$9.99 DONATION DRIVE until 12pm

Cartophiles, heads up! We’ve just kicked off our first Donation Drive of DB9, and the prize on the line is a magnificent Desert Bus leather playmat!

What’s a Donation Drive? Good question! Donation Drives are a special way to make your donations count double! Until 12pm noon Pacific Time, each time you donate $9.99, or any multiple thereof, you are automatically entered to win the Donation Drive prize! So if you donate exactly $9.99, you get one entry in the draw; if you donate $19.98, which is $9.99 x 2, you get two entries in the draw; if you donate $99.90 ($9.99 x 10) you get TEN entries; and so on! No limit on those entries!

If you like card games and Desert Bus for Hope, then you’ll love this playmat! Its play surface is designed with the theme of a map depicting a route between Tucson, AZ and Las Vegas, NV, using an old world style combined with some modern features.

The map shows you approximately where the bug splat happens, where each bus stop is located on the first 8 hours of your trip, possible detours, and some other points of interest found in google maps while zoomed in. It also depicts things inspired by Middle-Earth styled maps, such as a suspicious looking viking ship and some sea life. This trendy playmat is handcrafted and one of a kind!

More info on the item here!

This week, Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché sold at auction for $170 million, making it the sixth most expensive painting ever sold in human history. Good for him, but, we at Desert Bus think we might have him beat! So, for our first LIVE auction of DB9, we bring you Composition in Chroma Green No. 1 (acrylic on canvas) by Graham Stark!

Stark’s magnum opus is a masterpiece of abstract expressionism. The simple but purposeful brushstrokes of the acid green central form seem to belie a hidden meaning; as if that particular shade were somehow the key to an unseen image-within-the-image. The, well, stark use of colour evokes comparison to masters of the form including Rothko, Mondrian, and, most of all, Ross.

Auction goes live momentarily so get those bids ready! Sign up for a donor account and link it to your Twitch account! It just takes a few seconds and that’s all you need to get in the action!

AND WE’RE OFF!

Ladies and gentleman, WELCOME TO DESERT BUS 9!

Mike here, and I’m very excited to be blogging you through the very first DB9 shift! The atmosphere behind the scenes is crackling with anticipation! And also buzzing with activity! It’s crackling and buzzing, but in a happy way, not a engineering-what-the-heck-is-going-on? way!

As ever, we’ve put together an absolute all-star team of amazingly talented individuals and we’re ready to bring you all the madness, laughter, entertainment, and drama that comes with Desert Bus! And of course, to raise lots of funds….. for the children!

Once again, welcome! We’re thrilled to be taking this exciting journey with you all! What classic DB moments are you looking forward to this year? Any guesses as to what surprises we have in store for you this year? Let us know in the comments!

Minecraft Collaboration Lot

Introducing collaborative lots! These prize lots are a wonderful collection of items donated by various crafters and sponsors, each one with a particular theme. For our final prize teaser, we present the Minecraft lot… read on for all the juicy and blocky details.

It’s all well and good to decorate your Minecraft home with delightful worldly goods, but what about decorating your real-world home with delightful Minecraft goods? This lot is full of fantastic Minecraft pieces to put in your home, as well as books full of gameplay tips and tidbits. The lot contains:

Handpainted Minecraft buttons

Created & donated by Tina Bongorno

Who needs more Minecraft merch in their lives? YOU do! These are handpainted wooden Minecraft pins that you can place on your favorite fabric object to show off how super cool and in-the-know you are when it comes to this new-fangled Minecraft thing the youngins are all talking about. Included images are: a pig, a creeper, a ghast, a skeleton, and that good ol’ ubiquitous block of dirt and grass!

The buttons are 1″ each, and are acrylic paint on a wooden disc, with a metal pin back attached.

Minecraft Embroidery Set

Created & donated by Stephanie Martin

While you’re out exploring, crafting and fighting off monsters, make sure to make your home ready as well! This set of Minecraft embroidery hoops are ready to decorate any explorer’s abode. Each one is hand sewn and shows various things from the game: A creeper, a diamond sword, and a block of redstone.

The pieces are 3 inches in diameter (7.6cm) and 3/8 inch (1cm) thick, and use wood embroidery hoops, felt and embroidery thread.

Creeper Head cross stitch

Created & donated by Kamina Kapow

They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. We suggest keeping the face of your enemy very close indeed, sitting on the sideboard in your living room, a reminder to lock your doors at night and maybe build a lava-filled moat. This creepy cross stitch comes in a sweet little standing frame, and has a charm belying its explosive nature.

Minecraft Hacks books by Megan Miller

Donated by GamesRadar

Get a leg up on your Minecraft game, with these books full of tips and tricks for an even greater Minecraft experience! These three hardcover tomes will look great on your gaming shelf, and make for good bus reading.

The lot also contains a cute little 3D printed Minecraft pig and Creeper.

