Wow, it’s really crept up on us, hasn’t it?
Not that we haven’t known it was coming. I mean, my goodness, we’ve got the biggest team ever working on this year’s event. It’s going to be amazing!
Now that we’re so close to this year’s event, I thought I should take this opportunity to tell you what we’ve actually been doing since our first DB5 meeting, way back in March. I’ll start!
Well, most of what I do for Desert Bus happens once we start. “Hosting duties”, we call them. This year however I’ve also become the volunteer coordinator, arranging with the wonderful people who are donating their time to make everything run smoothly once we start. Blog writers, auction runners, site managers… we’re organized this year! You’ll meet them closer to the date.
Paul
As well as sharing those “hosting duties” (Paul and I usually split the day cycle, mornings to evenings), you see this fancy new DB website? That was Paul. We figured it needed a refresh after 4 years, and it looks damn fine. For the bits of the website you can’t see, he collaborated a lot with…
Returning after his breakout performance last year, Ashton is some kind of human astronaut. He’s rebuilt our custom Desert Bus database from the ground up, with built-in interfaces and tracking for donations, donors, auctions, prizes, challenges, shipping and I’m pretty sure it will make toast for you. Assisted by LRR fan (and admin of our Minecraft server!) Fugiman.
Tally oversees and coordinates the Desert Bus craft-a-long, so her job is far reaching, time-wise. People need advance warning to make amazing things by hand, which is why the post below is from May. In the past month we’ve received probably over 100 amazing crafts that you won’t be able to find anywhere else. Look for the live and silent auction listings when they go live!
We don’t just auction off and give away amazing crafts, but amazing commercial products too! And Kathleen works with companies to arrange those things. From the high-speed internet we’ll be using to ThinkGeek’s Tauntaun sleeping bag (oh yes, we’ve got one!), there’s going to be some awesome stuff heading your way!
Ever since Penn & Teller scared the crap out of us by calling in during our first event, guest call-ins have been a part of Desert Bus. They’re not just fun to listen to, they’re also a great morale boost for a weary driver. Matt’s job is harassing these cool people until their will breaks and they agree to call us. But seriously, we’ve got some great guests lined up this year (many of whom you’ll remember from previous events!).
New to the organizing committee this year, our good friend Johnny (working with another good friend Ian) has been toiling away to make our tech setup the best we’ve ever had. Multiple cameras, Facetime call-ins, backup feeds… guys, seriously, we’re ready for this. As with last year, our erstwhile Derplord Alex has built us a driver-cam overlay to be proud of.
James, Jer, Bill and Morgan are returning as drivers (with Kathleen of course), and there’s a whole heap of other volunteers we’ll introduce you too when we get closer to kickoff, but I wanted to tell everyone just what we’ve been doing this whole time.
Let’s just say we’ve been busy. It’s a far cry from DB1’s “show up, plug in, drive” operation.
More updates to come, watch this space for the madness!
Yay, I’m getting pumped already! Each year I wonder how it will be topped by the next and yet you guys seem to find ways to stuff more awesomeness into Desert Bus every time. I can’t wait!
[…] almost Desert Bus time again. […]
Morgan and Bill are back….. awesome
Really excited to watch you guys again this year! Best of luck!
So giddy! “squeals like a little girl”
Squeeeee! And next year, I’ll finally have craftalong goodies to donate! Cannot wait to see the madness this year! 😀
Yeah, I’m going to have to agree with Ryaken and Firefury Amahira… *squeeeeeee* I’m so very excited for this year since I got involved with the Craft Along after last year’s event. Best DB Yet, I can already tell!
Man, it really has crept up on me this year. Not that I’ve been ignoring the myriad of Desert Bus posts, just that I’ve had so much going on this autumn that suddenly it’s now November & “OMG 3 weeks!!!” I hope I can arrange to see a bunch of it this year. (curse this bandwidth limit!)
Out of curiosity… will you guys be recording all those fancy feeds for later? Cause, honestly… I would donate good money for a desert bus DVD set that was nothing but the unedited video feed so I could rewatch the parts of the marathon I miss during broadcast.
Heck i’d donate for just the video files after the evnt, they wouldn’t even have to be on a dvd!
I am so excited. Also, I think erstwhile Derplord is the best title I’ve heard in a long while.
Hot damn, this is looking so awesome. Now that I have a jb I might actually be able to donate to get you guys doin some silly things. Can not wait hard enough 😀
Really looking forward to another great year of Desert Bus. Hopefully some more sweetening of the pig along the way. And let’s see how loopy the overlay can get this time.
I’m stoked that even being on the other side of the world (time zone wise I’m 11 1/2 hours off from the moonbase this year) deployed to Afghanistan, I’ll still be able to wield a banhammer in keeping you crazy hooligans on the IRC in line. Technology is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
FOR THE CHILDREN.
And so it begins again! Will we be seeing Ken Value Added Stacey again this year?
I actually have that weekend off and I’m sooooo excited!! I can’t wait to see the silliness again and this year I’m saving up some money and I will donate more than I could last year 😀 It’s now the start to the Christmas season for me YAY!!!!
Stupid work, keeping me away from DB… record EVERYTHING, guys!
*Team Kroze forever* 😉
I’m hoping that the fact that Kroze isn’t on here doesn’t mean that he’s not coming this time.
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