Here's something that I'm sure many people might have scattered all over their home: electronic cables. These can come in all sorts of varieties, including
- RCA connectors. Whenever you bought a new DVD player, television, surround-sound system, VCR, stereo, or any number of other audio/video devices, chances are the item also included one of these. These are usually pairs of cables colored red and white on the ends, or a trio of cables colored red, white and yellow. If the world stopped making them, I don't think anybody would really care.
- Other video connectors. HDMI is the biggie these days. Component video cables are still used. Then you have the rather short-lived S-video cable. Not to mention the coaxials that we used back in the olden days.
- Audio adapter pieces. 1/4" to 1/8", or 1/8" to 1/4", mono to stereo, stereo to mono, RCA to 1/8", CD to cassette deck adapters, and all other little things that you had to buy at Radio Shack at some point or another. I'm proud to say that I actually got organized with this problem YEARS ago, by buying myself a little Tupperware container at the local "Dollar Store" for the sole purpose of keeping this things together.
- Phone cables for your landline. And in my case, several adapter pieces.
- Computer cables. For past and present devices you've own: monitors, printers, Ethernet cables, digital cameras, web cams, and USBs of various types.
- Music cables. If you're a musician, then like me you may have guitar cables, little stompbox cables, XLR cables, MIDI, and who knows what else.
- Power plugs. Well, they're not really cables I suppose. But they still go to electronic devices and they do get separated and mixed around with the aforementioned items.
At some point in the last year or so, I managed to round up a ton of these and put them all into one huge box. At the time, it was a satisfying clutter conquer. Of course now, a year later, I was stuck with this big box in my living room that contained a twisty, tangled, Gordian Knot of cables. So I got to work in sorting them.
I sorted the cables into the above-mentioned categories, more or less. Then I used a few 1-gallon plastic Ziplock bags to group similar ones together. Boy, I had more of those RCA cables than I thought. I had even more S-video cables. I put bag of digital camera cables near the computer. The sorting helped condense the space, and the bags keep everything from being unsorted again. I've still got a box o' cables, but it's at least smaller, more manageable, and out of my living room now. I also took some of the higher-quality ones in the box and swapped them out with the cheaper cables I had been using in my home theater. And I may just put up an eBay auction soon, because otherwise I don't know what I'd do with eight s-Video and a dozen RCA cables.
Oh yeah, and as for that so-called 30 Day Song Challenge? Up next I need to find a sad song. That's easy. Neediness by The Residents.
Not wanting to end this blog on a totally sad note, I'll go on to song #5, the "song that reminds you of someone". This song reminds of one of my manipulative ex-girlfriends who has thankfully been completely out of my life for years. I felt so relieved once that roller coaster of a relationship was finally over. RELIEVED. Stronger. I put on this song on my drive home, and it just felt great. It still makes me feel strong and relieved.
