Like The Tomato
just me, my books, and my journals
- 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.
- Anime Title: Horimiya
- Episodes: 13
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: Aniplex of America
Who does not want a good cute slice-of-life romance anime? Well, to be honest, my boyfriend would not watch this anime on his own. He most likely would not even give this one a second glance. And that was fine, I was just glad that he has been open to watching some anime that he would normally ignore himself.
Anyway, what made me watch this? Because of this clip. One day, I just saw it on my YT feed and I was like, what the heck is this? And I was glad, I took the time to look it up. This anime was golden.
What is this about really? Sure, it’s easy to just say that this is a rom-com about young love. But ultimately, this is about people having part of themselves that they hide from other people. When it all comes down to it, you only let people see what you want them to see. And this is about finding that one person who will accept that part of yourself that you hide from the world.
I really appreciated how this anime did not make mundane things over the top as other anime had done. The storyline was solid. Nothing to complain about that. It was seamless. The natural progression of Hori and Miyamura’s relationship was great. There was nothing more amazing than finding someone who can accept and also love that hidden part of you.
The way this anime dealt with conflict was pretty good too. There were definitely some misunderstandings among the characters and you know what? They talked about it. It was so easy to just let these characters wallow in doubt and let them jump to conclusions, but no, the anime let the characters talk about these things. We as viewers were not waiting for the resolutions until the last episode. I say that was pretty healthy way to resolve some conflicts.
The anime did not shy away from heavy topics either – from separation anxiety, bullying, isolation, suicide even. They were presented perfectly and dealt with healthily.
What made this anime for me though was Miyamura. I just love his inner monologues. Also, I felt like he had the most visible character development. I mean, his experiences in season one shaped him to be this person by the end and I loved it. He started as this shy high school loner kid and by the end, he was this confident person with friends.
I also liked the fact that after Hori and Miyamura got together, the anime shifted to the characters around them. It would have been so easy to just keep these characters as background and just focus on the main love storyline. I really loved Tooru Ishikawa. Sure, he was not the main character but he was so fleshed out. It was impossible not to love him. He was friendly, supportive, and just an awesome guy.
Overall, this anime was really good. I loved the story. I loved the pacing. I loved how real the anime was. I loved the characters. This anime was pretty up there for me. I gave this a 9/10. My boyfriend gave this an 8/10. This would be one of the anime that I rewatch from time to time.
Since I moved here 5-ish years ago, one of the main complaints I had was that there were no Filipino sit-down restaurants around me. And there was just no way I would be driving South in traffic to get to one. Sure, you would think I would not be craving Filipino food. I mean, you would think that I can just cook the dishes myself. However, there are some dishes that I have no idea how to cook. Or I have looked at the recipes online already and I just have not the courage to try cooking yet.
Imagine my happiness when I saw this restaurant, Filcuisine, during a grocery shopping trip one weekend. I just have to try it out. Because the last time I was at a sit-down Filipino restaurant was when I visited SoCal a few months ago. So I tried this restaurant out with my roommate and we couldn’t be anymore happier.
First Order: Crispy Sizzling Sisig. This was made with morsels of savory roasted pork, with onions, jalapenos, and citrus juice, topped with freshly cracked egg, and served on a sizzling hot plate. This dish was always a staple for me when I go to a Filipino restaurant. Let me tell you, this was so good. I definitely prefer this sisig over the dish served at a popular Filipino chain restaurant. I would come back for this over and over.
Second Order: Crispy Kare Kare. This version of the classic kare kare was made with crispy lechon kawali slices paired with the classic kare kare peanut sauce, and of course, veggies. It definitely looked attractively good. And I was tempted to eat some, but I had to restrain myself. I am allergic to some of the ingredients in this dish, as well as the bagoong (shrimp paste) that you eat this dish with. I would have to take my roommate’s word for this. She said she loved it. I watched her eat this nonstop during our lunch, I’d say it was really good. And yes, I am currently researching how to make this dish Roma-proof. Because I miss eating this one.
Third Order: Pork Adobo Fried Rice. It was fried rice, with chunks of pork adobo, egg, and green onions. This fried rice was flavored with savory adobo seasoning. It was good. I mean, my favorite Filipino dish was adobo. So no surprise that I would like this fried rice. And I also forgot to take a picture of this one. Fail on my part. Let’s just say that I was too hungry and I just wanted to dig in.
Fourth Order: Laing. This dish was made of taro leaves simmered in coconut milk. For me and my roommate, this was the star of that lunch. We could not stop eating this. It was that good. Very rarely that I see this dish served at Filipino restaurants, I do not know why. I do not understand it. Regardless, this was the dish that we had to physically tell ourselves to stop eating because we wanted to take home some leftovers. And yes, I also want to learn how to make this dish at home.
