Desert Bus 8 Bit!

[empath]

And - while that is in character for Morgan - it's also something that is pretty apropos of a troll. Judgement call.

[AdmiralMemo]

Oh, no, I'm not saying it was the wrong call at all.

[Kapol]

You know, the end of Desert Bus feels very much like the ending of The Truman Show. There's kind of a pause of "Is... Is it really over? This had become my life." Before a simple "What else is on?"

[fagstein]

I uploaded an MP3 of the a cappella version of the LRR theme as performed by Tally, Dix and Beej:

https://soundcloud.com/stevefaguy/a-cap ... yrun-theme

[DJ Spacepirate]

I haven't found a DB detox thread, so I'll just put this here. I love you all! Bedthyme...

[nanobis]

I can't believe its's over already. And I missed the Final Bus Down as i had to drive to Uni, to say I'm deviated is an understatement.

[My pseudonym is Ix]

My experience of DB ending

Wind up about half past midnight yesterday evening, assuming the stream will finish overnight (we're on about $530,000 by this point). Bid the chat goodnight and get some shuteye

Wake up next morning. Flick on computer at 8 to prepare for a maths test I have at 9. When my browser auto-opens to desertbus.org, I find the stream STILL GOING, and $100,000 better off than when I left it. Pants are almost wetted with glee.

Spend a nervous hour watching thank yous and engaging in earnest internal debate as to the relative merits of Final Busdown vs. Maths Test (that's worth 10% of that module). It's a tough call.

Catch The Final Busdown in time to sprint to lectures and just make the test in time. Arrive with my face fixed in the joyful grin it's worn since 8 thismorning.

This year was amazing you guys. Looking forward to the next one already...

[rogue_eclipse]

I saw bits and pieces of DB7 but DB8 was the first one I have tried to follow along with - what an immensely entertaining week!

Well done to all involved in making it happen, you should be very proud of what you achieved.

[Garwulf]

This was the first Desert Bus my wife and I were really, truly aware of, and we had a blast following it. We had it on the TV piping through the sound system, and we were watching and celebrating when it hit $600,000.

Sadly, we could only donate about $90 USD between us this year. Next year we will do more...so much more...

(And, unfortunately, being in Eastern Time, Desert Bus ended around 3:00 AM, so we couldn't stay up late enough to see the final crash, or whatever the Device ended up doing. Looking forward to finding the replay on YouTube, though.)

[MagisterMystax]

That was wonderful. I stayed up to 10 in the morning for the final busdown and just woke up from a few hours sleep, but it was worth it completely. I remember thinking last year "Ha, those future us scrubs will have a real hard time beating this!", and now I'm thinking it again, and I hope to be just as wrong as last time.

Anyone know whether the torrent is up already, and where we might find it when it is?

[My pseudonym is Ix]

I'm slightly... weirded out, I think, by the fact that next year we're set to break both 2.5 and 3 million lifetime.

[Lord Hosk]

You can buy a Softcover version of the DB7 photobook: http://store.loadingreadyrun.com/produc ... photo-book


Do you want a desert bus 8 poster? order here! bit.ly/DB8Poster (refresh this link to see the current version http://www.supernormalstep.com/images/DB/DBAuto.jpg )


You can buy your very own Desert Bus shirt at http://www.fangamer.com/products/desert-bus-8 or Zeta Shift Shirt over at www.teespring.com/zetashift


These will likely be up until sometime in the weekend.
***************************************

Do you like Animated Gifs? CantWearHats and the GIFted ones put them HERE! http://greywool.com/desertbus/8/gifs/ or here instead http://hats.retrosnub.uk/DesertBus8/

Your official Desert Bus photographer Andrew @WarandPeace Ferguson is posting his work at https://www.flickr.com/photos/desertbusforhope/

Did you miss something awesome, the VST has you covered over at http://bit.ly/DB8Timeline and www.youtube.com/desertbusforhope

If you win something Email [email protected] with the subject line "I won (Item)" and the body "I won(item) at (time) for doing (thing you did to win) Include Name Address including country and "Shipping people you are awesome"

[MotorWaffle]

I've watched this since DB4, and nothing destroyed me like last the last 36 hours or so of this year. Between Omega_Larion, the Hosklings, the suits, Penn's insanity and the sheer number of things that made the chat simultaneously go "WAT" as we blew past last years total, I think had this gone on any longer the majority of us would have collapsed into puddles of pure feels.
So congratulations everyone. I concede that I am #rekt

[Lord Hosk]

we could donate about $90 USD between us this year because we wanted to give but we were still acting responsibly. Next year we will watch the stream and show support in word and deed.

