June 26, 2001

"Where's the beef" doesn't fit the bill
"Have it your way" doesn't give us a thrill
"Remember the magic," now that's getting close
TheMouseForLess, we want to boast!

You deserve a break today, oops, sorry, wrong commercial!

This week's challenge found our tribes creating a commercial for the The Mouse For less list. "Sounds like we'll be rhyming again" one tribe member commented. "Sounds to me like we have to come up with a new Disney slogan, maybe for Walt's Birthday celebration" was another comment overheard.

The Diva's got off to another jump start with each remaining diva taking an area. One diva created folders and added the first things that popped into mind. Another diva looked for graphics while another researched songs. A fourth diva wrote a poem while the last diva edited their content. This tribe has worked very nicely together as a team from the start. It will be interesting to see if they stay together once the tribes merge or if they will only be out for themselves.

They quickly decided on a format for their commercial and worked together bouncing ideas off each other about what they would like to include. "You got no moola, what can you do-la bibbity bobbity boo" and "Silly mouse, MFL is for kids" were two of the ideas that they thought of using. The too much TV Diva rattled out a slew of possible commercial catch phrases that they could work with:
Have it your way at MFL
Yo Quiero, MFL
Smile, you've got savings
Good to the last dollar
Disney, uncommonly cheap
Don't hate me because I'm thrifty
were a few of the lines they felt others could relate to.
The diva's concentrated on the whole fairy godmother theme. They made several parodied versions of bibity-bobity-boo until it almost made one Diva suicidal. But another diva argued "I think "Binnie Brings Mickey To You" is a neat catch phrase", the others worked with her until they got it down.

A major problem for the Divas came when one Diva's pc crashed and they lost all of their text files. What were they going to do? All of their challenge work, GONE!!! Not to worry, one Diva managed a quick recovery for the ladies and they were back in business. As they added and removed content from their page, one Diva thought that they should be utilizing their page to it's fullest advantage. Another Diva reminded them "Just remember we need enough text to compete with the all too wordy Kunga's. I think when the voters see a lot of text (even though we know they don't read it, LOL), the amount of text somehow influences their vote." "I think (Diva) has too much textaphobia" a third lady teased.

The Divas, who admit to not knowing how to create fancy web pages that the Kungaloosh tribe does, opted to use Geocities and the available Geotools to create their site. They did however make the mistake of leaving it on Geocities along with their files. This would not go over well with the Kungaloosh.

The Kungaloosh tribe was having their problems with the challenge. Once the clue was released, one Kunga exclaimed "Thats our clue. I don't have any ideas. I only know that 'wheres the beef' is from the, I think, Wendy's commercials, and 'have it your way' was the old Subway one. Remember the Magic, is from the older Disney commercials, like it's time to remember the magic. So, 2 fast foods and a Disney? hm.....what do ya think?!" This reporter thinks that this member of the Kungaloosh tribe is too young to have known that "Have it your way" was at Burger King. (Reporter Bonnie snickering from behind the shrubbery).

The blue tribe didn't get off to a fast start, "Is anyone out there? Does anyone have ideas?" was heard calling through the trees. One member saved them from possibly the majority of the work. She wrote a script for the tribe to use that she thought they could all work with. It was her hope that other members of the tribe would use her idea as a starting point and add and remove areas as necessary to complete the challenge. There were a few calls to the tribe to hurry up and start working on the challenge. The remaining members just decided instead to use the original script and take it from there. Not much was done to the original format at all. Obviously the Kungas believed in this member and trusted her creative skills or perhaps it could have been that they were all fresh out of ideas and figured at least they had something and didn't have to put much thought into it. The members all agreed that they liked this script and this is what they would use. The Kungaloosh also had the upper hand in web design as one member knew how to create fancy-looking web pages. They decided to use this to their advantage.

One kungaloosh started to work with the script and create files and voice overs for them to use, even though it embarrassed her to share them. Another member worked with those files and "mickey-moused" them until they were in a format they could work with. They discussed how they should set up the page and which colors they would like to use. Once they had it done, they each tested the page in their browsers. Some members could see it fine, while other members had some difficulty. Once they were satisfied with what they had, they were amazed that they were actually finished hours ahead of time. This was a first for them they commented.

As each tribe finished the challenge and waited to upload their files, both tribes started to worry about merging the following week. They would all be merged into the green tribe and would be given the week off from creating a challenge to get to know each other. "I'm really sad that this is our last challenge, we have such an awesome team and it just won't be as fun doing these on our own!" one Diva cried. The Divas are all experiencing mixed emotions about having to mingle in with the Kungas. They just didn't feel they were ready to mix the Kungaloosh. They also paused a moment to remember their fellow sister Divas "fallen Divas... you are also in my thoughts now, too" was heard whispering among the ladies. Another Diva shared that "this is bittersweet because it means that working with you four wonderful ladies is over...." One Diva, who had been up all night finishing the challenge, poured coffee for everyone and asked each lady how she would like hers. They all burst out laughing. They also discussed what the format for the remaining challenges would be. "I'm hoping after the merge, none of the challenges will involve making a web page since the majority of us don't know how to do them. Working with a team is much better than working alone" one Diva commented.

The Divas also discussed the future of the new tribe. "I already thought of a new name" one Diva offered, "'Ohana. I know, it means "family", and yes, I know most of you don't think of the other tribe as such. I just didn't want to suggest Supercalifragilisticexpialidollarless as a name again! Binnie might want to strangle me if that suggestion has to be typed!" The others agreed. "I like the name Ohana. I know we don't think of the other tribe as family, but we can be the true family and they can be the strange distant relatives we don't talk to that often" another giggled. "Y'all are certifiably nuts! LOL! I think (Diva) said it best that we're the functional family, and they are the dysfunctional ones we like to hide in the attic! Heheheheh" teased a third Diva.

