03Jun03 (Monthenor): Okay, break's over, back to work. Bodie is captured by the evil hamster incursion, thus setting in motion the next third of GerbilMechs.

I had an immensely restful week last week. Much Diablo was played, and it was good. My cousin's graduation on Saturday was even better, as my family is comprised entirely of cool people. At least four meals over the weekend were bratwurst. Good times.

The new Weird Al CD?...pretty good. Not his best, but not the worst I've heard from him either. I'd like to blame most of the stale lyrics on the stagnation of the music industry as a whole, but Al does seem rather tired with the whole parody thing. The polka medley is arguably one of the worst, with sound-alike verses from The Hives, The Strokes, AND The White Stripes. Again, partly the fault of the Top 40 format. It's also pretty apparent that the CD took four years to put together: there's a Backstreet Boys parody on there. They are like, so 2000.

It seems pretty much confirmed that Red Baron has discontinued their Deli Pockets line of frozen pastry wrap sammich thingies in favor of their Stuffed Pizza Slices. While I'm sure their SPSs are tasty little concoctions, they cannot fill the hole in my heart left by their amazing Roast Beef Deli Pouches. In some perverse twist of versioning, the old link to Roast Beef still functions, but is not accessible through their current Flash interface. Red Baron, for your inexplicable desire to cut the Deli Pouches line shortly after we discovered the divine tastiness of your Roast Beef pouches, as well as choosing to replace them with yet more pizza, I would like to award you the first-ever GerbilMechs You're Only Hurting Yourself Award.

I don't have a nifty clip of the show to explain this award, so bear with me: while desperately fighting Majin Buu, Vegeta realizes he is outclassed and explodes himself in an impressive burst of energy. This display of power is devastating to the surrounding countryside and leaves a massive crater. However, Piccolo, Krillin, Trunks, and Goten are all able to fly to safety before they're hit. Majin Buu is able to regenerate himself from the thousands of little pieces left after the blast. Even Majin Babidi, a shriveled little wizard who at this point has been reduced to a talking torso, is able to shield himself from the attack. So, out of the seven people in the fight, and with two intended targets, one of which is already laying bisected on the ground with only one arm left, Vegeta manages to rack up a negative frag count.

Again, congratulations to Red Baron for winning two such prestigious awards in the space of four months. Bastards.

It appears that we are about to enter a period of stasis, wherein we can reliably use the standards-compliant methods developed over the last three years, but not push the envelope beyond what IE6/Win can handle.