This will likely go up in the middle of KEN TIME, so I’ll be brief. We’ve reached $150,000! Yay! Here’s the milestone pics! Don’t forget that all $180,000 milestone pics should be Flinstones-themed!

Oh PopCap. Your games are too good. Only PopCap makes games that are so addictive they’ve been known to give people repetitive strain injuries from too much playing, and only PopCap can make zombies adorable, plants deadly and a 60 second Facebook game into the subject of heated and contentious contests of skill between the LRR crew. This year PopCap are supporting Desert Bus for Hope by providing a whole ton of download codes for their games so you too can enjoy their sweet, sweet crack-cocaine casual gaming delights! Visit them online at http://www.popcap.com.

Oh yes. He’s back.

He counts numerous achievements to his name. He is a member of the Canadian Comic Book Creator’s Hall of Fame. He’s won a Shuster Award. He’s Alex’s dad!  Once again, Ken “value added” Steacy is here to auction off some incredible original art from his collections and draw custom commissions for the highest bidder.

For a full list of the delights that he’s has brought by, please see our live and silent auction listings, but as this is Ken “value added” Steacy, expect hilarity, surprises and more tonight!

Here’s a gallery of some of the art he’s done for us. They’re absolutely mindblowing! Ken is an artist who can give you ANY character your heart desires (for the children).

We’re at $140,000! Thank you all! Here’s some milestones!

We got some great 150K milestones, but we can always use more! However, I wanna see many $180,000 milestones pics based on the Flinstones! It’ll be the Flinstones Milestones!

We got the next two chapters of the epic Dengler and Butts miniseries hot off the chat! Chapter 4 comes to us from Tim J.:

MEANWHILE AT THE MOONBASE

A phone rings.  A gloved hand picks it up.

“Moonbase.  Go ahead.”

There was a delay as the voice was encrypted, sent, and then decrypted on the other end.

“One of our runners may have been compromised.  We’ll have to assume they have the map.”

“Do we know who was following them?”

“It appears they are two detectives, Dengler and Butts.”

There is swearing.  The gloved man curses Dengler and Butts and their mothers and their mothers’ mothers.

“Tell the other runners to watch their backs.  The Roscoe Project cannot afford to be delayed.  Make sure that does not happen.”

“By your command.”

“Moonbase out.”  He hung up the phone and and resumed his litany of curses.  He couldn’t afford to take chances.  He picked up the phone again and pressed the red button, and spoke the exact phrase he had rehearsed.

“The creepy dolls need new stuffing.”

—

Chapter 5 is from Trisha Lynn:

THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP
As Butts caught his ragged breath, he looked over at Dengler, whose hair was barely mussed and his hands barely shaking. Butts thought back to when it all began, when he was first introduced to the golden-haired rookie and was told that this newly minted detective was his new partner.
~~FLASHBACK NOISES~~
“New partner?! I don’t need a new partner!” Butts yelled at his captain. In the cramped office, Junior Grade Detective Steve Dengler had the guts to look stone-faced as the more hardened and grizzled Lt. Steve Butts pounded the desk with his meaty fist.
“Like bus you do!” roared the captain back in his face. “Ever since Det. Pitts went down in the line, your work has gotten sloppy. You need some shaking up. And Det. Dengler’s just the man to do it.”
Butts’s jaw clenched as he remembered the shameful incident which gave him his bars just as it brought down his former partner. From that moment on, he swore to aveng—er, that is bring to justice the hateful Themiston cartel which deprived him of one of the few men he’d grown to trust. How was this… shiny-faced rookie going to live up to his kind of standards?

~~FLASHFORWARD NOISES~~

“You ready, Butts?” Dengler passed a hand over his brow, surreptitiously checking the number of rounds left in his gun.

“Always, Dengler. Always.”

We’re all looking forward to Part 6 and beyond!

GeeksDreamGirl.com is a website that primarily writes profiles for online dating sites for self-affirmed ‘geeks.’ Think of them as your own personal marketing team, except they’re gonna sell YOU to all the ladies/men!