FTFY!

NEVER NEVER NEVER compare yourself to others in this event. There is a huge range of people with a huge range of incomes. There is 0 difference in my mind between a university student who has to decide between Ramen or Mac and cheese, who lives off crackers and peanut butter they swiped from the dining hall for a week so they can donate $5 and Omega-Laron, Steve Dengler or Robert Khoo who give thousands. Everyone gives what they can and its clear that almost everyone pushes themselves to give more than they think they can and that is just remarkable that they are willing to do that.

You had $90 that you could have kept for yourself but you instead said "We want a child in need to be a little less scared, a little more like a child. We have things we could do for ourselves with that money but we want to give it to someone we have never and likely will never meet because their joy is gives us joy"


You and your wife are amazing people, thank you for being amazing.


Also to people who couldnt give anything and I know they exist, but they signal boosted, they told people. Notch didnt find the stream on his own, one of his employees pointed him to it. Without that person the children would have recieved at least $20,000 less and That big donation probably inspired more people to give more. That person probably couldnt afford to give tens of thousands of dollars but they raised it none the less. Spreading the word is super important even if you cant give.

[Can't Wear Hats]

Desert Bus 8 in summary:

[Omega Lairon]

So that was a thing that happened.

I can't really add too much more to it than what you guys have already said. It's amazing how much we were able to accomplish for the children, which I think we can all agree is easily the most important resource on the planet.

Just to "briefly" summarize the chunk of text I crammed into the chat during the last few minutes or so - I know it's easy to feel a bit down on yourself if you could only chip in a few dollars, but the big, important changes in the world aren't always made by the rich and powerful. It takes every little piece, all of us fighting together to achieve what we all did through Desert Bus. That huge sum of money? That was YOU. That's not just "those rich guys" who are fortunate enough to have the big numbers to throw around... I know I sure as (bus) don't have $600,000 lying around. It's the result of every small contribution, every entry in the donation drives, every time you thought to hand over your loose change for a funny song or dance you saw. YOU are necessary. YOU are important. YOU are making great things happen, and you should all feel pretty damn proud of yourselves for being a part of something so impressive and mind boggling.

[stormagnet]

I'm kinda new here, so I hope this is the right place to put this, but here is a thing:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6GGv ... authuser=0
[MP3 Version of Paul's Gypsy Rover]

[SohNata]

This was my first time really watching the entire thing and I'm just so blown away by it all. I was lucky that somehow, my company wasn't blocking it, so was able to follow fairly solidly from 8am to 4am, only losing the 4hrs sleep and 1hr of work travel. The final shift I just ploughed through and didn't sleep, which made work today rather interesting (Still haven't slept since getting up at 8am Thursday GMT....)

Personal highlight for me was most of Day 5/6. Starting with breaking at work twice in a short space from Kate & Kathleen give Horrible Advice #3 into Qwerpline (IT WAS A SEGUE! Is still making me laugh. The constant in-references from K&K to Qwerp is some absolutely mind-blowing improv skill), into Beej's Magic description into THE DUTCH...AGAIN! into GayBar and then well. I'm not sure if my mind has been blown like the chain of events from the Peach Auction and the incredible genorosity of this community, followed by the SUITS. The Suits thing actually broke me, I was pacing around my room in disbelief at what was happening. When Wilkinson is explaining who he is, just watch Graham. It's a joy. Then capped off by the Mikey Neumann/Randy Pitchford auctions. That day (Going from like...mid-day to 2-4am my time) was incredible.

