May 21, 2001

Challenge 4 started off with a clue. "What is easy to locate, yet often hard to find?" One Diva thought, "time," but another quickly suggested, "my mind, I lose it daily!" The second clue revealed that, "the object of this challenge has real character." From the clue, the Divas quickly figured out that they were to find characters, perhaps a Mickey character.

Once the challenge became known, each tribe would be looking for a "Hidden Mickey," (referred to as HM). The Diva's HMs would be outlined in red, and the Kungaloosh's HMs would be outlined in blue. Each set of HMs is slightly different from the other. This is to determine which number it is. Once all of the HMs are located, each tribe must write a clue as to each HM location for a contest on the DD list.

Setting up camp at each of their computers, it was decided that the Divas would divide up and give each member an area to search. Each search area is part of the links in the DD bookmarks. They split up the search: one member would check tip sites, another would check sweepstakes and contests, and so on. One Diva figured that they should check the web sites of the members of the TheMouseForLess list as well as similar sites that Aunt Binnie could more easily get permission to add these HMs. They quickly ruled out the corporate sites such as disney.com. They figured "searching for them would be easier if you considered that the 'owner' of the page would have to agree to have his or her page messed with." They set up a folder in their files to enter their HM clues into.

They weren't sure if they were seeing things, but they were convinced that some sites first showed HMs only to be missing a short while later. They were also finding the blue HMs, which lead the ladies to wonder that if they found a blue HM on one site, did that mean that a red one was also there? The Diva's felt as though they were spending hours pulling their hair out, looking for a needle in a haystack. They were trying all methods of finding and searching. They spent quite a bit of time each using search engines and entering keywords. They were starting to feel like it was "enough to drive any normally sane person bonkers!"

They found several blue ones first, so perhaps theirs could be on the same site??? Now they needed to determine whether the corresponding keywords given as clues were "one of Blue's Clues, or one of ours!" As the ladies set to finding their HMs, other members were getting discouraged because they could not find any. Not to worry, they would come in handy later for helping to write the clues. They all decided to find the HMs first, and write the clues later. One member was feeling like, "I'm a big loosher on this challenge", but they all agreed that in the process they have each discovered lots of interesting sites.

Whenever a red HM was found, Charlie Bucket would come around the campfire and lead the ladies in a joyous round of "I found the golden ticket!" Surely, the Kungaloosh would figure these ladies to be more akin to Veruca Salt, throwing in her own verses of "I want it NOW!" When a blue HM was found, they scoured the rest of the site just to make sure there wasn't a red one overlooked. While some of the members were finishing up looking for HMs, the writers sat on the bench and started to write their clues.

The Divas were dreaming about finding HMs in their sleep at night. One member exclaimed "can't say I didn't try to find HMs. I'm thinking my brain is so tired of looking for the HMs now that even if one were to be bouncing up and down in front of me belting out a song, I still wouldn't notice it." Another Diva quickly agreed "it would be a shame if we could not find that last one! It's driving me crazy, because I'm rechecking all feasible links from the five MFL sections, ignoring any sites we've already found red ones. If there are two red ones on one site......hand me the cyanide pill right now..." They all wondered how they missed HM #8. "How on earth we could have missed it with all the hours we each spent looking!" they cried. In the end one member was convinced. "I think I've found all eight of theirs! We still found 7 different sites that contained a red HM, so we still did quite well."

Over at the Kungaloosh camp, they were facing the same problems. They also figured it couldn't be that hard. "I can't see how they could possibly put these things on other web pages that don't belong to MFL (although there may be a few)." They also decided to divide up the sites and search. A poll was set up to determine who would search for which HMs in which areas.

They had no trouble finding the Diva's HMs, however. One member decided "Okay, I'm going to finish up the game for the Divas very shortly. This makes 5 for them!" They also figured that there might be their HMs on sites where red ones were found. Another member decided to search personal pages, stating that after all, "16 eyes looking at a page are much better than 2!!"

One member was heard to say, "okay I really think I should switch teams here, this is the third Diva Mickey I found in the last 30 minutes. HELP!!" The Kungaloosh was also dreaming of finding HMs at night. "Anyone have any luck on number 4? I dreamt about it last night, but I forget which site it was on. argh! Another member complained "Ok, I have officially had it with HMs. Last night, or really early this morning I had a dream. It was night and I was outside running from a building. I had just stolen the Dopey Dipa's records of what Mickey's they had found. (I am not kidding, I really had this dream). They have found 7 of theirs and all 8 of ours...I tried to find (a Kungaloosh member's) phone number to tell him but I couldn't. The worst part is, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHERE IT SAID THAT THE MISSING ONE IS!!!!!!!!!"

"I am so depressed I have not found one" cried one Kungaloosh tribe member, "but boy did I see a lot stuff I never realized was right in MFL site. I did find the weekly trivia question. That's a first." But they kept looking. "(I) just got home, give a few minutes to start the laundry, pour a glass of wine (what kind of Kungaloosh would I be without one) and I will start on the rest" another member offered. The tribe was pulling together to help each other out on this one. There were nightly search parties where members offered to pair up and comb the Internet. In the end, one member exclaimed, "I'll bet there is no last one. It was just put there to drive us insane!!"

