Cuddly Bug Ball!

[Alfirin]

I know everyone knows about the many cuddly toy bugs that are for sale including the wonderful superhero bug that is MRSA:



I just never thought I'd see a cuddly toy idea this wonderful again... until Moyashimon came along ^_^ All the cute and cuddly little guys we've been introduced to are for sale as plushies! Joy! ^_^



At least they're a little more tasteful than the HIV/AIDS cuddly toys that are out there. Anyway, I officially love the Moyashimon bugs - and I think it would be all sorts of awesome if the anime society had a thingy like a ball pit but where, instead of balls, we had it filled with cuddly bacteria! ^_^ What do you lot think? (ignoring the whole 'it's completely useless and impractical in pretty much every possible way' thing). Besides, it's educational and the little educational bits don't come across as forced.

Crazy? ...perhaps. You miss me when I'm gone though

[Indefinite Description]

Being completely useless and impractical is okay and keeps many metaphysicians in work; but I feel that our traditional commitment to mild scariness in a university setting may invite an alternative choice of educational plush toy.

You miss me when I'm gone though

Yes, I've been thinking maybe we ought to be co-ordinating our lamentations better... Meanwhile, as the 'inverted NHK ni Youkoso' thing continues, I think we're about up to the Freudian dream-interpretation scene. Your move.

[Maruno]

zarathustra said:

but I feel that our traditional commitment to mild scariness in a university setting may invite an alternative choice of educational plush toy.

That was the tradition of the past generation. The society is now about hugs, apparently.


www.cdjapan.co.jp/Listups/anime/moyashi.html?media=GOODS¤t=0&step=20

Unfortunately they're all "out of print". I would like to have them, though. Get a whole army and throw them at people. Much fun.

Kamosuzo!

[Indefinite Description]

maruno said:

That was the tradition of the past generation.

I'm glad you've come to terms with it.

Only one tradition at once? I thought rationing ended in the 1950s.

[Navarre]

Awww Moyashimon, Aspergillus Oryzae wins so much! Although I'm not sure I'd shell out $60 (thats £30 in real money!) for a set of figurines...

As for traditions, we're working on it, but we're going for the more socially acceptable ones, less of the pan-dimensional-ageless-death-sleeping horror

[Indefinite Description]

Suitably developed practices of institutional scariness surely count under the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage as examples of 'the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage'; possibly also as traditional cultural expressions as WIPO defines them, although given the Society's traditional attitude towards intellectual property that may be best ignored. So really it's your heritage whether you like it or not, since you realistically have the recognise that it's happened.

At least one writer on heritage and transgenerational ethics has defended the view that past generations' valuing of an item is a prima facie reason for present generations to value it, and the maintenance of cultural traditions is typically taken to be socially acceptable (because cultural) by default; it's not as though appreciating that some day the stars may come right and the Earth be laid waste is likely to attract anything like the controversy over female circumcision. That doesn't mean a tradition has to be continued in exactly the same way, but a small act of symbolic remembrance like the acquisition of a tentacular plush toy would recognise in some small way the Society's intergenerational moral community and give members a Cthulhu to play with.

Edited to note that they could hug the Cthulhu too. If it turned out to be a disease vector between members it would in some respect incorporate Alfirin's original suggestion as well. Everyone's a winner!

[Maruno]

You always use too many and too long words and sentences. Yes, we're all impressed, but if you're going to tell us things you might want to make sure we can understand them.

Surely trial by fire counts under the category of "suitably developed practices of institutional scariness"? Last I recall, we grew out of that one.

We do recognise that it's happened, but given that the society itself completely changes every few years (in terms of who's in it, at least), it's unreasonable to assume the practices of the older generations will (and should) stick. Let's just leave it in the past, yeah?

We as a society don't care about conventions and the whole social ethics things. We are who we are, and as a whole, we're not the last generation. That's how I see it.

This thread is also now wildly off-topic. I know, you don't care, but I see it as clutter (to this thread) that could easily go into the random chat thread elsewhere.

[Indefinite Description]

If you like, post your reply elsewhere. You can't seriously imagine that I thought I was advancing a serious argument in a serious debate...

It's not that I don't altogether care, it's that I think you'd do better not to jump in with such a splash. But presumably you'll be annointing your successor soon...

[Indefinite Description]

Actually forget it. I agree: you should be able to leave the past behind. Including me.

My final regards to you all—Maria in one respect excepted, since she may someday come to tolerate the existence of SMTP, but in another respect her especially, since I recall her seeking to persuade me not to leave once before.

[Navarre]

Free shipping? Some of my favourite words, right there... -^_^-

Although I'm not much of a figurine person myself, definetly a plush toy is more my style. Although I'll tell you what I would totally buy... Petri Dishes with fake agar and tiny Microbe Figurines in it, like in the first episode! Someone needs to jump on that merchandise train pretty quick, methinks....