Hi, my name is Lieu also known as Buddy and I’m about to be the fourth member of the eBUS live crew. What a monumental time in my life. When Carson asked me to come help him out with the bus, I couldn’t say no. I was nervous about the whole thing at first, but after realizing that I was going to be hanging out with great people who have a great plan, and always being by the beach, the decision was easy. There wasn’t much going on for me back at home, (Washington, like the rest of the crew) I just got laid off and my parents weren’t too happy with me living at home so this is a perfect time for me to venture out and try something new for a change and I know this will be an experience I will never forget (In a good way). I’m really passionate about helping my friends out with whatever and this is an opportunity to do that and hopefully make some money. The first five nights I’ve been down here, I’ve slept at five different places. The weather has been great and I think I’m going to Six Flags on Friday so what more can I ask for. Anyways, I just wanted to give you readers an idea of who I am so when you read our stories you’ll know who we’re talking about.

- Lieu

The sun was out in a hurry yesterday so there was to be no time wasted. Although Luke D. was busy, there were still three of us and Lieu was excited to be apart of the team. Since we have been putting off finishing our luxurious black curtains for the bus, we decided this was the first task we had to tackle.

We immediately went to the bus to grab our materials, which consisted of the already cut curtains, the grommets (I will explain later if you don’t know what a grommet is) and the cable which would run through the curtain holes. I guess now would be a good time to explain what a grommet is, because we had to stop by the nearest hardware store to pick up a hammer. Without the hammer we couldn’t finish the grommet placement on the curtains.

A grommet is like a sturdy outline of a hole in something soft such as fabric. What you do, is punch a hole in the given fabric, and then place each of the two metal grommet pieces on either side of the punched fabric. The hammer then smashes the two pieces together with the help of some sturdy steel aids. So grommets are basically the bomb, because they can make weak fabric holes, very strong (like bull), enabling them to be hung into a very popular bus (known to you as eBUS live). Basically what I just described is exactly what we did in the Pepperdine parking lot underneath the beaming hot sun. We finished after about an hour or so and decided that we should give ourselves a break.

The ocean was the first thing on our mind as we had all been sweating trying to perfect our grommet placement. (I know that you are probably going to look this word up in the dictionary since you still probably don’t fully understand what it is.) A quick trip to VONS was in order so we could purchase a volleyball. We knew there were only three of us, but we couldn’t just “lay-out” as many girls prefer to do. We finally arrived at the nearest beach and found the nets. Playing 1 v 2 is definitely not the most fun, but it kept us busy and active. About 30 minutes passed and we decided an ocean swim was in order. We hurried back to the car to grab our suits and then back to the bathrooms to change. And boy do they stop cleansing those bathrooms after summer! We changed as quickly as possible to escape from the gross stalls and back to the nets. Our plan was to work up a huge sweat and then run directly into the ocean at full speed. Again after like 45 minutes we were tired and decided to make a b-line to the water. We could barely make it in a full sprint because we were so tired. The ocean felt so frickin good, and we were so satisfied with our little outing. After a bit of body surfing we decided to head back in and maybe even back to work.

There was still plenty of light out so t-shirts were next on the list. We headed to Santa Monica to look for some shirts, and were actually successful this time. We found some gray, black and white ones. These will be our experimental T’s, and hopefully they will turn out so you can start purchasing them!!! The rest of the night was spent relaxing and looking forward to another productive, yet awesome day.

-Luke C

Carson and my good friend from high school, Lieu, just got in for a 10 day vacation. He is here to check out the eBUS lifestyle and also too pretty much just have a blast. I am super psyched for the rest of his stay, he’s so money. So we now are rollin with a posse of four. I picked him up from the airport yesterday, which was a bit of a mini-adventure for me in itself. Man, LAX is a busy place. Carson and Luke D were busy for the day, so Lieu and I were out on the town for a while by ourselves. The mall seemed like a good idea at the time, but we quickly realized that the beach was where we should be. We didn’t do a whole lot other than just walk around and enjoy the sun. Soon Carson, Luke D, and Chelsey were with us at Chelsey’s and we were ready to rest up for the huge week ahead of us.

