Episode 17: Tearyne Almendariz  [music] Welcome to the first episode of season 2 of Community and Code. I'm Chris Reynolds and I'm so happy to be kicking off 2026 with this conversation with Taran Almondarees. Taran is a longtime Drupal community member, a friend of mine, a former developer advocate, and the human being behind the handle Nine Lives Blackat. In this episode, we talk about how online identities shape who we become. We talk about developer advocacy and how it's like therapy for developers and how accessibility becomes real the moment you need it yourself. And we talk about why community events shouldn't default to venues and activities where alcohol consumption is assumed as a default. We also get into Taran's Twitch streaming and what it looks like to intentionally build a community where people can show up as their true selves. If you haven't already, click the subscribe button wherever that might be uh in your podcaster to make sure you get these uh updates in the podcaster of choice or on YouTube or wherever you're consuming this. Uh and without further ado, here's Taran. Welcome to Comedian Code, the podcast where we talk to the human beings behind the commits. And today I'm talking to Taran Almondarees who is a longtime Drupalista. I believe that's the appropriate word. Uh who is she's worn a lot of hats. I will say that she's been involved in Drupal community. Uh she's done developer advocacy. Uh she's now currently working as a uh as a consultant and that can mean a million different things. Uh welcome to the show Taran. Uh tell us about yourself. >> Hi Chris, thanks for having me. So yes, I'm Taran Almondar. It is pronounced like Karen with a T. I've done this so many times. cuz I felt it like immediately turn on, right? Um, right now I am, what all am I doing? So, I am the owner/operator/founder slash I needed something to put on the taxes. I own NLBC Works, which is a consulting firm doing like technical marketing. Um, NLBC refers to my name on Drupal, Nine Lies Black Cat, which was my gamer tag. And I didn't realize that they were going to print it on my badge. I joke on and uh then my street name is out there, but I've just been embracing it. Um I'm also a Twitch streamer. I'm also a mom. I used to be very involved in politics. >> I I do a lot I wear a lot of hats and a lot of wigs. A lot of wigs. [laughter] >> Yeah, maybe the metaphor is a little bit different uh with the wig collection. Um, tell me about uh what drew you to Drupal specifically originally or like maybe your your origin story into tech just generally. >> Yeah, I think that the origin story into tech is going to be a little bit more interesting cuz like like it is with most people that are in Drupal. It's like I needed a job and then there was a job and I needed to learn Drupal so I did it right. Um come for the code, stay for the community as they say. But in the background you see how I have like all this anime stuff. A lot of it is from Sailor Moon. And what happened is that when I was like 14, 15, I told my parents, "Hey mom, I've been watching, hey mom, hey dad." Um, I've been watching this show. It's called Sailor Moon. And I just found out Sailor Moon is from Japan. And they're like, okay, that's cool. And I was like, I want to learn how to speak Japanese cuz Sailor Moon speaks Japanese. That's why her mouth doesn't match when she's talking. Like, okay, um, here's some books. And I was like, okay, cool. So, I'm like teaching myself Japanese, right? Because I'm just like, that's who I've been. That is who I've been my whole life. If I want to do a thing, I go and do it. And then I'm like, "Mom and dad, do you know what I found out? You can make websites about Sailor Moon on the internet. I want to learn how to make websites." And they're like, "Okay, um, here's a book on how to make websites." And so that's what I did. So, >> see, I never got a book. I just got a Geio Cities account and I was like, uh, looking at like the source code of everybody else's Geio's account and then like copying blocks of HTML into my site and then figured out eventually that those things meant stuff. Nice. I got to that point like uh in the Neopets in MySpace era, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yep. That was a huge part of why I learned CSS and I was like, "Oh my god." I remember when I discovered PHP, I was like, "What do you mean I don't have to copy this same text from the website over and over again? I can just have it called. It'll just show up." I was so proud of myself. So proud. >> I had been when I learned that PHP was a thing. I had been doing copying and pasting like Pearl scripts and like CGI bin type files. Like >> I didn't know what any of this stuff did. I just knew that like I could went to a I could go to a website and I could search for a thing. I'm like, "Do you have anything that does this type of thing?" And there would be a script that came up and it was like copy and paste this stuff and like change these things. like, okay, I can copy and paste stuff and change things. So, like when I learned that PHP was like a language that sort of kind of did that stuff except like better, >> that didn't require these weird libraries that would break. I was like, "Oh, okay. This is this is this is this is actually sustainable. This is like this is like something I can actually maybe do." >> So, I know like I don't know. I'm trying to think of so what is happening right now is that my brain sees a camera in front of me and knows that I'm recording a thing and it's like you need to ask the next question. It's like no it's your turn to get asked questions. It's like but we have to do something. We have to do >> I mean you can ask me questions. I usually I'm the one that asks questions but