Ian Horner & Johnny Blakeborough
Driving: Saturday, Nov 15 10pm – Sunday, Nov 16 10am
Ian Horner
Driving since: 2013
Points: 2
Crashes: 1
When not at Desert Bus, he can be found:
Having just moved to Victoria, Ian enjoys unpacking in between doing graphic design, layout, and helping out LoadingReadyRun.
Special Skills:
Improv, playing the bass and kazoo, and inhabiting the empty bony remains of Skeletor.
He’s a total geek for:
Japan and Japanse Pop Culture. While anime is for dumbs, I’m a big fan of Lupin the Third and the UC Gundam series.
Claim to Fame:
I brew a pretty mean chilli stout.
Biggest fear about driving for DB8:
My biggest fear is that one of the oil sheiks of Qatar discovers Desert Bus, finds us entertaining, and decides to fund us into driving through to 2015.
If he was reincarnated as a fruit or vegetable he would want to be:
Daikon Radish. I’m big, white, and most people in the supermarket don’t know what to do with me.
Favourite Cheese:
Brie. ‘Nuff Said.
Doesn’t want you to know he listens to:
Polling Rank Of ’96 Japan Animation Theme Song
His “moves like Jagger” are more like:
Someone left the oven door open and the gas on high
To prepare for driving the bus he is:
Ingesting massive quantities of the spice “Melange” in order to become the Kwisatz Haderach and drive the Desert Bus like Shai-Hulud to glory!
What symbol does your superhero cape have on it?
‽
Johnny Blakeborough
Driving since: 2012
Points: 1
Crashes: 1
When not at Desert Bus, he can be found:
My full time job is supporting faculty, staff and students using technology at Vancouver Island University.
Special Skills:
Video conferencing in special guests. Waxing my moustache.
He’s a total geek for:
Films, technology, comics and board games.
Claim to Fame:
I run the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival, now in its 10th year, it is the longest running and best attended short film festival on Vancouver Island.
Biggest fear about driving for DB8:
That I will crash and not have a great excuse like “William Shatner was talking to me while i was trying to drive” like I had in DB 6.
If he was reincarnated as a fruit or vegetable he would want to be:
Rutabaga, why wouldn’t you want to be a rutabaga?
Favourite Cheese:
Pepper Jack
Doesn’t want you to know he listens to:
Taylor Swift
His “moves like Jagger” are more like:
your annoying cousin trying to break dance at the wedding
To prepare for driving the bus he is:
stress test my headphones
What symbol does your superhero cape have on it?
a dance break button
You find yourself in a bustling Dwarven ale house. The sour aroma of mead fills the air as you sit down across from the old sorcerer. “Are you here for the quest?” he asks. You nod your head and he continues: “the questing adventurer needs many tools to survive. Yes, armour and weapons, of course, but this is the most important.” He lifts a piece of canvas to reveal a stack of glowing magical tomes.
“This,” he explains “is the D&D Lover’s Lot. It contains a Player’s Handbook, a Monster Manual, a Hoard of the Dragon Queen adventure, a Rise of Tiamat adventure, a Tiamat Pinny Arcade pin (which was available only to attendees of the PAX Prime 2014 Acquisitions Inc. panel), and three D&D stickers.”
As you leaf through the books, you realize that they have each been signed inside by the Wizards of the Coast D&D team. “The set comes in a dashing and very sturdy Deconstructed D8 tote bag designed by C.M. Galdre” announces the sorcerer.
“If you wish to obtain this enchanted prize pack, you must donate an increment of $5.55 before 10pm Victoria time — only 8 minutes from now!”
We may live to regret this, but we’re asking for your best video game trivia questions! I’m going to select a few of the best and subject the Desert Bus crew to a VIDEO GAME QUIZ!!
Now, to help you along, here are some tips from a professional trivia host (yes, really)!
- We’re NOT looking for the hardest question you can think of. Aim for something in the “medium” difficulty range. The last thing we want is a battery of impossible questions and no one knowing any of the answers!
- A great question makes people go “Ohhhhhh, of course!” when they hear the answer. It should be something they will have heard of!
- Following up on the previous suggestion, the question should explain its own relevance. Players should never be asking themselves “why would I care about this”?
- Try to build in as many clues as possible in the question. Even if someone doesn’t know the answer outright straight away, they should be able to at least make a decent guess based on what you’ve given them!
Send your entries to contest@desertbus.org and use the subject line “Trivia”! Get them in by 8pm Victoria time!
Oh yeah, and, JUST ONE QUESTION PER PERSON PLEASE! So pick your best one!