-Luke C

The busy week is finally over and we are ready for Midnight Madness over at Pepperdine. My first full week here in California was full of working, which is actually something I liked because the Bus is now for real and looks so frickin sharp. Here is our recap of the busiest week yet.

Monday the three of us decided to start out at the most popular copy center (rhymes with plinko) to put in our order for our decals for the side of the bus. We knew we wanted the website on each side of the bus, and two actual eBUS live logos for the front and back of the bus. Now although we knew what we wanted, by no means did this super copy center have the means or knowledge to help us out. But we decided to let it go and move on. We needed to have these logos printed by Thursday, so off we went. A local sign shop was only a block away, so we decided to check it out. This was the best idea any of us had because they turned out to be so money. The old owner was there and helped us out so much even though he doesn’t even work there anymore. He loved our bus and the idea of eBUS live. After an hour or so of perfecting the computer document of our logo, we had our order in and it was time to move on. The rest of the day was spent looking for some t-shirts so we could have a more uniform look to us for the big event on Friday. After being rejected by a few stores we decided to purchase the paint for the bus. Home Depot had paint but we decided to not settle and search for some automotive paint stores, so we could have the best deal.

Tuesday only consisted of a two man team since Luke D. had to work. But Carson and I were motivated and ready to keep the ball rolling. Washing the bus was next on our agenda, since painting a dirty bus didn’t seem like a very good idea. We found one of those drive-up self car washing stations in Venice and knew it would work. The clearance under the roof was only by a few feet, but it would work out we thought. After purchasing $10 in quarters we finally pulled up in our wash gear and our big brushes. I am shorter than Carson so I was designated the roof cleaner. I had to squat around like smeegle from Lord of the Rings, but I managed to clean the top. Carson worked diligently cleaning the entire rest of the bus. I swear squatting under a low clearance is why the roof took so long. The bus was finally washed, but the day was not nearly over. Paint was next on our list, and we had even found a few paint specialist stores. We knew the color we wanted, which for those who voted thanks for your time but unfortunately the top pick (green) wasn’t something we could use because we needed to be set apart from similar projects. Black was second but we realized it may look too dirty. Charcoal gray was our final decision. The paint specialists weren’t much help as they thought that rolling paint onto the bus was one of the dumbest things they had ever heard. I mean, we know it’s not the best possible way to get it painted, but is it that bad?

We realized that Home Depot was our best bet for paint. We were even lucky enough to find that the depot’s paint man was actually quite knowledgeable. He realized that we were going to roll the bus no matter what so he helped pick out the best possible paint for the job. Our charcoal gray was also selected; Distant Thunder* was the exact name and I am sure you all will love it. (Check out the pics). We were feeling so good that we decided to keep on going and search for t-shirts. By this time it was about 5 or 6 PM, and we had not yet eaten the entire day. For those of you who know Carson this is not that big of a deal. And those of you who know me you would probably guess it was. Well I began to feel drained and kept asking if we could eat. Carson offered a stop at some restaurant. But I decided to keep on going; my motto was that I couldn’t eat until we had purchased shirts. Setting stipulations like this help get things done in my mind. We never ended up finding shirts, but finding some fabric for our curtains was suffice I felt, especially since it was like 9 at night and my body was growing weak. The day was a success so we decided to treat ourselves to the 555 deal at Domino’s. Right as our pizza was ready, we got a call from Luke D. explaining how his car wouldn’t start and he needed a ride. We had been planning on driving to his friend matt’s house to stay the night, so eating in the car was what we were forced to do. I was so hungry that it was ok with me, but I did feel bad for Carson since he had to eat and drive.

Wednesday was no time to rest. Luke D. was busy so it was up to Carson and I to begin the painting the enormous bus. Taping started the day off in our super sunny deserted location. We felt great because this only took us about an hour. However we were soon faced with the hardest part. Making sure that all that old school yellow was covered with our grayish primer. The good part about the bus being so yellow is that we could tell where we had not yet painted over; the bad part is obvious to most probably. This is that there was no getting away from not having to paint EVERY square inch. I started out on the roof, since I was the roof cleaner, and Carson began priming the sides. We began rolling our lives away and realized that the bumpy surface was going to be a lot harder than we had anticipated. The sides of the roof were the only easy section to roll, but the center of that (because of two rivets) and the entire sides were full of little nooks and crannies. (On a positive note I was able to obtain my first suntan from the California sun.) I am definitely not used to receiving one of those in the middle of October. Before we knew it the sun was slowly going away, but we had finally primed the bus. Now many may think that a full day of priming is a waste. An example is when Luke D. called and asked how many coats of paint we had completed. We laughed it off and explained that the priming is the most difficult and look forward to an easier day of painting.