I'm I'm happy to toss it over to you. I mean obviously [laughter] obviously we're both pretty practiced at being the host. Uh oh yeah talk about uh so so yeah you uh I mean we worked together once upon a time and again now but uh previously you were uh kind of in my role at the company that I am currently at doing the thing that I do at that company took my job. [laughter] >> I didn't literally take your job. he didn't literally take my job is a whole long story. [laughter] But yes, >> um but like what drew you to that side of of development because it's very different than the actual like working with people and clients and like uh and and I've talked to like I talked to a bunch of Devrils on on this podcast like so what what drew you and what do you see as as sort of the extension or the like where Devril fits in sort of like developer experience? >> I love this question. Uh so what happened is that you know for me coding is like solving puzzles right figuring things out. How does this work? And the thing that I really enjoy is solving puzzles for other people in ways that like help them to get what they need done. Uh it's why I really loved my job when I was working at the city of Dallas for their civilian retirement fund. Right. And I did that. But then I wanted to do cooler things that were more dynamic that would help more people. So I moved on to another job and then another job after that. And I was at Lullababot at the time and I was trying to figure out like what's the next step for me because on a lot of teams that I've been on, right, I was a front-end developer which was a whole different change from like being a web master. And I know I told you I wanted to talk about like identities on the internet, right? >> Um, so I became a front-end developer. I'm solving all these problems, but I'm also being the person that's kind of like the business analyst hat. I should have had a bunch of hats. Um, I also have ADHD. That's a huge part of my personality. raining back end and I was like okay what do I do next and then Fatima Colin um who was a the developer advocate before both of us so it's like a chain of web de >> it's a chain of developer advocacy right yes um she's like you know you might be interested in being a developer advocate and so I was like oh well what is that and she said to me it's like you get to be a therapist for developers and I was like I can do that because I have cried over code a And I would love to hold someone's hand through that. I'd like to be there for them. >> A therapist [laughter] for developers. This that's the first time I've heard it described as that. >> Uh I I I think I like that. I don't know that I like the pressure associated with being a therapist for developers. [laughter] >> It's like it's not you, it's the semicolon. I promise. >> Yeah, that's that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um >> how did you really feel about that commit? [laughter] >> Yeah. I mean I I think I think that's true. I think that's a an interesting take. Um >> uh I think that and obviously like so Fatima um we uh we also have worked together a little bit and I had her on the Pantheon live stream which we can uh link to in the show notes or whatever. Uh um she's over at GitLab now and you were at GitLab. >> I was at GitLab with her for a while. Yeah. It's like I'm following Fatima everywhere she goes. I promise it's an accident. >> Yeah. Um but what what's uh being there's a big difference between because part of part of what Devril is is also kind of um being the the public face um >> and uh we can talk about uh your public faces uh because there might be plural. Um, >> was developer uh relations sort of like an introduction or were you already kind of out in the world with your face plastered on things before becoming a developer advocate? >> That's a good question. I kind of was actually like in small parts because what happened when I went to my first Drupal con is that I met uh this guy named Colleen Harris. I actually have a LinkedIn post about it. I'm going to tell the story in small parts. So, I met Khim at my first Drupal Con and he explained, you know, if you want to level up in your job, you need to get out there and you need to go and like give talks. And I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Cuz before, like I could not order food for myself at a restaurant, right? Like, hello. Um, and I wouldn't make my dad order the food until he was like, "You know what? You're going to learn the skill." And then he just kind of walked away. And me and the person at the restaurant are like staring right. Um, but I wanted to get better. I loved the work that I was doing and how it was helping people and I said, well, you know, I think I can do this. There were problems that I encountered and that I learned about uh working for the city with regard to web accessibility and I was like, I figured out some of these problems. I know that a lot of other people have these issues and by me speaking up, I can help other people to fix their problems. So I did my first talk, it was called like government issues and that is a short version of the name that I will keep to because I listen to a lot of fallout while growing up. So it was a very long title. Almost all of my talks have very long titles. >> But I did that at Texas Drupal Camp. That was my first camp that I spoke at. It was in a smaller room and it was kind of scary but everyone was really cool about it. Um, so I did that I think three times that year. And then I remember the reason why I kept doing it is because not because like of the attention that I got, but because people would come up and be like, you know, thank you so much for talking about that. I'm dealing with this problem too and this