like the mermaid for example. Would it just crawl to the cabin? Who knows. I hoped my boyfriend appreciated this move more now that we watched it together. Hopefully, he enjoyed it more compared to the first time he watched it since he now knew that this was considered a horror comedy.
My hun and I were actually debating if we should have a movie day where we just watch movies since we tend to watch anime more on a daily basis. Not going to lie, this was nice. I mean, I still gravitate towards anime and 30-min episode series compared to 2 hr long movies but I liked the break in our routine. I wouldn’t mind having this kind of hangout.
- Title: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- Author: John Carreyrou
- Genre: True Crime, Nonfiction
- Pages: 352
- Publisher: Knopf
- Published: 2018
I’m pretty sure everyone is familiar with Elizabeth Holmes and her fall from grace because of some unethical and questionable practices. I had a phase where I was consuming a lot of true crime content, fraud included. I consumed pretty much all the documentaries about Theranos available to me on all the streaming services and I almost finished the Hulu series, The Dropout. So it was really just a matter of time before I would also consume this book. And consumed I did.
The book read like fiction and I was enamored from the beginning. This was very compellingly written and I found myself glued to my seat or found myself saying “one more chapter” while reading in bed. This book definitely chronicles the ins and outs of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. From being the darling of Silicon Valley to her downfall. The book exposed how the CEO ignored the many issues the employees raised and focused on her branding and legacy.
“We can change people in and out. The company is all that matters.” I don’t know what shit this girl was smoking back in the day, but I don’t know why she did not realize that the people in the company – the people who were actually working – made the company run. From engineers to lab personnel. These people that she considered replaceable were the talents. The company was also working on a diagnostic technology. However, these talents were not allowed to collaborate with each other. This huge project required heavy collaboration in order to see that the flow was working. Again, what was the CEO smoking?
I am not a stranger to toxic work environments, but Theranos brought it to a whole new level. The employees were micromanaged and overworked. For what? A catered dinner? Give me a break, this reminded me too much about pizza parties. If you appreciated my work, let me see it on my paycheck and we’ll call it even. Also, Elizabeth did not like being said no to. Employees who disagreed with her or voiced a differing opinion got fired or got forced to quit or got demoted. Theranos definitely fostered fear in their employees. I was annoyed reading these parts for sure. Being a people leader, I was aggravated and disgusted by this.
No one on the board has a medical background whatsoever. Let’s just say that they were out of their depths on this one. I won’t touch the white woman blue-eyed charmer and the older white men who basically put her on the pedestal. Regardless, Elizabeth was able to get these men on board in itself was talent in marketing and sales. I mean, Elizabeth was charming and that in itself was a skill. They got sold on a dream, an impossible one at that. And that stupid FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality from these commercial places that Theranos had a contract with was sickening. The leaders in charge of these places were so blinded by this new technology that they were so scared their competitors would pick it up before they did which lead to them ignoring the red flags.
The biggest sin was the fact that this lady stretched the truth about the capability of Theranos’ technology. This resulted in having said service available to the public – to actual patients! Thus endangering them by providing wrong results that could lead to incorrect diagnoses that heavily affect patient treatments. Who in their right mind would do this? Well, I guess someone could. Someone could blatantly ignore patient welfare just for the brand and legacy and oh, to fulfill a dream of being a billionaire.
Honestly though, despite the aggravation I felt reading this book, I was glad that I read it. The author was able to convey a clear picture of what happened in this fiasco of a company. The downfall was the most satisfying part. I mean, that was deserved. Granted it took a while, but I was glad that there were people brave enough to be whistleblowers for this company. This was a good page-turner that kept me engaged starting from the beginning till the end.