Thursday was exactly like Wednesday in regards to wasting no time. We woke up around 8 am and headed to the bus. I hopped on the roof, Luke D. grabbed the other roller and Carson nabbed a brush. The third team member really made a difference, and not having to cover a yellow inconsistent surface was even more of a help.

We were flying and our bus was beginning to look so sharp. As mentioned before, Distant Thunder* is the exact shade we chose, and it makes a great canvas, let me tell you. About ¾’s of the way through Pete skateboarded on up ready to lend a helping hand. This was great because we were in need of some more brush work.

Busses have so many little cracks to get into. The first coat was finally finished and a break for lunch was in order. Luke D. suggested Lilly’s, a great little restaurant that gave us tons of energy to continue. Luke D. was on a roll because right after his prime lunch choice he recruited an old friend, Lacey, to come and do some more painting. We now had five members painting the second coat. This was great because it began to fly right on there. The only problem was we had no idea what had been painted twice because there were so many of us, and the sun was drying the second coat so fast. But everything was looking so good that we just kept on going realizing that more than two coats in some areas wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway.

This morning wasn’t as hectic as the others. We woke up early to go get some t-shirts and realized that some dark gray hoodies would be a perfect look for the team. The decals and logos were next on the list so we headed to the sign shop to pick them up. We were a little bit nervous to see if they turned out the way we planned, but these guys were awesome and pulled through in the clutch. The light green website for the side of the bus looked so good. It looks even better on the side of a bus painted Distant Thunder*. Applying the website was the next and pretty much final difficult task.

There was the background black decal to apply first and then we had to match up the green for on top of that. Luke D., Carson and I were very successful and the Bus looks great! Be sure and let us know what you think about the color and the website decal.

*note: please read with an aggressive sort of growl, this allows getting the true feeling from this magnificent color.

What’s up everyone? My name is Luke Comer and I am the newest member of eBUS live’s crew. After some thinking up in the Seattle area, I decided that this company was something I had to be a part of. Although I have discussed with Carson what life has been like for him and the other Luke, I am definitely not exactly sure how it will be compared to my life back home. But I think that is the best thing about me coming down here to southern California; not really knowing what will happen. I arrived yesterday with one huge suitcase a backpack and no preconceived thoughts on what California and the bus would bring for me. I am just excited to get this company rolling and start having the time of my life.

-Luke Comer

(((Week in review, rather long read)))
After spending a week in St. Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean and flying from airport to airport for an entire day Graham finally ended up at LAX last Monday. He was tired but that didn’t slow down his productivity. I think he said it best when he mentioned he “sat around the beach in the sun all last week, he didn’t need to do more of that here while there was stuff to be done.” He was anxious to get going but still a little drained from the traveling fiasco (traveling is getting pretty ridiculous with the no gels or liquids or pretty much anything you need but I understand– but for Graham it’s even worse because he has a metal rod in his leg from a lacrosse injury and it sometimes sets off the metal detectors.) So anyway after he arrived at LAX in the early evening he was ready for a meal of food because he hadn’t really eaten since the night before. There seemed to be only one logical stop to make for his first meal back in California, In-N-Out of course. I can’t say I’m a huge fan because I don’t eat burgers, but from what I hear the place makes really good ones and is native only to the southwest region of the country. After eating we hung out at Lacey’s house for a little, enjoyed some television and conversation then headed back to Malibu for the evening.

The next day (Tuesday) Graham got started early. He single handedly cleaned up the entire bus. He says it took him a few hours but I bet it took him even more than that because Luke and I haven’t cleaned it in ages. He picked up all the random pieces of trash lying around; he organized the whole bus too from all our cloths to our gear to our food and so on. Cleaning the whole bus was a huge step but it was only the beginning of Graham’s productive week.

