For those unaware, June 6, 2026 was the first Cowabunga Weekend party and it definitely won’t be the last. There are certain things that are good for the soul, and playing retro games on the couch with friends while consuming food from my childhood was definitely good for the soul.

Bit of a rocky start, but we got there

The day started at around 6:00am. Got up, showered and started getting things setup. Of course, as with every Extra Life stream I do and despite my best efforts, my PC decided the sound wasn’t going to work at all this morning (I had setup and tested everything the night before by the way). Luckily, a quick reboot fixed the issue. I snarfed a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch, hauled all the hot sauce down into the Swank Tank (my basement), and fired up the stream just in time for 8:00am.

The morning was pretty chill playing through the Sonic portion of Sonic Adventure. Good start to the day.

Switched to Super Mario world around lunch and of course had to pair it with some Super Mario Kraft Dinner and Sharkleberry Fin Kool-aid. I don’t know how to describe it, but Super Mario Kraft Dinner just tastes better than regular Kraft Dinner. It must be something about the chonkyness of the noodles and that they are just a bit al dente. I don’t know, just try it for yourself. In fact, pair it with Sharkleberry Fin Kool-aid for a real taste sensation.

Those look like some thick noods

– DigitalNomadAnalogHermit

The chaos begins

Around mid-afternoon, people started showing up and we switched over to some couch co-op and multiplayer games. We had a big group, so at times it was complete chaos but everyone got a turn.

Around the cowabung-hour (5:00pm) we switched over to, well… the Switch for some Shredder’s Revenge (I know, not technically a retro game, but in the spirit of one).

Of course, we naturally had to pair Shredder’s Revenge with the most iconic pizza from the 90s (Pizza Hut) and wash it down with some Cherry Coke. Honestly, that combo slapped way harder than I was expecting.

The d20 of Pain was rolling

Any donation during the stream over $20 earned a roll of the d20 of Pain; the higher the roll, the hotter the sauce. The donations were coming in hot during the stream (pun intended), and the d20 was favouring high rolls. Let’s just say I was suffering (both during the stream and the day after).

By midnight, the party had died down, but we finished off the night playing some some duck hunt with an old friend. Absolute perfection.

Check out the (almost) full stream below

Keep in mind, I didn’t quite get the sound levels sorted out until about 3 and a half hours in, AND apparently YouTube only saves the first 11 hours and 55 minutes. Sorry, I’m new at this… kinda. I’m working on a highlights video, so stay tuned.

It started out with overnight oats after which I quickly found out I despise overnight oats. How do people eat that garbage? I wanted to like them, I tried to acquire a taste for them, but ultimately couldn’t do it.

Then I tried some Skyr with all-bran buds, chocolate covered puffed quinoa, dried blueberries, and a splash of milk. It was aight, but got old quick.

We could do better. The perfect mush was out there somewhere waiting to be discovered. But what was I looking for, I had to define the perfect mush.

The perfect mush had to be:

1. Great tasting (something I look forward to eating every day)
2. Filling (and keeps me full until lunch)
3. High fibre (for the poop)
4. High protein (for the muscles)
5. Easy enough to make (while still half asleep)

Enter Crunchmush

Crunchmush is perfection. I can eat this stuff every day, it tastes great. Listen, it checks all the boxes, trust me. Here’s how you make it.

You’re going to need

1 biscuit of Shredded Wheat
(Most underrated cereal of all time)

2 large eggs

Cooking spray

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup Low fat cottage cheese
(Low fat because we need that extra moisture. Also, get the US stuff if you can, it tastes way better than the Canadian stuff. Not sure why, it just does)

Hot sauce of your choice
(If you need a suggestion, I love Killer Kimchi from Cabajan Kitchen but the ones below are close runners up)

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Here’s how to make it

1. In a bowl, smash up one biscuit of shredded wheat
2. Spray some cooking oil in a pan over some heat and crack 2 eggs in.
3. With a spatula, just mess em up until you have something that resembles a crumbly scrambled egg.
4. Drop that over the smashed up shredded wheat and hit it with some salt and pepper.
5. On top of that, spread a 1/4 cup of low fat cottage cheese.
6. Top with your hot sauce of choice
7. Wang-jangle it until it’s all mixed up

I know it sounds weird to have savoury ingredients on shredded wheat, but trust me. It tastes amazing, the shredded wheat adds a satisfying crunch to the mush, and it’ll keep you full until lunch with only 317 calories.

And best of all, it’s so easy to make, you can do it while still half asleep. Try it; you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve met a lot of experts in my career, and I can tell you something I’ve noticed. The really good ones that really know what they’re doing… they’re completely lost like me and you. It’s the ones that are arrogant enough to actually believe they know everything that you have to worry about. Those are the true imposters.

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

–W.C. Fields

As someone who has been called an expert many times, I can assure you experts don’t exist. We are all pretending we know what we are doing and we are all making it up as we go. At this point, the world is changing so fast that as soon as you think you have a handle on something, the world has already moved on and you’re a decade behind. So, stop worrying about labels and about being good-enough, and just do the work.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

Many confuse being busy with getting work done; these are not the same. This especially goes for meetings. More often than not, meetings are a waste of time that could have been better spent actually working. Avoid them if at all possible. If you don’t need to be on one, decline it (or at least ask if your attendance is necessary). I’ve seen calendars packed full of these things, to which I usually ask the poor soul caught in meeting hell, “when do you actually do work?” Even if your calendar isn’t packed solid, meetings sit as boulders in your day that knock you out of your flow state. If you’re running a meeting, do everyone a favour and make it as short as possible (or better yet, cancel it if it’s not necessary).

