bro a friend of mine got stuck behind a flash mob at Best Buy once, wild stuff.

Yeah @finley729 pretty much nailed it - you left that stuff on WAY too long. I did the SAME thing my first time and ended up with a counter that felt like a sticky hand trap. I felt like a real genius scrubbing my mistake off with dish soap like some kind of kitchen crime scene cleanup. The 4 to 1 ratio is what I use now too, but I also learned the hard way that you gotta wipe the excess off while it's still somewhat warm, not after it's cooled and set up. Another thing nobody tells you is that if your beeswax is too raw or has pollen bits in it, that can make it tacky too. So between the timing, the ratio, and maybe the quality of that farm stand wax, you basically got hit with the triple whammy.

Does it really matter if temps are fine either way?

Hah! I tried the credit card method once and made a total mess of it. The paste was way too thick and I ended up with a huge air pocket in the corner. Took me three tries to get it right. I honestly think the pea method is fine for most people if your heatsink has good mounting pressure. But yeah if you've got a big CPU like an Intel i9 or something the pea just doesn't spread far enough. I've seen guys use an X pattern on those and it works great.

Man, those days are rare as hell.