The serving size I got for all the dishes were regular sizes. Pretty decent sharing portions, and we still had leftovers after. So we got to enjoy the dishes for dinner at home. Were we in a food coma after? Yeah, a major one. Would we come back? Hell yeah, we would. It was just about making sure to go there right when they open or after the lunch rush. Because the place could get really crowded. I mean, the food was really good, and the demand was high, so I was not surprised that this place was poppin’!
- Title: Darling Girl
- Author: Liz Michalski
- Genre: Fantasy
- Pages: 352
- Publisher: Dutton
- Published: 2022
I would like to assume that everyone has heard of Peter Pan. Or at least familiar with it. I never watched the Disney movie, Peter Pan. I have not read the book. However, the Peter Pan I knew was from an anime adaptation of the novel by JM Barrie. I enjoyed this anime while growing up in the Philippines. So for this purpose, let’s just say that I am familiar with Peter Pan. This book followed Holly, the granddaughter of Wendy Darling – yes that Wendy from the fairy tale. Holly had to take on the infamous Peter Pan to save her daughter’s life.
What made me pick this up? When this book showed up on Book of the Month, I had to get it. The premise itself was interesting. I mean, you cannot go wrong with a dark Peter Pan. And I enjoyed that aspect of the book. It was nice to see Peter Pan not being the golden boy. Let’s just say that this book would definitely give you a different idea of the boy himself. I loved it. And honestly, it made me continue reading the book. Heads up though, trigger warning for the depiction of sexual assault.
However, regardless of the premise, I had issues with Holly. The protagonist. She was not likeable whatsoever. There were decisions she made that I questioned and hated her for. I was livid for the most part when I was reading. And that made me struggle a lot since the book was following her. There were some questions about morals and ethics for sure. All I could think of was “What the fuck is wrong with you”.
What really made my skin crawl? Holly’s tryst with Peter. Sure, it might not be a prolonged affair. But she was doing sexual things with this boy. The excuse? He looked older than what was described in the fairy tale. But how old? One thing that stood out to me was the concept that Peter Pan gets old, he just does not grow up. So you’re saying this man-child has a handicap? And then what annoyed me more, just to justify the actual sexual act in this book, it was put in as a sexual assault. Peter assaulted Holly and that resulted in her getting pregnant.
There was also a private investigator in this book that made me smile when he was on the pages. The way he was introduced made me swoon, and from then, I was just swooning.
The book was good, I found the premise really interesting. However, I did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. And that was because the MC was just so darn unlikeable. I really do not like her. It was so hard to read because I found her decisions and rationales so infuriating. The ending was fine. I just wished I saw the big showdown between Peter and the investigator. And I somehow felt cheated because Holly was not in the final showdown so I missed the whole climax of it. Would I reread this? Probably not. But hey, I would keep this on my bookshelf regardless.
This was long overdue. I visited SoCal in late February to early March this year. So, this post had been super delayed. No excuse just going through some pictures on my phone and found some snapshots I got from a brunch!
The 411: I have a best friend from the Philippines, we’ve been friends since elementary. Sure we might not be as active in keeping up and talking to each other. But he moved to SoCal right after I moved to the PNW, so we kind of missed our chance to actually hang out. The last time I saw him in person was during my brother’s wedding back in the Philippines back in 2014. So it has been a long while. Anyway, I knew I had to see him during my visit to SoCal. I shot him a message the morning after I arrived, and we set the date for when we would have this catch-up thing.
Don decided on the places that we went to since he was from there and I have not been in the area for almost five years. The first thing that we realized was that we were practically neighbors! Flashback to when we were in elementary and high school. His house back in the Philippines was within walking distance from my house. My parents’ house was less than five minutes drive from his house. So that was nice. Like, back in the day.
Anyway, for brunch, he chose Urban Island. From the get-go, he introduced this place as some kind of fusion Fil-Am restaurant. We went there on a weekday and it was raining. You heard that right, it was raining in SoCal when I visited. And just the timing of our visit to the restaurant, the place was not packed. Thank god, cause the restaurant shares a plaza with this huge Asian market. Imagine if we went there over the weekend, that plaza would be packed.
We ordered warm pandesal with ube butter for starters. Dude, that ube butter was the star of the show. It was so good. I know it was just butter, but damn, that ube flavor elevated this butter to new heights.
Another one we ordered was the FOB Fries. Basically, fries with pork belly sisig, rooster sauce, pico de Gallo, topped with a fried egg. Not going to lie, these fries hit differently. Just look at this as the FIlipino version of loaded fries. It was good, but I would prefer this with alcohol. I mean, the dish was under the category Pulutan on their menu so I would not be surprised if this dish matches well with San Mig.