Our winner will receive the Scholarly Gamer pack, a set of academic texts on the scholarship and history of video games (ludology, some have called it)!
For my money this certainly ranks among the coolest items we have this year!
SDCC Planeswalkers + Garruk’s Axe package #1
This magnificent polearm is a replica of Planeswalker Garruk’s signature axe! The prize pack also includes teh San Diego Comic Con Planeswalkers!
We’re auctioning this RIGHT NOW!
Michael Davis will be calling into Desert Bus at 8pm PST Saturday, November 15th.
He is a software developer for the Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS) at the University of Alabama. They develop software for various federal, state, and local government agencies related to aspects of public safety, such as law enforcement, transportation safety, health care, and social services.
One major project he has been developing is eCrash, an electronic traffic crash reporting system for the state of Alabama. If you end up in a car crash within Alabama, chances are the crash report is passing through software he wrote. Currently he is working on developing an equivalent system for the state of Arkansas.
He enjoys reading and playing video games (particularly JRPGs), though he’s been spending a lot of time on Destiny lately. His username in most places (including DB chat) is Nereidum, a name he picked because of his love for the Zone of Enders series. He’s been watching since DB3, possibly DB2, though the lines of reality have blurred too far together to be certain anymore.
For DB8 he made The Device.
Have a question for Michael? Leave them in the comments below!
Just a quick reminder to everyone that we have some very cool silent auctions going on right now!
First up, let me introduce this gorgeous artisanal stained glass art piece!
Looking for that perfect item to add a touch of style to your study, den, library, living room, or anywhere else? This Magic: the Gathering colour wheel is a delicious pie of spell-casting fuel.
Hang it in your window and let its colourful light shine down upon your Magic games and dazzle your opponents! And hey, with the holidays coming up, this unique piece also makes a perfect gift for that someone who’s hard to shop for!
For the next ten minutes this incredible piece is up for grabs at a bargain price so make sure to get your bid in!! A similar item went for $4000 last year, and this one is available for just $1000 right now! Nowhere else will you find an item like this at this price again, so act now!
Remember, the auction ends in just ten minutes!!
As well, don’t forget about the Chibiterasu Needlepoint, the Supernatural 200th Episode Commemorative Pins, and the Star Wars Lace Shawl!!
All hail
King Matt I
Long may he reign!
Matt was the winner of our inaugural Bus King contest! Thanks to everyone for voting!
For the curious, the final standings were:
7. Johnny
6. James
5. Jer
4. Andrew
3. Graham
2. Serge
1. Matt
Hello again everyone! We at Desert Bus for Hope 8 cordially invite you to a royal affair… The inaugural coronation of the Bus King!
RIGHT NOW the Desert Bus beefcakes are strutting their stuff and vying for the crown, so tune in, and donate to vote for your favorite! The contest will involve a runway walk, a short answer, a talent portion, and more!
A previous Bus King
Our King will be chosen by most donations! Vote in multiples of the amounts below:
Hello
| To vote for… | Donate… |
| James | $5.01 |
| Dan | $5.02 |
| Serge | $5.03 |
| Jer | $5.04 |
| Matt | $5.05 |
| Johnny | $5.06 |
| Graham | $5.07 |
| Andrew | $5.08 |
If you missed their sexy walks, look under the cut!
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Day 2 of Desert Bus For Hope 8, here is what you might have missed in all the excitement!
We had a great morning giveaway with the Ogre Prize Pack donated to us by Dracogen! The 13.37 donation drive raised a grand total of $3609.90 with Miracleknight standing triumphant!
We had….some issues however despite raising so much money. Beej decided that his shift was going to be the crashiest ever, and proceeded to go absolutely mad with power. No bus driver was safe!
Up next we rolled the Die for the first time on Jer’s shift and did a donation drive for the GIANT wooden D20. An amount of $7.09 was decided by rolls and raised $2850.18! The natural 20 was rolled by Ailurus as they took home the die!
We had Phil Plait call in and run the Bad Astronomer auction lot in which we had a deliciously flavourful SPACE bid from Omega_Lairon to take the lot for 2600
We had an INSANE donation drive with the Portal light boxes! The entries were $9.90 and raised $10,355.40 with Visible taking the boxes!!!!!!!! IT WAS CRAAAAZY!
We ran an art challenge for people to have themselves as the representative of their favourite of the Khans of Tarkir clans! The top three all won a shirt and playmat of the clan of their choice.
We had a beautiful bird up next on the auction block, our very own Desert Bus Chocobo! With the art submissions still rolling in we had a great auction with Lizardman winning the bird for $1300.00! WARK WARK