#tara.thoughts

have some cutie wonwoo as payment. i love u.

⋆｡°✩ on poetry and homecomings - yoon jeonghan

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : my first ever fic! based on a quote by the fantastic palestinian poet mahmoud darwish. something about the words, "If I ever see a flaw of yours, I'd say my eyes are the flawed ones" made something in my heart twinge in the most beautiful way. a purely self indulgent fic i wrote after an exhausting work week, and suddenly, here we are, 3 months later.

⋆｡°✩ plan b-day - hong jisoo

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : my last fic of 2024! a lil drabble for the loveliest boy. no real notes on this, other than i am sure that murphy's law somehow targets me 50000x more than the average human being. again, purely self-indulgent, but also a wonderful way to close out the year.

⋆｡°✩ baby, darling, light of my entire life - choi seungcheol

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : the idea for this came to me after a crazy night out. though i myself have not gotten to this level of drunk yet, i definitely would scream about how pretty choi seungcheol is any day, any time. i was actually shocked when this blew up - it wasn't my favorite piece i'd written at the time, and i woke up one morning and it had skyrocketed from maybe 100 notes to upwards of 600 in one night. weirdly, i think this was maybe the third thing i had ever posted to this blog and it made me so happy that people actually enjoyed my writing. bdlomel, ily <3

⋆｡°✩ full throttle part i | full throttle part ii - yoon jeonghan

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : oh, full throttle, what to say about you (i am combining both parts into one fic - the only reason there are two parts is bc tumblr is a bitch about formatting). there are few things that exhausted me, exhilerated me, enraged me, and made me feel as proud as i do looking at this finished fic. three weeks of non-stop writing every day after work, jotting down notes in the cleanroom and during lunch breaks, and storyboarding when i should have been sleeping culminated in most possibly the pièce de résistance of my year. i had so many people who cheered me on as i wrote this fic, battled through witty banter (that i myself could never say irl) and fiery headlines, but none cheered as loudly as @haologram and @ylangelegy. alta and kae were genuinely the wind beneath my wings as i wrote this, and reading their comments in the doc was what kept me going. in the end, i'm genuinely so happy with how full throttle turned out, and seeing the reactions i'm getting from it make me feel so fulfilled.

⋆｡°✩ the somerset affair - lee seokmin

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : my first forray into longer fic writing (and i'm still battling my way through it, but we don't talk about that). if anyone knows me, they know how much of a Bridgerton fan i am - i quote anthony's speech on the daily, and penelope/eloise are some of my fav romcom heroines ever written (until they both get married, but again, we don't talk about that). i felt like writing this fic was my way to pay homage to this fictional world i adore so much. i have a love/hate relationship with the actual tone of the series - its so hard to maintain the regency tone and also write in a way that's true to my own voice, but at the end of the day it's a challenge i relish. i'm so excited to finish this series this coming year!

⋆｡°✩ 40 fics posted - check them all out in my masterlist!

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : to be fair, a lot of these are drabbles i did for my 101 drabble prompt game, but fuck it we ball. maybe i'm just insane.

⋆｡°✩ ~133,470 words written

⋆｡°✩ n o t e s : again, i think i might be a bit insane. did a sacrifice sleep to write? yes. did i storyboard at work? also yes. but then again, it's been an interesting year to say the least, and writing was a really good way to blow off steam after a stressful day at work.

⋆｡°✩ some of my fav fics i read this year - please read the warnings on each fic and do not interact with smut if you're a minor! this is in no particular order:

⋆｡°✩ unforgiven [boo seungkwan] - @haologram ⋆｡°✩ catch you when i can [smau] [chwe hansol] - @xinganhao ⋆｡°✩ the first snow [hong jisoo] - @junkissed ⋆｡°✩ what are the vibes? [choi seungcheol] - @daechwitatamic ⋆｡°✩ red card [kim mingyu] - @highvern ⋆｡°✩ an ode to hands and voice [boo seungkwan] - @ddeonghwa-s ⋆｡°✩ take my word for it [yoon jeonghan] - @ylangelegy ⋆｡°✩ prey [choi seungcheol] - @pochaccoups ⋆｡°✩ sit down [kim mingyu] - @gyuswhore ⋆｡°✩ ave, general [lee jihoon] - @amourcheol

these are just a few of my fav fics i've read, but if you want to see all my recommendations - i suggest checking out @diamond-reads !

⋆｡°✩ goals for 2025

⋆｡°✩ on diamonddaze01: i have a lot of collabs coming up in 2025! i hope that i can meet all those deadlines and write things i'm proud of. i've also learned that writing longer fics like full throttle or somerset affair make me feel more fulfilled as a writer, so expect a lot more of them as i further explore my writing style and characterization. i also want to go back to some of my older wips that i abandoned and reopen them, see where i can go with a fresh mindset. ⋆｡°✩ personal goals: i have a lot, but to name a few: read more, laugh more, love more. i also want to focus on establishing a better work/life balance - i know already that the coming months are going to suck at work, but i no longer want to drag the weight of corporate life home with me. work is work, and that's where it will stay. i want to prioritize my mental and physical well-being over all else, and that starts with reprioritizing things like work, my social life, and writing.

⋆｡°✩ final thoughts

⋆｡°✩ i started writing on tumblr because i was stressed from work and felt like i didn't have a community, especially at a new job and a new city. what started as some stress relief turned into a community of its own. i'm eternally grateful that i was able to meet some wonderful people this year that i truly feel a sense of belonging with. to everyone in the networks i'm in, to anyone that reads my work, to all the lovely people i've met: thank you, and i love you.

