In just two short hours we’ll be hearing from Aaron Forsythe, Senior Director of Magic R&D at Wizards of the Coast! Aaron will be calling in at 2:00 PM PST to talk to us about Magic and a lot more!

Aaron earned his post heading up the daily editorial contest at magicthegathering.com by being a professional Magic the Gathering player on the Pro Tour.  As a member of R&D over the past 10 years, Forsythe has been both a designer and developer for Magic and his design credits include Magic 2010 through Magic 2013 and Planechase. As a developer, his work can be seen on many Magic releases including the original Ravnica block and Zendikar.

If you have any questions for Aaron please leave them in the comments and we’ll pass them along!

Solarbotics has sent us four custom Desert Bus themed kits for making Useless Boxes!

What is a useless box? Why, a box that is entirely useless, of course! Just flip the switch and watch as the box opens up, flicks out a little mechanical lever, and turns itself back off again and closes up before you can put anything inside of it! It’s a box with attitude.

Theoretically, it is possible to bypass the lever and open the box, but then you’re kind of missing the point (and going against the box’s wishes).

Solarbotics is a hobby robotics and electronics company, and sells kits for any skill level. They know that technology is cool and are helping to spread knowledge of that coolness to all who will listen, take part, or perhaps even build their own box-dwelling robot that doesn’t want to come out and play.

There are still so many awesome items available for you to bid on in the silent auctions. The following have just gone live!

• Steampunk lot: Cufflinks! Pins! Goggles! All covered with gears and clockwork of course.
• Dead Monkey Head for Hope: Part luchadore, part Hunter S. Thompson, and all non-stop bussing madness!
• Man, Len Peralta is awesome: The complete third series of Geek a Week trading cards, and more!
• Signed copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: Set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots.

Plantonics is the only one of our sponsors to create a product that has ridden astronauts into space. In fact, did you know that the first words spoken on the surface of the moon by Neil Armstrong were through a Plantronics headset?

Now they’ve teamed up with Desert Bus and have donated some fantastic gaming headphones. We are really excited to have Plantronics as one of our sponsors for Desert Bus 6!

His work is the stuff of legends.

His achievements are boundless.

His son is Alex.

Ken “value added” Steacy returns to Desert Bus for Hope to add that extra dose of Steacy magic that will bring shock and awe as per his usual “extra value”(to say the least). When Ken’s not winning the Shuster Award or being inducted into the Canadian Comic Creator’s Hall of Fame he and his wife Joan teach a comic and graphic novel certificate program at Camosun College.

Professor Steacy is joining us on Thursday between 7:00 and 9:00 pm PST to auction off some incredible original art from his own personal collection and to draw custom commissions for the highest bidder. Take a look at some of the amazing work that he’s done for us in the past in the gallery below or see our live and silent auction listings for a complete list of his contributions to Desert Bus!

Two time Austin slam poetry champion Ernest Cline has become a geek icon since his novel Ready Player One was published. A massive fan of 1980s pop culture Cline’s near future based science fiction novel is filled with references to retro video games, animation, books, and countless other nerd references. If you obsess over Buckaroo Banzai, Zork, and Starblazers you’ll find you’re not alone once you read this book. Thanks to Ernest for for donating two signed copies!

Michael Robles is calling in to Desert Bus in a few hours to talk about Magic, geekery, and other topics!

Michael “Mike” Robles is the Community Manager for Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast. He creates content for the official Magic: The Gathering Facebook page as well as the official Twitter account. If you see him at conventions he’s probably got plenty of free stuff to give you. You can follow what Mike has to say about Magic on Twitter: @wizards_magic.

Mike is calling in on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 10:30 am PST! Put any questions that you have for him in the Comments!

If there’s one thing that Desert Bus really needs it is COFFEE. Seriously. That’s why we’re so happy to have the Fernwood Coffee Company return as one of our corporate sponsors this year, as their products have proved invaluable in keeping us awake throughout our preparations and the week itself.

The award winning makers of the best coffee in Victoria, the Fernwood Coffee Company and their incredibly talented employees have won accolades all over the world, and took home the grand prize as the best Baristas in Canada for 2010.

If you’re in Victoria, please visit them at 1115 North Park Street, or visit their website to order some of their award winning coffee online!

Graham’s shift went full QWOP  at about 3:30. That caused us to think a call in show called “QWOPline” was a good idea. That lead to us doing a segment called ‘Fill this Man with Cream’, and somehow that devolved into an art challenge. So much creamy goodness. Graham’s favourite entry comes to us from Merav.

Honorable mention goes to  Rhian and Sam for their whipped filled effort.

Here are the rest of the entries!