gives me a way to solve it. Or I tried this and it didn't work for me, you know, or here's something that I um tried and it didn't it it did work. And I remember um actually at one of my first Drupal Cons, a Pantheon employee heard me talking about how my senior developer at one position that will remain nameless for now um said to me, "Well, we have to just back up our files manually because you can't use Git. Git is resource inensive." And that Pantheon employee was like, "No, that person's peeing on your leg and telling you it's raining." They didn't they didn't say like that, right? That's my way. But seeing like that being a developer advocate, maybe that made the impression on me that you could help people like both to know like how to fix a problem and how to navigate issues like how to know like what is solvable and what is not and like when's it time to push the ejector seat. That's a ' 80s kid reference there. But um that that really I feel like that's what uh inspired me to be in and stay in developer advocacy for as much as I could. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think a lot of us uh myself included have been doing the work of developer relations for long before we had the title of developer advocate or developer you know evangelist or whatever you're going to call it. Um, and a thing that has come up a couple times on this show this year has been um I guess maybe last year when this uh episode is being uh released um >> uh is is the idea that um like speaking as a way both to to overcome like social anxiety and and things like that, but also seek speaking as a shortcut for introverts uh at an event. Because when you present something at the event, you don't actually have to start conversations cuz other people will just come up to you and start talking to you. >> So you don't have to like super go out be outgoing and have and initiate conversations because people will come and talk to you instead. >> So you're an introvert. >> I am not personally although I'm a bit more of an ambbervert I think these days. Um, >> but uh I definitely have always been more well I mean I guess the thing is like it's always it's weird like >> I like being around people. I've always been doing like like in high school I was doing theater. I've always been like, >> you know, really social, but >> um I >> in in situations where I'm around people that I maybe don't know uh or or an unfamiliar situation, I'm very much going to like stick to the walls and and wallflower unless I'm pulled into a conversation or or >> or or if there if I have allies around me, right? Um, >> so, so like I mean, and and that's a thing that I've that I've even like even this last year too, like um it's a thing that I've I've been working on when I went to I went to Presconf uh last year um >> and I was going by myself >> uh and um because no one else from Pantheon was going. >> Um and I knew that I would know people there, >> but I didn't I wasn't going with anyone. So I didn't have like a de facto like social group to fall back on even like you know I kind of knew that there but it wasn't like official or whatever and um [clears throat] and so I just told um Courtney Robertson who I'm hoping to get on this podcast at some point. >> Courtney, come on. Come on. Come on. >> Um I just uh she's a developer advocate at uh GoDaddy and I said I I said don't let me wallflower. And so when I got there, she just like made it her job to introduce me to like every single person and pull me over and like and that I mean it helped. And we like and and what was really cool that came out of that uh was um there was like a handful of us that were either um vegan or one person uh was um kosher. Um [clears throat] and the the way that the event was set up is like everybody kind of goes off off campus or you know off off venue to go out and get food. So, we just kind of like had our own little vegan collective uh called which we called Veg Press. Uh and we just like ate ate lunch together and then sometime a couple nights had dinner together and like that was it was really cool because to have that sort of like okay well I know this is taken care of because like there's a bunch of other people that are in the same boat as me. Um which is also like super valuable for for like pro tip for anyone who's like like in that situation like yeah find find your find your allies find your find your people. I have a similar story to that which is like I feel like this leans into the identity thing, right? Where the way that you identify or like parts that of you that make up your identity end up kind of determining like who you end up being social with. So toward the end of the first stint that I was at at Pantheon, right? I was pregnant and I was very early in my pregnancy and we went to an event and most of what was getting brought out was like there was water. >> Was there water? But then there was beer and I couldn't say anything, right? And it's like I can't drink this beer. So what ended up happening is I went and talked to one of the people at the restaurant. I was like, "Hi, I'm pregnant. No one at my job knows. could you please bring some lemonade out? Right? And so what happened is that the other people who did not drink either for like health reasons, religious reasons, or professional reasons, whatever reason it was, I met a bunch of people that I would not have met if I had not had the picture of lemonade at my table. So it's really interesting like how that works out. >> Yeah. I've I've not my partner and I have stopped drinking a couple years ago. >> Yeah. And the last last year going to events, it's been very interesting being like previously I would try to I would just not drink. I would just get water and I would just be