Desert Bus for Hope logo
DB Express 2025 Total Raised
CA$205,069.69
The Team Bussed For
01:00:00:00
You are viewing the DB Express 2025 archive. The information you see does not reflect the current event.
Return to DB Express 2026
Welcome to
DB Express 2025
Sponsor Showcase: Split Reason
November 21, 2011 at 08:00 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

There are many purveyors of gaming-themed T-shirts but only SplitReason has hoodies shaped like Zero Punctuation’s world-famous imp! You too can pretend to be causing trouble for everyone’s favorite Trilby-wearing acerbic circle-headed game critic. We’ve got some to give away, but there’s plenty more where they came from at their website: www.splitreason.com.

$160,000 Get! Watch Ken Steacy!
November 21, 2011 at 07:22 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

We hit $160,000! Why are you reading this?! Tune in now!! Ken Steacy!!

$150,000 Get! Value Very Added!
November 21, 2011 at 06:38 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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!

Sponsor Showcase: PopCap Games
November 21, 2011 at 06:00 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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.

Sponsor Showcase: Ken Steacy
November 21, 2011 at 05:00 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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).

$140,000 Get! If it were feet, we'd be in orbit!
November 21, 2011 at 04:49 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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!

Dengler and Butts - Chapters 4 and 5!
November 21, 2011 at 04:27 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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!

Sponsor Showcase: Geek's Dream Girl
November 21, 2011 at 04:00 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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/

Guest Call: Phil Plait
November 21, 2011 at 04:00 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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!!

We Crashed!
November 21, 2011 at 03:29 PM PST
Posted by Ashton

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!