Wednesday there wasn’t much left for Graham to do by himself. He started out by making a few plans for some projects to do on the bus that would help to organize and make more storage as well as create a more hospitable environment. After drafting a few things up he was unable to continue without help and tools. So he continued to be productive and used Luke’s computer to do some research for bus parts and so forth. He found some information on creating a solar power system and some info on generators so that we could one day have electricity on the bus. Luke and I met up with Graham at a coffee shop in Santa Monica where he had been doing his research. From there we went to scavenge trough the stuff at Goodwill to try and find some of the items we needed for the bus. We really were looking for some sort of cabinet to store a bunch of our crap in but we ended up only finding a table that we figured we could convert into our booth table top. The sun quickly set and limited our ability to get things done on the bus so I decided to get some pizza on 3^rd street and hang out for a bit while we made plans for the evening. As it turned out there were no plans to be made so eventually Graham and I went back to Malibu to play some hoops at Pepperdine while Luke went out with his friends Matt and Matt. I hadn’t shot hoops in a long while so it was nice to be out playing again.

The real production began on Thursday because Graham was finally able to get some fulltime help. We began the morning making dozens of measurements and trying to plan out the projects that we could get done in the next couple days. We ultimately decided on three projects: the table, the closet, and the couches. The table was the biggest project, it entitled drilling holes through the bus to bolt the seats into place, modifying the table with all sorts of extra wood and metal, creating a hinging structure with a leg so the table could fold up, and all the little things in between. The closet was a little simpler because all we had to do was to take the cloths off and add some diagonal strapping to the back of the structure to create lateral stability. The other project was the couches and all we really had to do was to elevate them with some left over 2×6 so that there could be some storage underneath them. With all the plans set it was time to get the necessary materials. We had most the wood we needed from the leftovers of the bed construction. We just needed to get a hinge for the leg (we already had two that would work on the wall side), one long 2×6 cut into two 55” pieces, some drill bits, some screws, and some strapping. First we quickly stopped by our favorite restaurant in Malibu, KFC, and ate some chicken while we watched a crazy fiasco on the shoulder of PCH in front of KFC. To make a long story short, some lady couldn’t get into “a” car that we all assumed was hers so people would come up and try and help. This went on for hours and all sorts of people came up with advice, one man showed up with a ‘slim jim’ in his back pocket, another had a few screw drivers, another just had his own set of keys, and another was a local sheriff. After about a dozen people over the course of an hour had a crack at it the cop and one Samaritan finally got it done. Anyway, back to the story, we left KFC to head to Pete and Tesha’s to get our drill battery charging. From there we went to a supply store that rhymes with Chrome Repo to get the stuff we needed. We spent over an hour in there and all we managed to get was the one board, a hinge, some screws, and some drill bits. We went back to Pete and Tesha’s and started working. We got many of the pieces cut that we needed but then we were interrupted by a neighboring family that wanted quiet (a.k.a. no power saws) while they ate dinner. With nothing to do we began playing Sega Dreamcast which Pete had recently acquired. We got hooked into it and played it all night. Friday needed to be a big day of construction.

Friday we spent more time cutting and charging at Pete and Tesha’s as well as at Peter and Tim (and 6 other guys’) house in Malibu. We were finally ready to build. We screwed on the 2×6 frame onto the bottoms of the couches but our drilled died and we ran out of sunlight for the day. We then headed back to Pete and Tesha’s to get ready for the evening, we were going out to see Los Pingos in Santa Monica. We left the drill battery charging and we left for San Mon. After a 10 dollar cover which I was pretty bitter about we got in and watched them play. They were really good though I could only understand a few words they sang (they’re from Argentina and sing in Spanish). The cover was alright this time though because I felt like I was paying for a concert.