whatever. >> Um but like this last year and because I was going to a lot more events this year. Um, >> it was very interesting being the sober the sober one in the room and and like finding other people that are like also not partaking of the the free the you know open bar or like whatever drinks are being and like also like finding okay so going to places and like all the parties are always at at bars almost always at bars right so it's always it's always a thing so it's like okay uh how well has this particular venue you planned for people in my situation? Like, do they have an actual like mocktail uh list or do they have >> or they just have like Yeah, you can have a Coke. Well, I don't drink Coke either, but like [laughter] you know, like I guess in a pinch, you know. >> Yeah, I know. Uh this sort of reminds me of another part of my identity, right, for a while cuz time is wibbly wobbly now. Um, I was the lead of the Drupal diversity inclusion initiative. And one of the things that we made sure to do, right, because even at Drupal cons, right, we're inclusive and things of that nature, but >> there are a lot of parties and in tech, a lot of parties involve drinking. Um, years before that, I had gone to see a talk by a gentleman named Victor Yoko, and he described like why it was so important for reasons of like people who don't want to drink, right? and he talks about like how um I don't want to like misquote anything but like there are people who yes they don't drink because they don't want to because pregnant other things but also how some people are alcoholics and by not offering a non-alcoholentric opportunity you are excluding somebody from a room um you're excluding them from networking right to be being able to contribute to your project and that always carried with me and so every year the Drupal diversity inclusion init initiative. Um, at Drupal Con, we have um a board game night. Like, that's our way of getting together and hanging out, right? That's our way of having fun. If you want to order alcohol, you can. It is optional. And uh it's it's been so great. This last Drupal Con in Atlanta in 2025, we had it at a uh like this little hole-in-the-wall bar that was also like a barcade, but they had plenty of like mocktails, so everybody got to do whatever they wanted to. And the thing that brought us together to have fun was just like all of the games that were there. Yep. And it was quiet, too. So, it's like we can choose. I know there's a lot of people with sensory overload stuff. So, Yep. our identities bring us together and drive us apart. >> I um that reminds me of a um I was at a company retreat many not many years a few years ago >> um for a company that I worked at before Pantheon. >> Uh and >> you know at night after a day long of like you know doing work sessions and stuff in person um obviously we go to the bar, we go to whatever and and get together and hang out and drink. Um, and I had a friend who um drank heavily um >> several nights in a row and then got completely trashed and the next day he's like, "I'm not doing that again and I I need to not do this again." And I was like, "Okay, um well, why don't I be your sober buddy? >> Like, >> you don't drink and I won't drink for the rest of the trip." And like I don't have any particular reason to not, but like I I can I will do this to make sure that like you have somebody an ally that's doing this with you at least. Yeah. >> And that seemed to help. And I think I think that he's been sober ever since. Oh. >> Um, so I think I mean like it just takes like somebody to to like just caring about people like and that gets into like yeah the the the substance abuse thing where like >> um like I don't I I wouldn't necessarily characterize him as an alcoholic at the time but he was conscious enough of the sort of >> I don't want to say destructive behavior but like the consequences of >> like his actions that he wanted to make a choice to to do something different and that he did and I like to think that that I helped a little bit. Um but um you know regardless I think he's in a better place. Um, and that's awesome. And like people have a million reasons to to make those decisions. And I I think that it's >> it's always important, especially for like event planning type stuff >> to consider >> the full spectrum of human beings because there's a lot of different like lot of us lot of different places on your journey that you could be for a lot of different things. >> Yep. I know the reason why I ended up getting so deep into accessibility. Um, you know, I I knew, you know, everybody knows like you see the little thing, it's like, oh, this is hand to get parking, right? That's what it was when we were kids. >> And one summer when I was a receptionist, uh, working for this place that monitors like pool phones, like it's the whole thing. But I was there and as [clears throat] a receptionist, I'm like this with my phone all day, right? M >> and I got swimmer's ear, which I did not realize that you could get if you weren't swimming, but there we are. And the thing about that was I lost hearing in this ear for like a good I want to say it was like at least two months. And so I couldn't put, you know, how I have my earbuds in today, I couldn't do that. And if I wanted to watch a video or tutorial or something on YouTube, if I was not able to like sit and listen to it like out loud, I had to have subtitles. And that made me realize how much stuff on the internet is not subtitled. >> Yeah. >> And it it just I looked more into like how do you do this? How would you even get this going? And you know, I had a disability temporarily, >> right? >> Right. Most people do not realize like they think like you're either born able-bodied or you're