Yes, even as I sit here typing this, I can hear the scoffs and sneers of a few cynics. But GeeksDreamGirl.com is quite serious in their goal, and the dedicated people who work there are skilled at what they do. They understand the geek mindset because they are geeks themselves (yes, despite what you’ve told yourself, there are plenty of geeks out there amongst the dating masses! They’re just often “hunted to extinction,” because they’re so inherently desirable!)

If you don’t have a lot of romantic experience, or you’ve struggled with what you’ve had, this could be just what the doctor ordered. GeeksDreamGirl.com is offering a Silver d20 Package for us to give away at Desert Bus, the specific details of which you find at this website: http://geeksdreamgirl.com/onlinedatinghelp/silver/

Also known as ‘The Bad Astronomer’, Phil Plait is a scientist, skeptic,  author, blogger, and TV personality. He’s served as president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, written two books titled ‘Bad Astronomy’ (debunking abuses of science in general and astronomy in particular) and ‘Death from the Skies’ (detailing the various ways the universe might put an end to our little rock), And Hosted his own Discovery Documentary series called “Phil Plait’s Bad Universe”. He’s been featured in Episodes of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit!, he’s workd on the COBE and Hubble telescopes, and he travells regularly to speak at science and skepticism events around the globe. He is most commonly found dedicating his time to sharing discoveries and clearing up misunderstandings or misrepresentations of science on his Discover Magazine blog Bad Astronomy.

Phil will be calling in at 6:00PM, so make sure to be online, because this is a call that you won’t want to miss! If you have anything you’d like to ask Phil, please don’t hesitate to post it below.

Edit:

Thanks for linking to us on your blog!!

It’s my very unwelcome duty to tell you all that we’ve crashed the bus for the first time in Desert Bus 5. We’re all bummed, but we’re determined. We start back right where we started and we’re gonna keep on driving.

While we mourn, go check out our silent auctions. Right now, some of them are a steal. Get in on that ground floor while you can!

We got two new exciting chapters in the adventures of Dengler and Butts! Chapter 2 is written by joshuanovack:

– Beside the black van

The tire burst wide open, rubber flying out and busting the right mirror off of Dengler’s convertible. Dengler let off a couple more rounds at the vehicles right tire, unfortunately he fired just as Butts swerved to the left.
“Bus-it Butts! What did you do that for!” yelled Dengler.
“In case you haven’t noticed rookie, that black van’s out of control. If I hadn’t done that you’d be getting intimate with that van’s rear tires.”
As Butts said this the van’s driver must have regained control as they pulled back to their side of the road. Butts pulled back towards the bus and Dengler fired again, this time at the back right tire. The tire broke open and a terrible screeching noise could be heard as the bare rim sent a bouquet of sparks raining behind it. Butts slammed on the accelerator to pull ahead of the van as it started rolling like an avalanche down the Swiss Alps.
“That’ll show those bussing terrorist agents!” Dengler said with utmost satisfaction.

And chapter 3 is by Simon:

DENGLEBUTTS, CHAPTER 3 – BUttS HARDER
– BANG! Despite Butts’ rusty driving skills, Dengler’s expert aim managed to puncture the second wheel of the vehicle. Rolling across the road it crashed into a patrolling Mountie, upon which the driver flew out of the windshield.
The Stevemobile slid to a halt, as Dengler and Butts went up to the wreck to look for clues. From the drivers-side window, came the sound of a walkie-talkie:

“Team Delta, do you copy? Team Delta, we need you at the Moonbase! The operation is set to begin in 15 minutes! Team Delta, please respond!”
“Bus it!”, exclaimed Dengler. “Looks like they weren’t joking when they said 100 people. We may be in over our heads here…”
“No wait!”, came the response from Butts. “There’s a map in here! Of Victoria!”
Dengler took a quick look at the map, on which 4 spots were marked in red, labeled Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
“Well,” said Dengler and Butts in unison. “Looks like we know where we’re going next.”
—

Congrats to the winners, and let’s go for Chapter 4!

We cracked the $130,000 level! For a somewhat irregular number, we have a decent number of pics for it.

Someone added the one with the anchor after I first posted this, but as a Rhode Island native, I decided to include it anyway (it’s the state seal).