This was a tough one, folks. I didn’t even realize I’d compiled 14 shortlisters until I was going through them with Alex; it was an AGONIZING process, but the winner of Alex’s Tan art challenge is Simon Beaudoin!

The other four short-shortlisters are:

And the rest are below the cut!

I get a lot of people who tell me that they “just don’t get Twitter.” Well, viewers, I know YOU guys are savvy to the little blue bird, and you know of its immense power; last year William freakin’ Shatner learned about Desert Bus and tweeted about us.

That was cool, but we  can do better.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept it: Get the official Desert Bus 7 hashtag, #DB007, ranking in Canada, the US, or worldwide (OMG) in the top ten. If you can do it, we have some truly ridiculous swag to give away; it’s so fantastic that even I don’t know what it is yet. So tell your followers, live-tweet the Zeta shift, and get us trending, guys!

Okay, Desert Bus fans, the lovely Kara has expectations, and when she has expectations you do not want to disappoint.

Here’s the deal: we need icons made for some of our achievements, and the best ones will be put up on the Desert Bus website and used as official badges when we trigger the cheevos! I’ve linked the background image below, so please use that as your base and get creative. This year’s theme is white on blue background; head over to the Achievements page to get an idea of what we’re looking for, and send your submissions to  cheevos@desertbus.org.

Here’s a list of the cheevo icons we need:

• On the Road Again: Reach 1 point
• Road Trip!: We reach 5 points
• Don’t Stop Me Now!: We crash the bus
• Vegeta Extreme: $9001 donated by a single donor
• Fancy Hat: Someone puts pants on their head
• Two Heads are Better Than One: two people sing a duet
• Walrus Tickle Dance Bance: A marathon dance session of Carmelldansen
• Saturday Morning: A sing along of an old cartoon theme song
• Clubbing a Dead Horse: Someone gets ‘clubbed’
• Kid Gloves: Someone drives Desert Bus with socks on their hands
• Dog Catcher: Someone in the chat notices Spot the Dog
• We <3 Handmade: Awarded when a Craft-Along item auctions for over $2000
• Who’s Cutting Onions?: Someone at the Moonbase is moved to tears by “all dem feels”
• It’s Named Nick: Something previously unnamed is given a nickname by the chatroom
• Corporate Takeover: Desert Bus is consumed by benevolent corporate overlords
• We’re Helping!: When the chat solves a problem nobody at the Moonbase can

Click for the
full-size template!

We’d like to take a minute to thank Ken Smith, a writer at the video game blog Pixelitis, for an article about Desert Bus he wrote earlier this week!

In his article, Ken wrote:

“Of all the charity live streams on the Internet, Desert Bus for Hope is probably the only one where the viewers have no interest in the game being played… so the streamers earn their donations by performing ridiculous antics to the great amusement of the viewers. Upon one such viewing, I was treated to the entire room singing “Kung Fu Fighting” and doing karate kicks. That’s basically what you should expect.”

It’s articles like these that help us bring it home for the children, so thanks to Ken and the entire Pixelitis team! We think your website is pretty fancy too.

Read the article here or go right to their website at Pixelitis.net, an ever growing source of news, reviews and insightful features on the industry you care about.

Alex has initiated his first contest of his shift! Draw a Tan mascot girl for Desert Bus and you could win this sweet Capcom 30th Anniversary Encyclopedia.

Send in your submissions to contests@desertbus.org before 1:30 am PST.

We’re heading into Zeta shift, but that doesn’t mean we’re slowing down (not that you can, in Desert Bus…). We have these outstanding silent auctions running. Bid now, bid later, but make sure you get in your bids, because this block is really impressive, you guys.

Ending at 2am PST:

The adorable Whale Plaid Whale Plate!

A Spooooooooky-cool Bullseye Glass Minecraft Skeleton Plate!

Totally Radical TMNT Coffee Sleeves!

Ending at 6am PST:

The Faaaaantastic Windborne Pack!

A Gorgeous, Signed (!!) Defense Grid Poster!

This absolutely mindblowing Zelda Doll!

WE HIT THAT IN DONATIONS THIS YEAR. YOU GUYS!

Whale dong, you guys. Whale dong. <3

After a fantastic set of submissions, we’re pleased to announce that the winner of Kathleen’s ‘Draw Pel’ Contest is RoseNightshade!! They will receive this sweet D&D pack for their trouble. Congratulations to all who made the shortlist, because Kathleen was truly impressed–and she is a lady of very high-quality taste.

The rest of the finalists are below the cut!

Salutations, readers. Mia here, on a brand new Zetta shift timeline. It’s Mia after Dark.

We’ve had a great day, so many hilarious moments!

We have some amazing stuff going on. There’s a BALLER donation drive going on until 9pm; donate $6.23 for two prizes. The first is a RARE Behemoth Stuff Pack, which you can admire here. The other prize is Mrowwy Night”, a signed poster from The Oatmeal.

Grant Imahara is calling in at 9, so make sure to stay tuned for that!

Send trivia questions (and answers) in to contests@desertbus.org; Kathleen and my fellow blogger Mike will be taking them on when Mike returns in several hours. Artists, send in art of Kathleen’s D&D character Pel, also to contests@desertbus.org, for a chance to win a D&D adventure pack. Find out the details here.

I’ll keep you guys abreast (teehee) of upcoming stuff in the next eight or nine hours.

Legendary electronics guru Grant Imahara will be calling in to this year’s Desert Bus! Tune in at 9pm PST on Monday, November 18, 2013.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Grant got his start at Lucasfilm’s THX division and soon moved on to Industrial Light and Magic, where he would work on an exhaustive list of blockbuster movies such as the Star Wars prequels, Galaxy Quest, AI, Terminator 3, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and more.

Grant may be best known for his work on the Mythbusters Build Team, where he has been responsible for some the most jaw dropping computer and electronic myth debunks on the program. During his career Grant has operated R2D2, redesigned the current generation of Energizer Bunnies, built and designed Geoff Peterson, the gay robot skeleton sidekick on The Late Late Show with Craig Fergusson, and has worn the C3PO suit to numerous events, including once on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Imahara has also made appearances on Geek and Sundry’s TableTop, Junkyard Mega-Wars, and is currently portraying Mr. Sulu in the web series Star Trek Continues. He also pretty active on Twitter.

We here at Desert Bus are incredibly happy to have Mr. Imahara calling in to offer his support! If you have questions for Grant Imahara, please put them in the comments below.