born not able-bodied, right? And it's like no, every so often like even pregnancy is like uh determined as a disability temporarily, right? And I can tell you the way that my ligaments change because of the chemical composition of things flowing through my body. Yeah, that was a disability. It was not fun. Um also the the heartburn that no one told me about. Chris, >> I'm sorry for the heartburn that nobody told you about. They, you know, they tell you about, oh yeah, you're going to get nausea and it's like, okay, I can deal with that. Just heartburn, relentless heartburn, right? But we're going to talk about being a mom in a bit, but um you know, there's all these things that can happen to you either long term or short term, and it affects your abilities, right? But it also affects how you identify, like how you see yourself, >> you know? Um, I know like me going through pregnancy that changed a lot of how I understood my world, how my husband, you know, showed up in our relationship. Um, I saw alien the alien movie Prometheus and when they like did the thing and they tried to like she had to get the alien. Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it. >> It's been like a long time. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, in that movie, like first of all, I did not know it was an alien movie. I freaking hate aliens. I am terrified of aliens. Like, we can talk about like never mind. I won't do it. I just don't. That is my biggest phobia. But the alien like put the baby inside of her or whatever, right? And she's like, I don't want this in here. So, she goes to the machine to like get the C-section and like it's C-section cuts her and I'm like, no, never want that. Nope. Never. Not at all. And so in my care instructions on the little whiteboard they had, they're like, "What do you want us to have?" And it's like, "Uh, no poking, no cutting." And I did that on purpose because I wanted people to ask like >> it would make it so it's like, "Why? Why is this up here? What does this mean?" So that way I could be like, "I don't want an epidural. I don't want to have a C-section." >> And you know what? I ended up with >> an epidural and a C-section. And you know, I had the greatest um OBGYn because, you know, uh TLDDR is that the way that my body is shaped after like after you don't have babies for like 30 some odd years, right? There's another identity thing. Sorry if you're watching this. I promise this makes sense. So, I am 38 this year. 38 this year. When you get past like 35 and you get pregnant, Chris, do you know what they label your pregnancy as? Uh yeah. Isn't it like uh I don't want to say like an elderly but some some stupid >> geriatric geriatric. >> You have a geriatric pregnancy. >> Yeah. >> So this is the thing, right? And uh I I was I had to get like special ultrasounds, right? And it had to be covered because I was at this age and all these other things, right? Um and that changed how people interacted with me, how that pregnancy went. But because I spent like so long not pregnant, my body's like, I don't know. We have we don't open this door. Like what? And I'm sorry. Like hopefully if you're listening to this, this is a part of life. Whatever. Why am I apologizing? And so my daughter, like she was having uh whenever the contractions were happening, it was lowering her heart rate. >> And [clears throat] it's like I had to get over >> Yeah. Yeah. >> my fear so that she could be born, right? I had to have the C-section. And I think the greatest gift that my doctor gave to me, right, was not trying to push me into it, but um when I signed up to meet with him, um I have ADHD and I had also learned a couple years before that that I have generalized anxiety disorder. And I was like, "What's Gad?" So, because he knew these things, he said, "Hey, Taran, I know that this is not the thing that you wanted to do. This is what we need to do, and I'm going to give you time to process it." M >> and you know just the fact that he stood there holding my hand and he listened to me. I was like I didn't want to do this and he's like I know like I wanted to like just have my baby naturally and it gave me the time to accept you know yes this is the thing I need to do in order for this other person who is now like the biggest part of my identity [snorts] to be here the person I've been waiting like 30 some odd years to see. >> Mhm. >> So yeah. >> Yeah. Well, that and that's a going back to the original point too, like not not to not to uh downplay your um but but the original point of of like the idea that uh disability or accessibility >> needs are not for people that are permanently disabled or permanently have uh accessibility needs that it like I I remember seeing a couple different uh talks uh at like word camps and whatever um talking about accessibility and talking about with the idea that like if the sun is really bright and it's shining on your phone and you can't read the text on your phone, that is also an accessibility issue. Like there's a million there's a whole spectrum of of things that that count as accessibility. It's not just this one thing. It's not just the handicap the car that you put in your your car and the special parking that you space that you have. I mean, that's part of it, sure, but there's a million different things that I can apply to. um and and where we are is different day by day. And I think that that's definitely a thing that um is is an important part of of understanding how accessibility applies to uh web development. The thing that that brought me to the internet, that brought you maybe to the internet. >> Um a lot of us, a lot of the people that might be listening to this. Um yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. I kind of