Ten years ago I was the broken one. I had a heart attack at 36, and a 17.5% chance of surviving it. Doctors brought me back. The rebuild was mine.
Bonus Life is what I call the decade since. In games a bonus life is a 1UP, an extra shot you were not supposed to get. That is what the last ten years have been. So on July 3rd, 2026, the ten year mark, I marked it the only way that made sense to me: by taking something broken and giving it the same comeback I got.
Who I am
I’m Rob. RND2 is short for Robert Daniel II, and the second matters. My father, Bob Daniel, died in January 1995 when I was 15. I got my hands on his brand new IBM PC in 1984 at age four, fixed my first pinball machine at 13, and taught myself to solder. MacGyver, Knight Rider, Airwolf. Not just shows, the operating manual. I find, explore, fix, re-create, and preserve the electronics that defined the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Why an N64?
Because the hardware is the metaphor, not the point. I took a dead Nintendo 64, a console with no power and an unknown history, and I rebuilt it. Not back to stock. Better than the factory ever shipped it. The build ran in three phases, and they line up with my own recovery on purpose.
- Bring it back. Full recap, replace the failed capacitors, get it to a clean working baseline. That is the part the doctors played in 2016.
- Rebuild it better. An RGB mod so it outputs what Nintendo stripped out of the North American units. USB-C power instead of a thirty year old brick. A RAM expansion. Every game on an SD card. The UltraJewel64 animated logo screen. This is the part where I chose new tools, new habits, one day at a time.
- Hand it to someone else. The output chain, RGB to HDMI and the right cable, so whoever won it could plug it into a modern TV and actually see it. That handoff is what this whole celebration was.
What happened on July 3rd
The final stream went live on Twitch. DJs played, stories got told, the build got its last touches, and the custom N64 was drawn live and went to someone in the community. Not a marketing giveaway. The console was always going to a real person who showed up on a Tuesday at 7pm.
How it all connects
None of this is separate. The trance music that carried me through the hospital is the music I make now. The 1991 accident that nearly killed me under a five hundred pound lawnmower is the same body that survived 2016. Every story on the channel connects to one body that kept surviving.
The longer arc, in my own words:
• My Trance Story — how the music found me, and why it is the Bonus Life origin story.
• How MacGyver and The Fonz Literally Saved My Life — the 1991 accident I did not remember for 25 years.
Find me everywhere
The work keeps going, live and free. Here is every place to follow it, watch it, and support it.
A Bonus Life for the N64.