Desert Bus may not start until tonight, but we’ve already received our first Milestone picture commemorating our tech test!

One of the biggest ways our viewers participate is by sending in Milestone pictures, art, songs, participating in art challenges and making all sorts of awesome things for us to post on the Desert Bus blog and share with everyone else watching.

So how can you submit stuff for the Desert Bus blog, and where should you send it to? I’m glad you asked!

1. Milestone Pictures

If you want to commemorate a Desert Bus milestone (say $50,000 raised, or 10 points) you can send your pictures to: milestones (at) desertbus.org

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

2. Other Cool Stuff

Did you rewrite the lyrics of ‘Call me Maybe’ to ‘Call me Bus Baby’? Do you have a picture of your cat wearing a Desert Bus hat? Did you draw a sweet picture of Roscoe wearing a wizard hat and blasting Batman with a fireball? Send it to 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

3. Contests

We give away a lot of stuff during Desert Bus. Often we’ll challenge our viewers to come up with something creative, and award our favourite submission a prize. For example, we might ask you to compose a Haiku about the bug splat, or draw the crew as My Little Ponies. You send those submissions to contest (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 look forward to seeing everything that comes in!

Desert Bus starts on Friday! (AAAAAAAAAAAA!) The fun is only a matter of hours aways now, so why not tide yourself over by looking at our incredible selection of prizes!

Head on down to our Live Auctions and Silent Auctions pages to see all the amazing stuff you can bid on, and what times all our prizes will be auctioned. This year we’ve dramatically boosted the amount of things we’re giving away, so don’t forget to check out the Giveaways listings to see all the incredible items we’ll be awarding via random draws and as contest prizes.

So what kind of stuff can we expect to see this year? How about?

• A custom N7 leather jacket made to your exact measurements?
• Your own custom song, written for you by the Doubleclicks?
• Exclusive limited edition, signed lithographs from Obsidian Entertainment?
• Complete sets of Magic: The Gathering cards in foil?
• Halo concept art?
• An enormous box of incredible swag direct from the offices of The Escapist?
• A custom, full colour 11 x 17 drawing by Ken Steacy?
• An original Bill Amend inked drawing?
• A game journalist exclusive talking Dishonored clock?
• A signed Homestuck book?
• Wil Wheaton’s Fez?
• Tons of awesome stuff from Fangamer?
• Or… I don’t know… full, foil, uncut sheets of Return to Ravnica?!

Much is made of the men and women who drive the bus. In past years, each driver’s shift has taken on a life of its own, with its own memes and running gags. We’ve switched it up over the years—from 4-hour shifts, to 24-hour shifts—and this year we’re switching it up again!

Desert Bus 6 features 12-hour driving shifts, so we can get more faces in front of you. And as an added bonus, each driver is going to have their very own, super-special giveaway item, and it’s going to be up to them who wins it and how.

Here’s the faces you can expect to see behind the controller (though, as always, there’s ample chance of surprise guests):

• Friday @ 9:00PM — James
• Saturday @ 9:00AM — Paul
• Saturday @ 9:00PM — Matt
• Sunday @ 9:00AM — Cam
• Sunday @ 9:00PM — Ashton
• Monday @ 9:00AM — Kathleen
• Monday @ 9:00PM — Johnny
• Tuesday @ 9:00AM — Bill
• Tuesday @ 9:00PM — Graham
• Wednesday @ 9:00AM — Tally
• Wednesday @ 9:00PM — Alex
• Thursday @ 9:00AM — Morgan
• Thursday @ 9:00PM — Jeremy
• ?????

Start your engines! This year we are doing something a little different—and a little awesome. Since the driving does not officially start until 9 p.m. PST, we are kicking the drive off with an opening lap … of ENTERTAINMENT!

Join the Desert Bus team as we live stream from the Moonbase and from remote locations across North America, featuring special performers John Anealio and The Doubleclicks for an event before the event. The Opening Lap starts at 7:30 p.m. PST and drives us right up to our official 9 p.m. start.

Singer-songwriter John Anealio will entertain us with geek inspired music from the world of comics, Dungeons and Dragons, and so much more, streaming live from New Jersey.

Nerd-folk duo The Doubleclicks, streaming from Portland, Oregon, will perform their humorous geek-flavored music. Mixed in between our talented performances, we will be showing a behind-the-scenes tour of the Moonbase and what it takes to put on an epic event like Desert Bus for Hope.

We know that you’re all living in feverish anticipation of next Friday, when Desert Bus will begin and for days on end you will be able to donate money and yell “Dance monkeys, dance!” to make us, in fact, dance. For you. On the internet. Yes, we understand why you’re pretty stoked for next Friday to get here.

To ease the pain of nearly 7 more days of waiting, we have something to distract you: a whole bunch of shiny, amazing, wondrous handmade things for you to drool over and lust after. That’s right, the Craft-Along listings are here! Check out our Live Auctions and Silent Auctions to see all the amazing stuff you can bid on. Scheduled auction times for those listings will be added shortly, so that you can plan out your bidding. And be sure to look through our Giveaways listings, to see all the incredible items we’ll be awarding via random draws and as contest prizes.

You can also see a list of all our crafters, with links to many of their websites, blogs and online stores.

And keep coming back all week to see corporate prizes and auction lots added to the list! Updates will occur randomly, so keep your eyes peeled for the appearance of even more awesome stuff you might want to bid on or win.

Get excited everyone! Just to give you a taste of who and what you can expect to see, I whipped up a little “sizzle reel” for Desert Bus 6. All your favourite faces will be here to do your cruel bidding as we bust our butts earning donations.
Share it around!

(The music is a fine pair of LoadingReadyRun remixes by Jimmy Hinson)

Happy Wednesday, my friends. Johnny here, tech lead of Desert Bus for Hope 6 with a special announcement. With the assistance of Steve “But wait, there’s more!” Dengler we are broadcasting DB6 in a much higher resolution this year. Using technology we have dubbed “High Denglervision™,” you will be able to watch all of the insanity in minute detail!

In order to properly test out our new equipment, and to give you a sneak peak, we will be broadcasting a tech rehearsal next Wednesday, November 14th at 4 PM (PST). The whole crew will be there to put the new gear through its paces. We really hope that you can join us to help make this years Desert Bus for Hope even better. Your feedback during the tech run is integral to its success. Thanks so much, see you on the 14th of November!

Hello everyone, and Happy Monday! We know that Mondays are not always generally joyful affairs, so to make yours better we have a shiny new website and some nifty announcements. May they brighten your day!

Our first announcement is that donations have gone live! So for those of you who just can’t wait to start causing us pain, you may now donate towards making us drive the Desert Bus for way. Too. Long. For the children, as always.

We also have many shiny new banners, buttons and posters that you can download, post and print to help us spread the word about the Desert Bus and build the anticipation. You can find all of those here.

And, to really help you start the week off right, here’s a word from Daddy Ashton about how you can prepare for and contribute to Desert Bus:

Stay tuned for many more exciting announcements coming later this week!

Alright, time to admit something. Challenges have gotten crazy at Desert Bus. Last year it was nearly impossible to get a challenge in, so this year we’re changing things up a little. Here’s how the new challenge system will work:

Desert Bus is just under a month away and the preparations for the event have swung into high gear. We already have a stunning array of crafts, prizes and other surprises, but we’re still working to try and make this year’s event even bigger and better.

The good news is, if your company wants to sponsor Desert Bus for Hope 6, there is still time! To find out how your business can get involved with this year’s run, please contact Kathleen De Vere and Kara McLachlan.