want to ask you questions now. >> Okay. you can ask questions. >> Thank you. [laughter] So, I wanted to talk about identity stuff, but I also want to know like because we know each other, but like >> were you on AOL chat rooms back in the long time ago days? >> I didn't do AOL chat rooms. Okay. I pated AOL chat rooms. >> What? >> I did BBS's. In fact, >> I uh I paid for a BBS sub subscription to a BBS >> before I paid for internet access. >> What? This is a thing. >> Yeah. So, so there is a there is um >> I I think so I first I first learned that these things existed like uh through a friend um and I would access things on the library and then I saw that you could like >> oh you just need a phone like a like a modem and then you can connect to the phone line and then you can dial this number and it connects you to this like chat room where there's other people and there's like a network at the time of these local like city-based uh BBS's and different places. And so I went to the uh the San Francisco one. Um and and then eventually um because I think server cost and whatever, they started charging um for access to their um and also I think because it was part of a network. Um so it started charging for access and so and it was like 20 bucks a month or something. So I was paying 20 bucks a month to to connect via you know telephoneep to this one specific BBS server. um before I realized a uh that you could do that over like I think Telnet or something. >> Yeah, I know TNTE. Yeah. >> Uh which I I learned later that you could do that over TNET. Um but at the time it was like direct dial to the server. Um and I paid for that for at least a couple months before I got my actual first internet access. And when I got internet access and I realized you could just do that over TNET, uh then I was doing that all the time. Um, but yeah, so I I never did AOL chat rooms because I was in the old school textbased like PBS rooms. >> Oh, okay. Okay. So, [snorts] and the reason why I know about Telnet is because Okay. So, for my brain, right, the internet kind of started with America Online. >> Mhm. >> And then there was Earthlink. >> Yeah. I had I had Earthlink. Um, my parents used America Online, >> but I Yeah, I my the first thing that I could and I think it was because it was in like a like a PC magazine or something. It was like, you know, for for ISP. So, I'm like, okay, this one I didn't want to do AOL. And I had a friend that did CompuServe. >> Um, that's right. CompuServe. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um, and I was like, I don't want to do either of those things. And I I did figure out pretty early on that you didn't need to cuz like at the time AOL presented itself like this is the only way you can access the internet. This is this is the gateway to the internet. You have to do it through our weird browser application that does all the things. >> Um and like no actually actually there's stuff that's already on your computer like a browser that can do this and your computer already has like an email thing and like >> oh man I remember getting Earthlink. Yeah. and is like, "Wait, you can just get online? >> You can just do it." Yeah. >> Oh my god. >> I also I also did tech support. My my first Okay. My first Okay. >> Was my first Yeah. My my second my second real job. My first real job was retail uh after college. Um and I I left retail uh because it sucks. Uh [laughter] and and I did tech support because like I'm a a nerd and I know computer stuff and so I could probably do tech support. Um, and so my first tech support job was for MSN. >> So again, >> yeah, back to back to the dialup stuff and like so it's like a different flavor and like also MSN was awful but slightly maybe less awful. I maybe >> I don't know. >> Maybe >> um what was I going to ask you about? Oh, so about Telnet. I really want to talk about TNET because I never get to talk about TNT, right? Um, so I know about TNET because when I was in the AOL chats, right, I learned about roleplay games and stuff, right? And I got to play like games like, you know, Yasha and stuff, right? Just making up my own story lines with people because I loved writing. And then I also love sci-fi books. And I read all of these books by uh Ann McCaffrey, The Dragon Riders of P. I've read like a bunch of other stuff. But I when I think about it, that is another reason why I got into code because I joined the P world mush. >> Uh, M if people don't know what a mush is, it's a multi-user shared hallucination. It's a place where people used to go and we used to do like roleplay and like come up with characters and scenes and like we had to like organize everything and everyone. And I was a dolphin writer as one of my characters. I had uh St. Dis and Anastasian. They had like very I got dragged once. I was like a 16-year-old girl getting dragged for because I would describe my character's eyes as like emeraldics. >> [laughter] >> I had found the forum post and then I showed up and I was like, "Hi, it's me. Yes, I know that I'm not really good, but I'm trying to get better at writing." And they're like, "Oh my god, like oh my god, it's [clears throat] so great to see you here." And it's like, "Yeah, yeah, I I saw it. I just woke up." But there was that. But as a dra as a I ended up being a dragon rider and a werewoman. Um I was a gold rider. So if you don't know about per uh if a gold dragon chooses you, you are going to be one of the people that becomes a werewoman and that leaves an area. And so I got to be like in character as one, right? And I will never forget like the day that like my dragon hatched and like it touched my mind in the game, right? And I was like I got chosen and my dragon is so beautiful and she was uh the gilded lily. That