Meet your drivers for Desert Bus 9

This year we have 8 hour shifts which allow us to get more friendly faces in front of the camera and add new drivers Andy, Fugi, Tara, & Jamie.

Click on each driver’s name to learn a little more about them or see all profiles on our drivers page.

	Driver	Start Time	End Time
Saturday, Nov. 14
	James	10:00am	6:00pm
	Ian	6:00pm	2:00am
Sunday, Nov. 15
	Andy	2:00am	10:00am
	Kate Watt	10:00am	6:00pm
	Jer	6:00pm	2:00am
Monday, Nov. 16
	Beej	2:00am	10:00am
	Ashton	10:00am	6:00pm
	Tara	6:00pm	2:00am
Tuesday, Nov. 17
	Matt	2:00am	10:00am
	Ashley	10:00am	6:00pm
	Fugi	6:00pm	2:00am
Wednesday, Nov. 18
	Cam	2:00am	10:00am
	Tally	10:00am	6:00pm
	Liz	6:00pm	2:00am
Thursday, Nov. 19
	Alex	2:00am	10:00am
	Kara	10:00am	6:00pm
	Graham	6:00pm	2:00am
Friday, Nov. 20
	Johnny	2:00am	10:00am
	Jamie	10:00am	6:00pm
	Paul	6:00pm	2:00am

Edit: All times are in Pacific Standard Time

DOTA 2 Lot

Donated by Valve

Do you fight for the Dire? The Radiant? With this lovingly collected DOTA 2 prize pack, it doesn’t matter! Take the fight of for the ancients to the battlefield of your home with a full complement of vinyl Demiheroes. These adorable little figures of destruction are the perfect inspiration for your next lineup. Feel like a true DOTA professional with an official signed Player shirt from The International 2 (this is not available anywhere)!

Best of all… this lot includes a gorgeous replica of the Butterfly Sword – the item that every good agility hero needs to have. This lovingly crafted sword is no longer available for purchase, but you can get one at Desert Bus. Even more spectacularly, this particular sword is signed by numerous members of the DOTA 2 development team!

DONATIONS ARE OPEN!!

Would you like to own an entire hour of Desert Bus for Hope? Today, you can!

Owning an hour of Desert Bus comes with such perks as:

• The personal satisfaction of knowing that you’ve extended our misery another 60 minutes
• A stellar excuse to twiddle your fingers mischievously and say something evil
• …
• nothing else, really.

So, if you’re a charitable, frugal sadist, (you know who you are!) donate and get in while the gettin’s cheap!

Each hour of our time increases in price by 7%. That doesn’t sound like much now (and it isn’t) but it increases fast.

AS IS TRADITION Loading Ready Run has donated the first $100 (30 hours). The rest is up to you!

Here’s a basic cost breakdown of the first $5000 of Desert Bus for Hope donations:

Hyrulean Crest Chainmail Wall-Hanging

Created and donated by Katherine Bagdasian

*Item Get Fanfare* You found a one-of-a-kind chainmail wall-hanging depicting the Hyrulean Crest! Display your allegiance to Princess Zelda and the Kingdom of Hyrule by hanging it in your home. This shiny banner is made from 12,012 individual aluminum rings, interlinked in the classic 4-in-1 European weave, and is supported by steel hanging hardware. The piece took over 100 hours to make, using only two jewelers pliers to make the chainmail, plus a dremel to customize the hardware. In game or out, you will never find another Hyrulean banner so magnificent as this.

The hanging is made from rings of anodized aluminum, bright aluminum and zinc-plated stainless steel. It measures 32″ (81 cm) wide by 31″ (79 cm) high. The banner on its own is 28″ wide (71 cm), 18.5″ (47 cm) high. In total, it weighs 4 lbs (1.8 kg).

About the artist:
Katherine Bagdasian is a jack-of-all-trades, life-time crafter/maker/artist, but her primary craft for over 10 years has been chainmail jewelry. She is absolutely thrilled to contribute to the Desert Bus Craft-Along for a third year.

Custom MtG Tokens in India Ink

Created and donated by Eric Johnson

Happy Halloween, Desert Bussers! On this scary, ghostly day, we have for you an especially creepy, magically spoopy prize preview! From Soldiers to Wolves, Birds to Oozes, Tokens are vital to Magic decks in nearly all formats. Two perennial favorites are Zombies and Spirits, and those have been very uniquely embodied in these stylish, India ink painted tokens. Be the envy of your play-group with these tiny one-of-a-kind works of art!

The cards were made using India ink on Opus Watermedia paper, and they measure 2 2.5″x3.5″ tokens… exactly the size of Magic cards, in fact.

About the artist:
Eric Johnson is a Northern British Columbian who has been painting for the past twenty years, give or take. Focusing primarily on watercolors and India ink wash, he also employs pencil, pen, and acrylic. In addition to his work on inkompetence.tumblr.com, he was included in Cloudscape Comics’ “Mega Fauna” anthology.