I ordered the classic Tortang Talong. Classic dish. It was a roasted whole eggplant omelet, with ground longganisa, gouda cheese, served over fried garlic rice. You could also get this with hashbrowns. I had the tortang talong with just regular ground pork/beef but never with longganisa. Having it with ground longganisa slapped. The little surprise though was the gouda cheese. It did kind of elevated the dish a little bit. But I could also do without it. This dish was better with hot sauce. And yes, I am thinking of recreating it since it was so good.
Don ordered a Barkada Bowl. So it has bacon, pork belly, topped with longganisa gravy, cheddar cheese, fried egg and scallions, served over fried rice. You could also substitute fried garlic rice with hashbrowns. He swore by this, I would take his word for it. I was not able to taste it since I had my own food to eat.
Food was good. I would describe it as Filipino food with a twist – well, definitely, a Fil-Am fusion. I appreciated the little things they did to elevate some Filipino food faves. This place was definitely more for people, Filipinos to be exact, who have more of an adventurous palate. My mom didn’t like the place as much, but then again, she liked her Filipino food traditional. I enjoyed my time here because I was with my best friend and we had some good conversations between us. Would I come back again when I visit SoCal? Definitely. I would go back at night though, cause I really would like to try their pulutan with some alcohol.
- Anime Title: Chainsaw Man
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: MAPPA
This anime came out alongside the newest season of Bleach, so obviously I placed this on our anime watchlist. And after hearing a lot of people giving this anime such good words, my hun and I finally decided to pick it up.
This anime follows the protagonist, Denji, an impoverished boy and an unofficial devil hunter to pay his father’s debts. One incident happened that made him form a contract with a cute dog-like devil, Pochita. The contract basically fused their bodies in turn giving Denji the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. He later joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters, which was a government group focused on killing devils.
Pretty interesting premise, and it delivered. Denji was a different sort of main character compared to a lot of the Shonen main characters we experienced before. He did not have a clear-cut goal. No big dreams of being a leader of something. No big goals of revenge. Nothing like that. And to me, that was refreshing to see. He only had one simple dream – to live a good, comfortable life. And he reached that goal the moment he joined the Public Safety group. So for the rest of this first season, it was just about maintaining it. He did have some mini-goals in the series – to hold breasts, and to kiss someone. Some people might argue that those were pretty shallow goals and I argue back, he already reached his dream, and now he could focus on what matters for a kid his age. I couldn’t hate him and wouldn’t criticize him for it. Those were fair goals for a 16-year-old boy.
The thing that made this anime stand out for me was how female characters were portrayed. We’ve all seen how female characters were portrayed in some of the popular Shonen anime. I don’t need to reiterate that. But this anime showed some strong female characters that did not fall in the token female category.
Let’s talk about Himeno for a quick second here. She was hot. Let’s not make this any more complicated than that. It was so easy to just put her there for fan service. They did not do that. Sure, you see her in a tank top and a pair of underwear in her own apartment. You saw her undressing to take a shower and even then it was not explicit. This was something that you would do at your own apartment. She was the leader of a group of devil hunters. A LEADER and very capable at that. A role that would normally be given to a male character. But on top of that, she has flaws. She could be considered promiscuous. A playboy, as you may. Having kissed most of the team members apparently. She has depth. Carrying the guilt that she had multiple partners die on her watch. That was a heavy burden to carry and she even visits their graves regularly.
How about that scared girl who wanted to kill Denji to survive? Kobeni. This character I had to marinate in my brain first. Sure I found her annoying the first time she was introduced. She was scared shitless and she was not thinking straight. But now that I had some time to think about it, being scared was the normal reaction for someone who was in this business. The only way for them to survive that situation was to sacrifice Denji. And she tried to do that because that was the logical thing to do to save the other members of the team. But you know what? She overcame her fears to even save Denji later on and we were shown how capable she really was.
How about Power? The fan favorite. The manic pixie dream girl character. She was not my favorite, to be honest, but I saw the appeal. She was feral. Because she was. She was fun. She does what she wants. She does not care. And for all the trios that we saw in anime, this female character did not blend in the background. She did not have any romantic attachments to either Aki or Denji. She was not useless. And for the most part, she was on equal footing with his partners. She has her faults, she is not the strongest, and she fucks up, but she does not care. She would still say that she was the best out of all of them.
Makima, I mean, the boss. A female boss. We have not seen enough of her yet, but all I know, just from watching the anime, was the fact that she is one scary bitch. And I would not want to mess with her, EVER. Because her contract with whatever devil makes her that powerful.
Overall, I found this anime enjoyable. It did not give me the chills compared to some of my favorite Shonen anime. But it did the job. The animations were good. At least I think so. I enjoyed how the fight scenes were carried out. The execution overall was great. And I would like to watch the second season when it comes out. Because I want to see what happens next. Do I think it was overrated? Do I think it was overhyped? Sure. But I see the appeal of the anime. The bottom line is enjoyment is preferential. Some people will give this an S rating and some will put it in A. I will put it in the A rank category.