Non-spoilery Holmes rambling and a meme

[laurus_nobilis]

I finally saw Sherlock Holmes yesterday! And I had a crazy amount of fun. I have to admit that I'm by no means an expert and much less a purist, but I do like the books, I was sort of expecting to see Sherlock Bond from the trailer... and nope, it was Holmes all right. Silly and over the top, yes, but in a very enjoyable way. Something else I have to admit: I never really did like Holmes as a character. I loved the stories, loved Watson, couldn't stand him. (Surprising, I know, because "I'm a genius with an ego the size of a small planet" is one of my favourite character types. Who knows what makes the difference there.) But yesterday, in the movie? I DIDN'T WANT TO PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE! Not even once! I actually liked him, huh. And since they didn't change his personality, I'll have to blame this entirely on RDJ's charisma, I guess.

Also, a meme! Leave a comment saying, "READ HARD" and I will give you five things I associate with you. Then post about what they mean to you, along with this, at your journal. The words I got from telrunya:


Wizards
One of my favourite character types! Often overlaps with the Wise Old Mentor, which is an added bonus, but non-mentor wizards tend to own my heart too. It's hard to describe what exactly makes me like these characters so much - the genius + ego combination probably has something to do with it, though. ;P And the temper! The curiosity! The eccentricity, the need to make everything overly complicated, the weird families they often create themselves, the whole thing with characters who are clearly intelligent but make incredibly stupid mistakes because they have no common sense (or too much ego, or both). Note that this type of character can easily get really annoying, too; see: Mohinder from Heroes. Gaaah. They are made of piles and piles of flaws and yet they are so very likeable. ♥
For the record, I am pretty sure that Disney!Merlin is guilty of making me like these guys in the first place. Over twenty years and countless wizards later, still my favourite!

Transformers
A childhood love I rediscovered through the movies and, especially, Animated. Yes, I am one of those kids who grew up with Optimus Prime as their Greatest Hero. ♥ (Though I'm a bit younger than the US generation, since we got it late here, around the early '90s.) People who haven't seen Transformers, or only saw the Bay movies, are often surprised to find out that I like it, because isn't it about giant space robots fighting each other? Well, yes - but it's also about The Power Of Friendship, and Always Doing Your Best, and Never Giving Up. It has good guys who make an effort to stay good even through bad times, and it has hilarious bad guys who aren't emo even when they have the Tragic Backstory to justify it, and it has Odd Frienships, and geeky references (yes, even the old series!), and a surprising amount of scientists and/or nerds. Which are all very Laurus-like things indeed.
And most of all: it's fun to watch. G1 is hilarious in a so-bad-it's-good way, except when it actually surprises you and is genuinely good for a few shining moments. The movies, well, they're shiny and that's pretty much it. But Beast Wars and Animated? Say what you will about cartoons made to sell toys but, honestly, that is some good writing I see there.

Gen
Needs more love! Not that I don't like romance in fanfic, mind you, and of course I have ships I like to write. But I have a lot more fun writing about other kinds of relationships - once you know me it becomes very, very obvious that I have a thing for Odd Friendships and Big Happy Families. (Even better if it's both at the same time!) And even when I write about romantic couples, I often end up writing character study or sending them on adventures or other non-romance focused things. There's a reason many of my fics are tagged as "character A/character B" and gen.
Now, this is all well and good when it comes to writing. But when I want to read gen and it's almost impossible to find, it can be very frustrating. Where's the gen love, fandom? Any fandom?

Ouran
It took me a while to decide to watch Ouran, even though several people recommended it to me, because what little I knew about it gave me the impression that it was going to be a love polygon with very annoying characters. OH HOW WRONG I WAS. My thing for Odd Friendships and Big Happy Families I mentioned up there showed up right on episode one, and I was hooked. As for the characters that I thought would be so annoying... I don't think there's a single one of them I don't love. ♥ Even the extras!
Sure, it's not exactly deep and it's not like I read it for the plot, but both the anime and manga are so full of sheer adorable that I can't help but love it. It's optimistic take on people is something I love. And most of all, I like how (especially in the manga) it gets the characters to really grow without breaking them or turning them irrecognizable. So, so much love there.

Science
... I don't even know where to start rambling. I'm a biologist, even if I don't currently work as one (and probably won't and I'll keep doing naturalist-y things as an aside like I do know, but the state of science in this country is a rant for another day and I want to gush in this meme, thank you.)
Anyway. I knew I wanted to be a biologist since I was 9. Although really that's because "biologist" is the closest to "XIXth century naturalist" I could find. :P I... can't even remember how I made up my mind about that, but I know it was Darwin's fault. Traveling around exploring! And learning stuff and making discoveries! And he'd been really close to where I lived and everything! =D (Which also made me realize that Patagonian wildlife is kind off awesome, really.)
So, yes, I know that when most people think of science (even biology) they think of labs and coats and goggles, but I am very much a field work kind of person. (Although there's usually some lab work too, of course.) My undergraduate thesis was field work, too. And it got many people saying LAU SHOULDN'T YOU BE IN A LAB INSTEAD OF CUTTING AND WEIGHING GRASS, but I had fun! And I can say I've been on jeep rides to the Patagonian steppe and walked around its wetlands and had choiques this close. So there. :P

... also I can't help it, I have to link to this and lose all credibility forever.