⋆｡°✩ if you've made it this far, thanks for reading, and thank you for all your support. i love you all endlessly. it's time to sign off for 2024.

with love as vast as the stars themselves, tara <3

⋆｡°✩ what's the origin of your blog title? made the blog when i was obsessed with diamond days from seventeenth heaven. you could say the song had me in a daze.... + 01 is for my birth year! and thus diamonddaze01 was born

⋆｡°✩ favorite fandoms: does f1 count as a fandom. lmao (other than f1 and svt i'm also a deobi and ahgase)

⋆｡°✩ OTP(s)/shipname: i stand on business when it comes to dramione and zutara

⋆｡°✩ favorite color: navy blue and lavender (which is why my room is navy blue and my living room is lavender)

⋆｡°✩ favorite game: not really a big gamer, but if you wanna talk card games, i'm the self-proclaimed queen of rummy and uno

⋆｡°✩ song stuck in your head: been humming subhanallah by sreeram and shilpa rao for the past week or so!

⋆｡°✩ weirdest habit/trait? i have a tendency to fidget a lot, so i always keep a hairtie on my wrist to play with during long meetings - i've definitely learned some pretty insane knots by this point

⋆｡°✩ hobbies: singing, dancing, and trying new recipes! i love cooking and love using food as therapy, medicine, and as a love language. recently also picked up journaling!

⋆｡°✩ if you work, what's your profession? i'm an r&d engineer for a medical device company! i wanted to be a lawyer up until third year of college, but i think engineering is where i'm meant to be!

⋆｡°✩ if you could have any job you wish, what would it be? a recording artist, probably. and a bharatanatyam teacher

⋆｡°✩ something you're good at: discovered recently that i'm really good at writing test protocols (and if you think that's a cop out answer bc tara DUH tara that's your JOB - i'm also surprisingly good at rage cage and painting)

⋆｡°✩ something you're bad at: my snacking habits </3 they must be curtailed i fear

⋆｡°✩ something you love: curling up on my couch on a rainy night, queuing up some orchestral covers of pop songs, and pretending i'm in a fantasy book

⋆｡°✩ something you could talk about for hours off the cuff: as kae is now fully aware. f1 drama. i am so invested it hurts me. maybe i should start a podcast

⋆｡°✩ something you collect: unintentionally i have started collecting keyboards! eyeing an aula f99 rn. ialso collect boarding passes from all my travels (breaks my heart that we're switching to digital passes </3)

⋆｡°✩ something you forget: turning off my alarm on the weekends. i wake up in a cold sweat at 6 am on a saturday far too often

⋆｡°✩ what's your love language? physical touch and gift giving/receiving! i am a hugger unfortunately

⋆｡°✩ favorite movie/show: gonna be so stereotypical and say my fav movie of all time is either dil dhakne do or yeh jawaani hai deewani. what can i say, they're classics. favorite show has been inventing anna for almost three years now. i'm on my 8th rewatch!

⋆｡°✩ favorite food: amma's soppu kozhambu, appa's aloo paratha, my sister's tiramisu. or thai food of any kind (bonus points if it's spicy basil fried rice with pineapple)

⋆｡°✩ favorite animal: red pandas or sea otters!

⋆｡°✩ are you musical? if i'm not singing you can assume i'm DEAD. but yes, i was raised in an incredibly musical family (especially on my father's side). grew up listening to indian classical music and doing indian classical dance, started singing indian classical at the age of 6, quit at 16, joined choir at the age of 8, sang though high school, did 5 years of a cappella through college/grad school, and now i torture everyone with singing covers! (fun fact, i also did play viola from the ages of 10 and 14. i wasn't very good though)

⋆｡°✩ what were you like as a child? dramatic, loud, incredibly extroverted. loved being the center of attention (oldest grandchild things). was an absolute daddy's girl (my family used to call me papa ki pari, which translates to dad's angel)

⋆｡°✩ favorite subject at school? i'm sure everyone will be shocked when when the engineer says math and physics. numbers have always made sense to me and they feel like a puzzle that just needs the right piece to fit perfectly. there's something satisfying about the logic and structure of it all (can you tell i'm the most left-brained, type-a person you'll ever meet)

⋆｡°✩ least favorite subject? this one shocked me at first too, but i am absolutely ass at coding. if you gave me the choice between coding or ten rounds in a cage with an angry, territorial kangaroo, i would choose the kangaroo every. single. time. the logic has always made sense to me, but debugging is my mortal enemy.

⋆｡°✩ what's your best character trait? i think i perform well under pressure! (executive dysfunction + perfectionism + academic validation kink + start-up things ig)

⋆｡°✩ what's your worst character trait? i struggle with managing my emotions sometimes and they definitely get the better of me. i also am a bit of a cynicist and have a hard time not automatically believing in the worst-case scenario

⋆｡°✩ if you could change any detail of your day right now what would it be? i wish i had been a little less pushy during a meeting earlier today. kind of soured everyone's moods, even though we did all get to an understanding later on.

⋆｡°✩ if you could travel in time who would you like to meet? my grandma when she was younger. she talks a lot about how she loved who she was in college, studying music. i wish i could meet the girl she was before she became a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. i think i could learn a lot

⋆｡°✩ recommend one of your favorite fanfics (spread the love): i will wax poetic about this fic until i die but: unforgiven by @haologram - one of the first fics i ever annotated. athena!seungkwan lives in my head endlessly. one of the best pieces of fiction i've ever read. i'm a sucker for greek mythology and alta wrote the characters and the story so well, i was in tears by the end of it