Then Vega released her debut album in 2000, "Diamonds and Monsters". Vega co-wrote each of the songs. Vega takes on topics including self-esteem and child molestation. Music icon Carole King helped with the songwriting and provided backup vocals on "Rooftops". Other titles on the album include "Goodbye Girl" and "Be Ya Self" plus "Shine On." "Be Ya Self" is a girl-empowering anthem; "Diamonds and Monsters" is a song about abuse. The "monsters" in the title refer to the animals from the classic children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are" ("I think of them as really fun as opposed to scary," says Tarsha) and the "diamonds" are a metaphor for her own character. "Diamonds are very, very hard-although they're beautiful," she explained. "I have this kind of hard shell, but at the same time my mother managed to round me out into having a beautiful mind, spirit and soul." "Be Ya Self" is featured on the soundtrack for the movie, "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle". Tarsha was featured as writer and performer on the "Summer Catch" soundtrack with the song, "What It Beez Like". Vega collaborated with rapper Chubb Rock on the song "The Freshest" off the soundtrack for the film "Thirteen" starring Holly Hunter. As of 2011, Vega was serving as Executive Producer and Host for "theKNU", an Internet-based radio show on GVBradio.com. She appeared in the films "Get A Grip" and "Fugitive Hunter". Vega was born in The Bronx, New York, the only child of a single mother who worked for the New York City Department of Education. She said of her mom, "My mom and I are more like sisters." Catpac  Catpac is a computer program that analyzes text samples to identify key concepts contained within the sample. It was conceived chiefly by Richard Holmes, a Michigan State computer programmer and Dr. Joseph Woelfel, a University at Albany and University at Buffalo sociologist for the analysis of attitude formation and change in the sociological context. Contributions by Rob Zimmelman, an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Albany, from 1981 to 1984 on the Univac 1100 mainframe, included the inclusion of the CATPAC software in the Galileo*Telegal system, text-labeling and porting of CATPAC output for the Galileo system of paired-comparison conceptual visualization.