The entire Desert Bus team would like to extend a big thank you to  TwitchTV for sponsoring our live stream this year, and making the entire thing advertisement free (for optimal viewing pleasure!) Without them we wouldn’t be able to have such a consistent and high quality stream. Thank you!

Of course, when they’re not hosting Desert Bus, Twitch is the place to watch gaming online. See highly skilled professional players compete in League of Legends, World of Warcraft, FIFA 2013, and all your other favourites.

We received so many pictures of Frumpy Matt throughout history that we had to make another gallery just to show them all off. Seriously, do not operate heavy machinery while viewing these. For the children.

Hey Bus-fans, for the next 49 minutes if you donate multiples of $7.78 you will be entered to win an epic Halo Reach Legendary set donated by Steve Dengler of Dracogen!

This set is the out of stock Legendary Edition of Halo Reach that contains the complete Halo: Reach collection, a Noble Team statue molded and hand-painted, a UNSC-themed custom package, exclusive in-game Spartan armor effect, and a ton more! Click on the picture for the full write-up!

It works like this:

1. Donate increments of $7.78!
2. Every increment of $7.78 that you donate gives you one entry to win!
3. That means that $7.78 gets you one entry, 15.56 gets you two entries, and $12,774.76 gets you 1,642, and so on!

Donate often and help us finish the fight!

We have some more fantastic milestone pictures and a song that you’ve made for us! Holy crap you guys are awesome!

Could you be more awesome? No, really, could you? We love getting this stuff! Kill us with your kindness!

Wanna write some Epic Rap Battles for the DB crew to wage war with? Splice some memes with our DB team (Overly Attached Girlfriend on the bus with Matt?  Tard the cat? Show us!) Want to do a charcoal sketch of Taka as Frank from RHPS? Send it all to us: stuff (at) desertbus.org.

Please make your pictures no larger than 1000 x 1000 pixels wide, and use the following file formats: JPG, PNG, GIF.

We proudly present “Onward the Bussers”, a rewrite of “Gay Pirates” by Cosmo Jarvis, lampooned by Kristen Peck:

This desert is so empty

I can’t begin to think
I’d rather hitchhike barefoot there
Than drive another week

But it’s Desert Bus
The children need our help

I’m sick of game controllers
I haven’t slept all week
I want one night where I can rest
But I must earn my keep

But it’s Desert Bus
The children we will help
Yeah, we will help

Onward, the bussers!
We’re all gonna stay
Until more donations can’t be found
Onward, the bussers!
We’ll do the best we can
Dance and sing until we hit the ground

The chat is getting crazy
The feed is going down
That ever-bussing VCR
Can’t take another round

But it’s Desert Bus
We will find a way

Someone’s asleep on camera
As hours turn to days
Just one more silly comment
Will likely make me break

But it’s Desert Bus
We will find a way
It’s all okay

Onward, the bussers!
We’re all gonna stay
Until more donations can’t be found
Onward, the bussers!
We’ll do the best we can
Dance and sing until we hit the ground

The bug splat on the windshield
Is all my eyes can see
The bus is drifting off the road
Crashing along with me

But it’s Desert Bus
We can make it through

I don’t want this to end but
I can’t take any more
Donations keep on coming in
As we all hit the floor

But it’s Desert Bus
We can make it through
Yes it’s true
And we’re singing

Onward, the bussers!
We’re all gonna stay
Until more donations can’t be found
Onward, the bussers!
We’ll do the best we can
Dance and sing until we hit the ground

Onward, the bussers!
We’re all gonna stay
Until more donations can’t be found
Onward, the bussers!
We’ll do the best we can
Dance and sing until we hit the ground

Dance and sing until we hit the ground

We have a winner for the Frump Face Challenge!

So many of these entries were fall-out-of-your-chair hilarious, but this one by AahSomethingGreen stood out from the crowd and won our hearts:

Honorable mentions to the following:

Check out some more of the comedy gold mine that was this challenge:

(more…)

Fangamer creates gamer swag of almost every imaginable variety: hats, mugs, posters, pins, books, keychains, and the all-important T-shirt.