I wish I was in chat more, as I love everyone involved in this and feel really inspired to make sure I can contribute for DB9, whether it's on-site, off-site or making something. I am making plans because Desert Bus is such a special event for an amazing cause. All of you who work to put it together, you have my infinite respect and love.


(As a last, non-soppy note - I have to say, I am actually really impressed at the improv skills shown by a lot of the crew during the whole event during a myriad of skits. Also, just how many amazing singers does this bus have?!)

[sam79]

So I’ve made a list of 8 things I’ve learnt from my first Desert Bus, as is tradition.

1. For instant adorable, add any amount of Pika.

2. My GOD you guys know your Next Gen.

3. Turns out sleep is not essential.

4. Paul can sing really well.

5. Kate’s advice is bad, but Kathleen’s is truly appalling.

6. Canada seems to have a higher calibre of elected official than most other countries.

7. Playing Desert Bus the way you do is surprisingly dangerous for the eyes.

8. There is no internet community that is more welcoming, more creative, more witty or more generous than Desert Bus/LRR. Thanks everybody.

[Jamfalcon]

That was fantastic. As always, a highlight in what's already been a very good year. Looking forward to next November!

Everyone involved with Desert Bus on any level, both on screen, behind the scenes, and watching around the world, is contributing to something that is absolute good, and it's amazing to be even a little part of that.

[Fluffboll]

This was the second Desert Bus I really followed from beginning to end. It's such an amazing thing I can't really think of anything to describe it as.

Couldn't donate as much as I wanted to but what was achieved through everyone is nothing short of breath-taking. Looking forward to next Desert Bus and everything from the LRR-Crew until then

[empath]

Don't worry, Fluffboll, I got into LRR just from the first Desert Bus and after watching eight...I'm still hard pressed to put all my feelings into words, too.

And heck, even if I had...oh...thirty-two million dollars free and clear to just donate to Desert Bus, it still wouldn't be as much as I would want to donate.


Well, having said that, I gotta somehow try to marshall my thoughts into something remotely readable...

Firstly, I have to give ALL THE LOVE IN THE WORLD to the brilliant, diligent, faster-than-light Video Strike Team; my pesky jerb kept me from tuning in live as much as I wanted to, but thanks to their AMAZING efforts, I was able to skim through all the awesomeness that happened while I was sleeping or t'werking.

THANK YOU!


And...I kinda made a mistake: I sat down and caught up with the thread (in preparation of making this post)...while checking out Big Giant Circles' "Loading Ready Remix"

...now I gotta go get another box of tissues

Jimmy is AMAZING and deserving of many thanks, too.


But yeah, this was a great time. Last night...wow...I almost didn't want to go to bed at 2-ish my time (about 1hr before the end...no-wait, TWO hours ) and while it would've been great to stay up and sing along to the Final Busdown, I had a hard enough time with rainy weather making my arthritic joint refuse to do my jerb as it was. :J And it was as Pseudo said - waking up and checking things and being PLEASANTLY SURPRISED at what happened while I was not watching.

But thank you to EVERYONE - all the guests, all the crew - who made this event so fun and PERSONABLE and COMFORTABLE to just be part of (albeit with teh intarweebs in between, but YKWIM ;^) ) - all the people who made or gave all those awesome things for the auctions and giveaways, EVERY person who donated - from someone who could only scrape together less than a dollar to the 'whales' that we all feel a little envious of - everyone who helped make Desert Bus the...indescribably fantastic charity...experience that it was.

And also, thanks to Fangamer, for this year, heading off my Fiscal Irresponsibility Fairy from making me blow my donation budget on giveaways and challenges and not having any money to get a DB shirt like it has each year in the past - THIS YEAR, they made the shirts available AT THE START

...this year, I will have a DB shirt, thanks to their foresight.

[SAJewers]

Yeah, big props to the VST. So many hilarious things I missed.

[Lord Hosk]

I donated as much as I could based on my present situations and what was achieved through everyone working together in large and small ways is nothing short of breath-taking.

FTFY!

[Mums]

The after DB emptyness is filling me. I get some money on tuesday, can we do it again?