By-ends and silver Demas both agree;
One calls, the other runs, that he may be
A sharer in his lucre; so these do
Take up in this world, and no further go.

– John Bunyan

Now onto more important things: your time is precious and it belongs to you. Guard it with your life, because it is your life. Understand your priorities and say no to anything that does not align to them. When it is time to work, do your work. When it is not time to work, go home, and be with your family. This is what is most precious. No one on their death bed wishes they could have more time to work and make money.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

This rule was heavily inspired by James Victore and his book “Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on the Business of Life.” I highly recommend this book to everyone! Go out and buy it right now. If you already have a copy, buy another one.

It will be tempting (especially in the sanitized corporate world) to tamp down your work in order for it to be palatable for mass consumption. Don’t do it, the world needs more weird sh!t in it. Look around you, everything these days is boring, inoffensive, beige, oatmeal. Easy for the masses to consume without getting a tummy ache. There’s no passion, excitement, or edge anymore lest someone get… upset!!! (heaven forbid)

The things that made you weird as a kid, make you great today.

– James Victore

A large impact on a few is worth more than a small impact on many, so get comfortable with people hating your work. If they hate it, it wasn’t meant for them. Keep your work weird, and stop making oatmeal that everyone is just ok with.

You are an artist and a genius. Don’t fit in. Don’t even try.

– James Victore

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

There are two types of people in the world, the “don’t release anything until it’s flawless” people, and the “minimum viable product” people. I don’t agree with either of of ’em.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of “minimum viable product.” It helps to break that idea that something has to be flawless before launching it into the world. That being said, life is about balance and existing in that uncomfortable grey zone between the two extremes. In other words, don’t launch sloppy work, but if you wait for it to be perfect, you’ll never launch.

80% of perfectionism is just egotistical navel-gazing. I saw this a lot in the design world where designers were producing work to win awards rather than solve business problems. If you’re producing work just to win awards, it’s time to reevaluate your goals in life.

Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties.

– Ze Frank

Instead, I recommend understanding what your work is trying to accomplish. Now, before you put the brakes on releasing your work into the world, ask yourself if this imperfection you’ve noticed will actually impact the purpose of that work. If no, then stop wasting time gazing into your own belly button and push the damn button. Yeah yeah, you’re detail oriented, but the truth is 98% of people consuming your work don’t care that much, and the other 2% can f*** off.

Push the button.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

This rule isn’t so much about the space I work in being sacred as it is the space around my person being sacred. I’m a firm believer that the mind doesn’t stop at the skull. Instead, it extends beyond your body and bleeds into the spaces you occupy. I know, sounds a bit new age, but stick with me here.

If you’re finding you’re having trouble concentrating, getting work done, enjoying time with those you love, or feel overwhelmed because you’re “so busy” all the time, take a moment to notice the space you’re in. The space you occupy is a reflection of the state of your mind. How’s it look?

Always be knolling

– Tom Sachs

Get your house in order. Clean your room and your mind will follow.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

This is an especially hard rule for me to follow, which is why I made sure to include it. I hate failing; I’m one of those people that after failing replays the failure over and over in my head. I need to be more like a cat.

“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.”

– Captain Picard

I believe at its core there are two reasons why I have trouble with this rule:

1. I don’t fail often enough
2. When I do fail, I don’t do it gracefully (I’m too hard on myself)

At some point your going to screw up and break something (maybe something big and important). You’ve probably done it a bunch of times already, but you survived and now you’re a little wiser than you were before. Fix what you broke and move on to your next failure.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

– James Victore

Embrace your inner cat: fail fast, fail often, fail gracefully; failure is part of the process.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

When you get frustrated about something you’re doing, do you quit or do you push through? The feeling of frustration sucks and nobody likes it, but understanding what’s underneath that feeling and choosing to embrace it is what separates the victors from the victims in life.

There’s plenty of research on the benefits of having a growth mindset over a fixed one. This is something I’m very careful to try to cultivate in own my children. Rule 2 speaks directly to that by re-framing what I see as the main contributor to the fixed mindset: fear of frustration.

I remember seeing mention (in a long lost article on the internet somewhere) of frustration being the physical feeling of your brain building new neural pathways. I don’t know if this is true, but but I like the idea of it. Suddenly, frustration isn’t something bad that we must try to avoid, but instead it’s just what learning feels like. Feeling frustrated? Good, that means your brain is still working. Give it time, and that task that seems like an impenetrable wall now, will seem minuscule later. Take it a step further and lean into frustration, understand it’s part of the process, and you’ll be unstoppable.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).

However, after many revisions, I wanted the rule to land closer to the inspiration of this particular rule: my old boss. After all, “Release the Kraken” was his way of telling us to be the asshole in the situation.

When I first started working for this guy, I couldn’t tell if he was the worst boss I ever had or the best. He was unlike any boss I had before. There was no hand holding, no sugar coating, and no bullsh!t. He expected his team to operate far outside their comfort zone and expected results. That being said, once you proved to be an asset to his team, you were untouchable. He was a bully, but one that believed in his team, treated them like royalty, and fought hard on behalf of them.

I remember seeing a graph online somwhere in the past describing the perfect boss. The y-axis indicated “how much they care about people,” and the x-axis indicated “how much of an asshole they are.” According to this article, leaders that landed in the top right quadrant (assholes that care about people) make the best bosses. This guy was the embodiment of this principle.

That’s the kind of boss I want to be: One that releases the Kraken for the right reasons.

This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.

Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).