I have a lot of “favorite” events I attend. Toorcamp is far and away the most favorite of anything I do.

If you haven’t heard of Toorcamp, it’s a convention for hacker-types that happens every other year at Doe Bay Resort in Orcas Island, Washington. It’s full of the most awesome people I know, all doing something unique and fun and exciting just because they can.

This year, I arrived fashionably late and by air (usually people take the ferry.) I flew on Kenmore Air from BFI to ESD. If you haven’t heard of Kenmore Air, BFI, or ESD before I don’t blame you - neither did I before taking the flight :)

Something about taking a random, obscure flight like this one is just inherently cool to me and I was giddy the whole time.

This was my first time flying on a Cessna, and I hope to be able to again. I had the best seat on the plane, in the very front row immediately behind the pilots. I spent the whole flight looking at the different instruments and watching the pilots fly. It was awesome!

One of the villages at camp is ShadyTel. ShadyTel is run by the staff of the Seattle Connections Museum and they run landline phone service to every camp. It’s the backbone that powers a lot of shenanigans, and there’s an incredible amount of work in making it all possible. I’m incredibly grateful for the work they do.

Naturally, the first thing I did when I arrived was help one of their competitors, FurryTel, expand their network.

FurryTel is the superior, interoperable telephone provider with a mission to connect creatures worldwide. I ran the cabling for Chile Vision, a call-in talk show and public access TV station.

Pictured: Me, during a woodland animals themed segment, making an appearance on Chile Vision to promote my affiliate link for an illegal gambling service. This was a highly profitable endeavor, and I was able to use my commission to pay off debts I incurred from running an illegal gambling service of my own.

A note to anyone looking to start a casino: it’s important to “have money” or else your players get rather upset if you can’t afford to give them their winnings.

(it should go without saying, but the gambling was not actually illegal, and the money I’m talking about is in ShadyBucks, Toorcamp’s currency)

This was CodeDay’s third time as a village, as we have in prior years we sent 25 students to attend. We think it’s such a great opportunity and we’re incredibly grateful to ToorCr3w for their support of our mission. I was thrilled to see how engaged our campers were and how much they got out of the experience.

Pictured: CodeDay campers executing a mock police raid on Beerocracy, attempting to seize their beer, paperwork, and kerchunker.

Pro tip to any people executing a search warrant: do not hand the only copy you have of the warrant (with a wet signature!) to the culprit. There’s nothing stopping them from throwing it away and pretending they don’t know what you’re talking about.

I could write all day about how awesome Toorcamp is and why you should totally go in 2028, but nothing I write can do it justice.

In conclusion:

  • be weird
  • say yes to fun
  • come to the next Toorcamp. Seriously.