The big build day had to be Saturday because Graham was leaving in the evening and we had yet to get all the projects done. We started by gluing some pieces onto the table as part of its grand modification process. As the glue dried we went on to fix the closet. We had to make a quick trip to the local hardware store to get the glue and strapping for the closet. We fixed the closet in no time but decided we needed to let the glue dry a little longer on the table before we returned to that project. Seeing as how the week had been mostly working and productivity we decided to go to the beach and get in the water for a little fun time. Surfrider was the closest spot and it’s a pretty fun area to walk around and see the surfers and whatnot. It was a little windy out so we didn’t go in the water but we did watch people surf. Also we went into the Adamson House which is pretty cool and if you ever come to Malibu you should check it out. After our nice tourist break we returned to the bus to work on the booth/table. Drilling through the bus became a big fiasco as we didn’t have a large enough drill bit, but we managed to wrestle everything in place. The seats were set the table just had a lot more work to go. We had to modify one piece of wood by using an old steak knife as a saw and a screw driver as a chisel. After a few hours of primitive craftsmanship we put the hinges in the recessed part of the wood and glued it all together. We ended the carpentry day with the table almost complete, the leg was on and hinged, and the table was fully modified but not mounted because the glue had to dry. Graham frantically got ready by packing all his stuff up and we headed for the airport. Traffic wasn’t too bad on that Saturday so we managed to get there on time. Graham took off back to Washington and the team was back down to just two, but we are excitedly awaiting the arrival of another member and possibly the return of Graham.

-Carson

I think this is cause for celebration, maybe it doesn’t look like a big step but when Michael Dell sold his first computer I bet it didn’t seem like a big deal at that time either. I just wanted to let everyone know that the selling of ads has begun, the buying system though not perfect is in place and fully functional. So thanks to everyone who is reading this and who has told somebody else about this venture, your time and efforts are producing results. I guess I hope it’s not an effort for you, I hope you enjoy reading about our stories and looking at our pictures, but I’m not really sure your motivation. But nonetheless I appreciate your support. The first few ads are always the hardest, but we have made the leap and we hope to get the snow ball rolling from here. Please check out the homepage and investigate our sponsors if you desire.

Thanks again,

- Carson

Just wanted to let you all know that eBUS live has broken into the press with an excellent article written by Mary Decker of the Redmond Reporter. A while back I mentioned doing an interview with the paper for an article and it finally came out today. I just want to also quickly thank Dawn Olson for setting this whole thing up. Dawn has been helping out eBUS live a lot by sending in tips to certain publications trying to get us in the press and her work has come full circle with the release of this article. Thank you Dawn. So everybody should read the article naturally, if you are interested you can find it here. That’s pretty much all I have to say right now, the article is awesome and entertaining and captures eBUS live well. Thanks for your support by reading this and don’t forget to check back soon because I’m sure great adventures are just around the corner.
-Carson

Kinkos is ready to hire the eBUS live crew full time. Well not really, but after we spent a few hours there you can understand why. We were walking around behind the counters and operating programs on their machines. I’m not trying to say they don’t know what they are doing, but it took about five Kinko employees plus our help to get the banner to print correctly. We were having all sorts of issues with color matching, random artifacts and other things. We got it done though and they are currently laminating it so its nice and glossy. Look for it at our stand when you come say hi, we’ll be there tomorrow at 4 until 10 on the 4th of July. (112th and Meridian in South Hill Puyallup, WA)

-Carson

What a day. It was a beautiful one here in Graham, WA and we used it wisely. Instead of spending the day on the bus, such as constructing a beautiful set of bunk beds, we decided to make some money. We had already turned down an opportunity to work a couple days with Cornerstone (a construction company run by Carson’s buddies Luke and Sam) and were questioning if that was the right decision. You see, due to the fact that it cost around a grand in gas to get up here from L.A., this was our dilemma. Then early in the morning Debbie, my step mom, offered to pay us to move some furniture for her sister. Right away we realized that this was an easier way to make the same amount of money then doing construction work. Oh…I forgot to mention…we have to use our bus to move it!! Yet another chance for Alice to show off her versatility.

So what we thought would be easier, ended up being the most intense moving session either of us had ever done! We had to move the heaviest furniture ever made! For example, one of the couched weighed at least 1000 lbs and flex under its own weight when we picked it up. But it paid very well and heading to the bank will make it all worth it.

Today was also a day that Alice got to go back to her roots when we picked up Autunm, my step sister, from her basketball practice at my alma mater Bethel High School. Tears of joy were shed from her radiator. It was a good day.