On member from Kungaloosh who was answering a post to the DD board included a few comments in the signature lines. "Have you guys noticed the kungas signatures?" one Diva asked, "one said 'we don't need no stinkin' bookmarks' which implies to me that they are done, and the other one said 'searchin' sucks'. Hmmm....I think the first one sounds like it, but I think the second one sounds like they're not done..."

The Divas were happy to hear Kunga had not found #8 as well. They wondered aloud, "The folders with the clues in them have been taken down for some reason, but for anyone that didn't see them for the 20min they were up, the Kungas found all 8 of theirs." Little did they realize one member of the Kungaloosh tribe thought he could get a way by placing a fake HM on his own personal web site. This did not get by the careful eye of our list mom, she's on to the Kungaloosh and is starting to learn their antics. Found in the Kungaloosh folder was "here is where we will put our clues so you can find all the blues".

With the extra time before the tie breaker, the Kungaloosh put together a comedy skit. Dopey Dipa #1 is looking through the whole house trying to find where Mickey is hiding. He's not in the closet, not in the dryer... Where oh Where is Mickey Hiding!!!
Dopey Dipa #2 had a brain flash, a huge incredible idea. Of course this overloaded her brain cell (singular) and she passed out.
Dopey Dipa #3 borrowed the team brain cell and shared the idea. She quickly ran and got her Mouse Ears and stepped in the closet, proudly becoming a hidden mickey for her team.

"Wonder if the dippy dopes could even find their cursor!" one member laughed. "Find their cursor? Half of them are sitting there using a blue marker changing the color of the outline on their screens to take credit for our mickeys!!" another chortled.
"ROFL That is of course AFTER they figured out that white out didn't work!" came back the reply. Call it "hung over" from the evening's activities, but the Kungaloosh had great difficulty remembering what time the tie breaker would be. One member posted to the others to make sure they were all there at 7:45 A.M. Another was quick to disagree. "It's at 7:30 A.M." the member argued. Fortunately, Aunt Binnie was there to wake them up and get them there for the 7:15 A.M. tie breaker challenge on Thursday.

The tie breaker was a Kungaloosh victory. One member found what she thought was their missing HM and rushed to post it to the files. Fortunately for Kungaloosh, this member didn't have posting capabilities. It turns out she was eager to post a HM that they had already found! The one member with status to post, 10 minutes later, found the missing HM and quickly posted it along with a clue to the files. The Kungas had won their third challenge.

Based on Binnie's clue, the Diva's had a good idea where their HM was hiding. Unfortunately, they could not get into the site. The site could have possibly been down, even though Binnie had been able to access it prior to the tie breaker, and Kungaloosh had successfully accessed it. Some may argue that this gave Kungaloosh the winning opportunity. However, Aunt Binnie let the Kungaloosh victory stand as there was no way to confirm that the Diva's would have found the HM before Kungaloosh anyway. The Divas were heartbroken: they would be losing another tribe member.

With the announcement of the Kungaloosh victory, several of the downhearted Diva's offered to leave the tribe. As they sat in down to a virtual Chocolate and Rolo ice cream consolation session, they began to question how the Kungaloosh could get away with their posting their support to the DD list. Were they going to get away with their one-liners and cheerleading? No, they couldn't possibly. Aunt Binnie scolded the Kungaloosh tribe time and time again for straying from the "no posting" guidelines, and told them that it was not permitted. Previous posts had been made to both tribes reminding them of what was not allowed. Members of the Kungaloosh, perhaps, now coming into their teenage, rebellious stage, repeatedly forgot these warnings and posted a few, what they thought would be funny, harmless one liners.

The Divas, who have been the good girl scouts, and have patiently put up with the Kungaloosh antics, decided something had to be done. "I know this game has become frustrating, and not quite as fun as it was in the beginning but we can't just give up. The Kungacheeters will never prevail in the end. When the going gets rough, the tough get going right? !!!!!!!!!!! Remember there is hope, we won last week's challenge." They all wondered "what the Looshers would do if we all quit. That would cut the rug from under them. Talk about a hollow victory!"

Aunt Binnie apologized for not setting stricter rules and reassured each tribe that she is not favoring either tribe over the other. She also promises to have the rules of the game outlined more explicitly by the second half of the game. Because of Kungaloosh's repeated posting offenses, she has awarded each remaining Diva, who makes it to the merging of the tribes, one extra immunity to be used at a later date. Of course the Kungaloosh did not sit quietly for this. They felt that it was unfair to them and that they are being punished unjustly. They also feel as though the rules are being written ad hoc and to accommodate the Divas. Those Kungaloosh who did not take part in the DD list heckling feel that they are being punished unjustly, and that they will have a tough time overcoming this Diva advantage which comes later in the game. Perhaps a nice lobster and whine session between the tribes is needed?