The true measure of a proud gamer can be found in his gaming-related T-shirt collection, and none would be complete without one of their awesome and well-made T-shirts. Just ask us — we all own many of Fangamer’s fine shirts, so you’re bound to see a few on the feed this year. Once again Fangamer have designed the 2012 Special Edition Desert Bus t-shirt all profits from which go to Child’s Play!

And, to sweeten the Pig even further, Fangamer have donated us 10 (10!) prizepacks full of awesome swag to give away.  Honestly, we can’t believe they have anything left in their warehouse but  empty boxes and that one guy who sleeps down there because it’s quiet. We thank Fangamer for their generosity and hope it hasn’t driven them to financial ruin. Please check them out at www.fangamer.net.

Phil Plait – astronomer, author, space and astronomy myth debunker, trumpeter of science. Oh, and should we also mention writer of the popular Bad Astronomy blog at Slate Magazine? After years of working with data from the Hubble Space Telescope, Phil has made a multi-faceted career of sharing his love of space science with the masses. To this end, Phil and his wife, Marcella, also founded Science Getaways, a vacation company offering holidays with science themes.

During his call in we’ll be auctioning off the Bad Astronomer Lot, which features a bunch of neat space-y stuff from NASA, SpaceX, and more!

Phil will be calling in on Sunday, at 1:00 PM PST, 4:00 PM EST, 9:00 PM GMT. If you have any questions for the call in leave them in the comments!

Sunday morning has come with a lot of great items and these are no exceptions:

• A stunning 16×24 print of Alyx Vance Nouveau by graphic designer Sara McSorley!
• Outfit your progeny with the need for speed with this children’s Sonic the Hedgehog costume by CraigCraft (headpiece is apparently Tally-sized as well)!
• A full set of artificial nails featuring the Soot Sprite from “My Neighbor Tortoro” by Sandy Wasserman!
• Continue reading the Legend of Drizzt with this +1 signed copy of RA Salvatore’s “Gauntlgrym”!

These are some truly phenomenal items, so place your bids and remember: it’s for the children!

Card Kingdom is basically a warehouse of delight. Located in Seattle, they sell Magic: the Gathering cards, board games and anything else that’s cool. They are also the generous sponsors of their very own hour of Desert Bus, which we’re calling the “Card Kingdom Sponsored This Hour, Hour!” (again).

If you have any questions about Magic, or just want to ask us if Cafe Mox is as cool as it seems, the Card Kingdom sponsored hour is on Monday, November 19 between 7:00 to 8:00 is the time to do it.

If that wasn’t awesome enough, Card Kingdom has also donated two $100 gift certificates for us to give away during their hour. While you might think to yourself, “I don’t live in Seattle!” or “I live in Seattle, but I’m locked in my bathroom!” Fear not, for you can redeem them at their website (www.cardkingdom.com) and they’ll send your Magic cards right to you. It’s the convenience of buying cards online without the heartbreak of someone outbidding you ten seconds before the auction ends.

Can you even imagine what LoadingReadyRun would be like without its catchy chiptune intro?  What would the world be like without the immense library of similar tunes from the C64 era or those artists who continue to make music with them? We don’t know either, but we do know that we’re lucky to have the fantastic work of Jimmy Hinson of Big Giant Circles with us again this year!

There’s a lot more to Big Giant Circles than just an awesome band name (but man, it really is cool).  Jimmy has done work for more than 30 different television shows, so there’s a good chance that catchy tune stuck in you heard in that show might belong to him!

This year for Desert Bus, Jimmy’s made two separate dubstep remixes of the LoadingReadyRun theme! These songs are fantastic for dancing and keeping your energy up while you help the children, and all proceeds from these remixes will be donated to Desert Bus 6! You can find and purchase these remixes on Jimmy’s site:

http://music.biggiantcircles.com/album/loading-ready-remix