was her dragon description. I think I still have it somewhere. If I find it, I will send it to you for show notes. Yeah, back in the day >> I learned how to code my dolphin. >> Oh, nice. Yeah, >> I learned object oriented programming through being a dolphin writer >> back in the day like cuz all of that stuff is text based so there wasn't like Yeah. So like >> it was >> uh we use terms like multi-user shared hallucination. Now there are actually like things that legitimately like could be described as doing that for real. >> Um arguably SOAR is a multi-user shared hallucination. But um I like that uh But uh yeah, and there's multi-user dungeons. There's MUDS. I think there was a couple MUDs that were operating out of the BBS's that I was doing. But yeah, that's that's that's real old school. >> Um >> that I think that's a that maybe is a segue maybe uh into uh you mentioned earlier uh at the beginning of the show that that you uh are a content creator with capital C's. Um >> I guess so. Yes. [laughter] Um, talk about uh talk about doing that stuff. I mean, I feel like that kind of comes out of like an extension of, >> you know, Devril is often kind of like the face of of the company in very in a lot of ways. Um, >> and content creation is often part of the work that we do, but like you're doing it for like >> not just like representing a company, but representing yourself or a version of yourself. like talk about getting into that sort of stuff more. >> Yeah. It's really funny because um before I was on here, right, Chris sent me a message. He's like, "You should apply to be on my podcast." And I was like, "I don't know. What would I talk about?" And he's like, "Whatever you want to." And I'm like, "Okay." And as I'm filling out the form, I'm like, "Wait, should I be on here as Taran Alarez or should I be on here as Nine Lives Black Cat?" And then I realized, oh, I do have something to talk about. Like just all the ways that identity forms and is shaped by like for me, I don't identify as things first. I do I feel I want and then I find out eventually that that's an identity, right? Um I did not know that people paid people to make websites. I remember that. I wanted to be a school teacher cuz I wanted to help people. And then I learned how to code and people were like, you know, people will pay you to make websites for them. I'm like, why would anyone do that? That's weird. Um, and going into wait, I lost my thread. Hold on. You got it. So, okay. So, I tend to do before I identify and I lost it again. Come on, dude. Okay, hold on. Do before I identify. Your question to me was >> uh getting into uh content creation. >> Oh yeah. Okay. >> So I do before I identify, right? And I when I lost my job at uh GitLab, which is like a whole story, right? Uh see it on some other podcasts, not this one. Um but I lost that job and I needed something to do. But I also realized like a lot of what I had been doing or how I was identified was by what other people told me, right? Like they gave me titles. >> They told me at one point somebody was like, "You can just pick whatever title you want." I'm like, "I'm sorry, what?" And they're like, "We will pay you money just and you can have whatever title you want." And so I actually had to think about what it was I wanted to be called. Like what label did I want to put on the thing that I wanted to do for someone? Um, and then when I lost that job, I was like, well, I know that I enjoy teaching people. I love being a developer advocate. I loved putting together the materials and facilitating trainings and stuff. [snorts] And I realized that with the skill set that I had, I could do my own business. I could run my own business. Like >> often when I was working with people, I was telling them, well, this is what the problem is. like they would they would tell me like here's all these things that we know are going wrong but we don't know how to solve it. >> And so I realized like that's that's what people call a consultant. Like sometimes I will Google what is the person that does this this this because being able to have a label and being able to be like I I tell people I'm a technical marketing consultant. And so some of them like for me I don't I feel like saying technical marketing together right tells people I help you sell things but I'm helping you with the technical side of this problem. And then consultant means I don't necessarily work for you but I work with you. >> Right? Those things communicate what it is that I do and it gives a person an identity that they can attach to it. And so when I knew that I was going to be unemployed for a while and that I wanted to not like just jump into the next job as I had done for like many years, especially like being a mom, I wanted to be able to define my own path. I was like, "Well, there are people who stream on Twitch and I watch Twitch streams and [clears throat] sorry >> and I can help them with things >> and I already have like all this equipment from when I was a developer advocate, right? >> I can stream. I've been streaming. So, I just started streaming. I learned more about like how to put setups together and I started playing games with people in between. So, um, so on Twitch, I am Nine Lives Black Cat. I brought my name back, reclaimed it, right? Um, I freak out every time somebody Googles it and they're like, "Holy crap, you work at GitLab." And I'm like, "Do not mention my real life in this chat ever again. [laughter] Don't do it." I'm getting more comfortable with it, right? And I'm going to talk about fragmented identities, too. That would be cool. I know we don't have a lot of time. Um, but you know, I ended up doing content creation as a side effect of this is what I want to do. This is what I want to