“Orders that might conceivably result in catastrophic system failure require the corroboration of a ranking or second bridge officer” — Mother, Ship’s Computer

I recently rewatched Alien: Covenant (https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/alien-covenant) on Google Play. We finally bought a copy.

Everything about the film works for me: gorgeous cinematography, frightening action scenes, philosophy of the parent/child relationship, exploring and dealing with outer space, colonization, David’s portrayal by the talented Michael Fassbender, and the strong ensemble casting, plus the creepy deal with the black nanoparticles — it’s a great film for a cozy night at home for adults.

While watching, I was reminded how…

It’s been another year of literacy and I’m so pleased I can still read (I’ve noticed as I hit middle age that my eyes are becoming more and more weak).

A great trend I learned about is: Jólabókaflóð — Iceland’s reading tradition on Christmas Eve. Are you on GoodReads? Join me there, my username is “monicadear”.

2020

15,615 pages read, 54 books read.

(update December 31, 2020: 15813 pages read, 55 books read.)

Average book length in 2020: 289 pages (update 287 pages)

This is my journey in books for 2020!

As many of you know I’ve been fortunate to be able to share my story through various channels such as Pantheon, where I was highlighted on their Hero Spotlight. https://pantheon.io/blog/pantheon-hero-spotlight-monica-flores-technical-project-manager

Drupal as a tool is such an amazing, powerful, and straightforward content management system that allows even new users a great opportunity to build products/services to advance your own goals.

I’ll be presenting on Drupal as a content management system, spun up on the Pantheon platform, as part of my offerings at various conferences and panels including at upcoming Women in Tech Summits. Due to COVID-19 we’ve moved many of…

(This story was originally published at The Nook Online)

Establishing a pipeline of interested candidates, and actively recruiting, interviewing, and hiring those candidates, might be your organization’s best way to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in your staff workforce.

Here are ten of the top ways to integrate better, more thoughtful practices into your hiring procedures in an effort to build more inclusionary practices into your overall company culture.

Tip 1) Evaluate the job title

Look at current job-seeking tools like indeed.com, glassdoor.com, and other benchmarks for your industry to make sure your current job title, description, and range of responsibilities is appropriate and normal for…

I’ve been posting to Instagram using a combination of Canva and Buffer, and I’ve had the great fortune to have an inspiring collection of images created for the Female Founders and Investors network.

Want me to send you one of the inspiring quotes through your phone? Send a text “QUOTE” to #213–261–0305 and my “mebot” will send you one of my favorites.

Submit your favorite inspirational quote here: http://bit.ly/suggestquote for evaluation and potential addition into that mix.

Here’s a copy of all the quotes that I’ve collected, and you can find them moving forward, as we focus on supporting United…

I’m in! 👐

I just got my all access pass to The Wing #thewing, where I’m planning to be based out of the Georgetown branch, spending Fridays there and getting to know other women techies, founders, investors, doers and dreamers in the DC area.

What’s great about this membership network is the opportunity to have a home base when traveling, with 3 branches in NYC and one in SF, and new branches opening up in LA, London, Toronto, Seattle, and Chicago. Also, beautiful, inspiring amenities with a female focus, which is so different from “regular” coworking spaces (I see you…

My 2018 Reading Challenge

It’s been a fun year so far in terms of reading.

I’ve been implementing more of a focus on what I enjoy, rather than some hard deadlines I would give myself for prior challenges (i.e. 100 books in the challenge two years ago — it seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, this was too much for me).

Starting on the plane on the way back from a family trip to London in January, with “Nod” by Adrian Barnes (RIP), and recently finishing up in early November with a graphic novelization of…