The Kungaloosh were having their own discussions about the merger as well. "Thanks, it's been an absolute blast, and I hope I get to meet you all!" came from one Kunga. Another member offered a new tribe name "How about The Treelo's?" "I really don't want to be the Green Leaf Slimy Survivors. So that ones out (lol)" another replied. "How about the Green Goofy's??? We'll be at one with the Diva's..." the Kunga suggested. "I don't know if we'll ever really be at one with them!" was fired back

But the remaining Kungas were thinking of other things: they were planning their strategy on how they would remove the Divas. "Perhaps we should come up with a Diva hit list in the order we'd like to vote them off ahead of time!! LOL!!" one member suggested. "Sounds good to me. Let's pick them off. Do we know who their leader is?" another asked. "Keep that in mind when we're 1 tribe as we may not be able to communicate without the Divas around. I hear they are an extremely chatty bunch!" the first Kunga warned. "We need to go into the merge with more people than the Diva's and I think we can do it!" cheered one Kunga excitedly. The Kungas thought they could figure out who the Diva leader is. They came up with a potential order and put out the hit list.

The Divas were planning their own strategy as well. "If we can pull out a win this week, we will go into the merge tied in numbers. "We can take them out one by one" one Diva cried. "Then, a Diva can be the last one standing!!!!!!!!!!" Another Diva cheered "WOOHOO! We may not win but we'll go out with a BIG bang if we don't!!!"

All Hell broke loose when it was finally time to upload the challenge. The Divas had their site uploaded to the files section, but their actual web page files were stored on the Geocities server. The Kungaloosh files were nowhere to be found. The Divas grew quite concerned that the Kungaloosh was late uploaded their files. After an hour passed, and still no sign from the Kungas, the Divas were infuriated. They felt that they should win by default, as the Kungaloosh had not abided by the terms of the challenge that clearly stated that no exceptions would be made if a tribe posted late. They quickly fired off their concerns to Aunt Binnie and Cousin Christin. This was not fair to the Divas since the Kungas hadn't posted their challenge. Severe thunderstorms in the area prevented both Binnie and Christin from being able to be online to referee the pending fiasco. Over at the Kungaloosh tribe, no one had heard from their member who was responsible for uploading their challenge.

Hours passed. Binnie and Christin finally got back online and had the grim task of dealing with this awful situation. They had to get a reasonable explanation from the Kungaloosh and smooth things over for the Divas. The Kungaloosh finally got their files uploaded somewhere around 9:00 P.M.. "Sorry guys, I guess I really blew this one. I got stuck on the road and just got home at 9pm.I just uploaded all the files. Let the moderators make their decision" the late Kunga apologized. "I apologize to everyone. Think the Diva's will let us go on this one? The part that gets me though is that this challenge was completed and uploaded to our site by noon today!! I think this was a first for us" he continued. Another member tried to make him feel better by offering kind words. "Thanks for the kind words (Kunga), it's a shame the Divas probably won't be as understanding" he moped.

Binnie and Christin discussed amongst themselves how they should handle this situation. The Kungaloosh were late in uploading their files due to an emergency, but the Divas were also guilty of storing their files elsewhere other than the DD files. They decided to give the tribes the options to either disqualify both tribes or let the challenge stand and just extend the voting time and move Tribal Council to Monday night. Most members decided to let the challenge stand and just move out the times.

During the decision, the late Kungaloosh spoke. "If only they could let their creation this week stand on it's own merit against ours in a vote by TheMouseForLess instead of trying to use the rules to win against us. I mean after all this is the last week that we will be competing as tribes against each other. I guess they must feel that ours is a better creation than theirs, or else they may have forgiven our lateness and let the voting continue. I can also understand though their desire to enter the combined group with as many members as us. After all, we may just turn around and combine forces and vote all of them out first! After all, would we have allowed their entry to be late without putting up a fight?" Another added "If there is a vote, and we win, we'll be entering the combined tribe with more Kungaloosh than Divas. If not, we'll go in even. Either way, need to strategize once we combine to make sure that a Kungaloosher wins." "It's a shame too, because I think we could have won" was a final comment.

And so, the voting began. One Kungaloosh exclaimed, "I can't believe they are winning with their dorky song lyrics that they are storing on a different web site! I can't believe Binnie and Christin didn't make them move it to the DD site! I definitely believe that the group just votes for the Divas because they are friends with them and not us." Another Kunga member also complained "There thing isn't even a commercial, it is a website linked to recordings song lyrics and a poem!" The Divas were also ripping apart their counterparts creation as well. "I could hardly read their things, and that is definitely not a commercial." The divas were excited when they noticed they were in the lead, after all, if they won this challenge, both tribe would be even going into the merger with even numbers, and they so desperately wanted that. The Kungaloosh commented that the only votes the Divas had been from themselves. As the voting started to change, the Kungas started to feel better. "Okay (the voting is) 14 to 11 is looking better for us - glad someone wised up. The initial votes must have been all of them, their husbands and mothers...Which reminds me, has everyone here signed up their husbands and mothers to vote?" one member teased. "Not yet, but at 16 to 11 I'm seriously considering it" another laughed.

"I cannot believe we lost the challenge" one Kungaloosh member remarked, dumbfounded. "Why? We lose every challenge that is identified by team name" another retorted. "I guess we got greedy, in hind site we should have voted to have both teams cut someone. It would have given us a one-member advantage. Oh well. I hate to say "I told you so", but I told you so ;-) No one agreed with me at the time" one Kunga chastised. One member of the Kungaloosh volunteered to be voted off. They set up the poll to vote members off. When all was done, Brandi, who worked so hard to get them through this challenge, was voted out of the tribe unexpectedly.