give to the world and to like the community. I think that's why I'm so I'm still in open source. I keep getting sucked back into open source. Um, is because it's not about like who I am, it's like what I want to do and what I want to give into the world. And so that's how I ended up being a Twitch streamer. Um, I am what is it? I am the cozy crash out co-working streamer. Like there's a whole thing. And we have our bad luck battalion uh in Nine Lives Black Cats Twitch chat. I've actually been doing a lot of stuff to prepare us for next year this year when you see this because we just hit 500 followers. Um, which is big to me, right? It's not like a big number, but for me, I'm intentionally building this community of people that want to have fun and play games and be silly and also like want to get done. Like those are the core of like the identity of the battalion and we like to say that we make our own look. So yeah, that's why I do content creation. That's that's definitely uh a far cry from like the traditional sort of uh be like launch a Twitch stream and get a million followers and like you know like intentionally building a community of people that like >> like like just building it with intention, right? like figuring out like who you want who you want to be >> uh include and who you and like cultivating that. Um >> what sorts of things do you do to help foster that community growth and and the intention that goes into it? >> I know I spend a lot of time thinking about who are the people that need this. Like I know for myself as a person with ADHD, having somebody that I can body double with that helps me to get things done. And I know that I I don't do silent co-working, right? Um I chat with them throughout it. Um I keep people encouraged. I share, you know, the struggles that I've been through. I was diagnosed late in my life with ADHD. Um, I also spend time like I'm not just working on my stuff. I encourage the viewers to come and like ask me questions. It's like, well, how do I do this? You know, I am a streamer and like that's sometimes against like streamer etiquette to mention that you stream. It's like, if you're a streamer, please come to me with a problem cuz I love fixing problems. Um, and we will fix things online. So, sorry, we will fix things live. Um, sometimes people will send their issues and then we try to get that uh solved there. Um, to that end, we use a co-working bot that is a super sweet bot. It's really cool. It sets a pomodoro timer and it keeps us focused and moving and it it's really cool. Um, one of the things that we're going to be doing this next year because the nature of my work has changed. We're doing like >> 5 hours of co-working from like 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. And it used to be when I was unemployed, right? we would do two hours of co-working and then we we would have like okay you finish your task you have two hours to like play games like you're rewarding yourself because you ate the frog. >> Um now we're doing a change where and I think that it'll work and if it doesn't we can always try something else which is important >> like when you get perfectionism in your head you got to say those things out loud. Um, we will be doing something where in the evenings where we play gameplay, we're going to acknowledge like here's all the people that came and co-work today and here's what they got done. >> Like it's not just about games. Like we we are all of ourselves. We're not just gamers. We're not just people that have jobs. Um, and it's kind of it's it's kind of tracking along with my journey and understanding that like I don't have to fragment myself. I don't have to fragment my identity. Like I can show up as my full self and still be valid. And I realized that that's really important for me to model to the people that are following me cuz like that's a type of leadership too, being your whole self. So, >> well, I feel like that is an excellent uh note to end on. Before we go, Taran, where can people find you online? >> Oh my gosh, pretty much all over the place. where >> a little bit a little bit. Um, I am on Twitch TV. Twitch t twitch.tv/nlifewackcat. Um, I'm also on Instagram under all those things. So, if you see nine lives black on drupal.org, yes, that's me. Twitch, yes, that's me. Instagram, yes, that's me. Tik Tok, yes, that's me. None of that stuff is my fault. It is all of the audience's fault if you see that. Um, I am also at nlbcworks.com. That's my technical marketing uh that we do. Sorry, that's my technical marketing consulting firm. It feels so weird saying that. It's like this is the place where I hung my shingle and then I'm on LinkedIn and I'm also on X. Not that much. >> And I feel like I feel like there was a there was some sort of a what's it called? Um reality thing that you were doing. Oh my god. Kind of thing. >> I have too many identities. Yes. Um I have also been a contestant on these live reality games. They are like an amateur version of like the two that I was on are Olympia which is kind of like the challenge. Uh I am on season 3 of that one. [snorts] None of that is my fault. That's all I had to say. And then I am in season two of Destination Mole which is part of the Destination Adventures brand where I am now one of the heads of videography. We'll I'll show notes. There's too many identities. I'm so sorry Chris. I'm like hexadimal from reboot, right? Right. [laughter] >> Uh well, thanks again uh Taran for coming on. Uh thank you all for listening or watching this in the future uh or in the past or whenever it is that you're watching this. And to everyone at all, uh we'll see you on the internet. Bye. [music] [music], Episode 17: Tearyne Almendariz, YouTube, 01kgjkv6sgrgxp6h6asdg8ksjv.