I was on a mission from God

sawdust123 said:

One of my neighbors is an orthodox rabbi. He is also a keyboard player and singer. When he found out years ago that I knew a few things about audio, I became his go to resource for every purchase he makes down to his cable bags. He has tons of cables and he never mastered over/under wrapping even though I've shown it to him many times. I always warned him, he would regret not learning the technique. Well, he finally reached the point of regret. He called me Sunday and begged for help because his cables were a mess.

My wife was with me in the car when I got his call. When I hung up she said, "You have to help him. It's a mission from God." We were supposed to go grocery shopping but her Blues Brothers reference talked me into helping the rabbi instead. Luckily, it was about 90 degrees out so we could stretch the cables out in the sun and let the heat undo some of the kinks. It took many attempts but I think he starting to finally started getting the hang of over/under. He then asked if I could help him at his next gig. I had to decline because I will be on vacation with my wife then. I'm pretty confident she wouldn't argue that helping at the gig was a "mission from God" and that I should cancel the vacation.

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You do that and I can see on TV on Divorce Court.

It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.

sawdust123 said:

He has tons of cables and he never mastered over/under wrapping even though I've shown it to him many times. I always warned him, he would regret not learning the technique. Well, he finally reached the point of regret.

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Just stating that the technique won't tangle a cable is not enough to inspire someone to learn. The key to training is to demonstrate something the person can aspire to achieve. For example, I worked for a while part time at a college in the AV department where the cables were all a tangled mess. I mentioned the technique to one of the full time staff while striking an event and after watching me coil what had been a tangled 100Ft power cord she (rightfully) asked: "why would I ever want to do that?"

My response was: "so you can do this...:" ...to which I hurled the cable across the full length of the cafeteria, giving a short tug to the end I held as it fell to the floor causing it to lay perfectly against the wall for the whole 100 Ft of length. Her response: was: "That's impressive! ...and why would I want to do that?" I told her that she might never be working under pressure with limited time, but should something need to be done quickly - it's nice to have cables that are ready to move as quickly as we do.

In spite of her apathy - she could be often be seen practicing in the office with returned cables.

Luckily, it was about 90 degrees out so we could stretch the cables out in the sun and let the heat undo some of the kinks.

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You can put nearly any cable on a cookie sheet in your oven and bake it at 150-200 degrees which removes all of the memory - even for SJT jackets. Short cables (<12Ft) can be hung over a door to cool and they will straighten under their own weight. Longer cables can just immediately be coiled up for a perfect over-under future. This is a perfect trick to remove the perma-wave inherent with every new IEC or power cord that ships with a tightly bound twist-tie.

It's also a bonus to have your kids come in and ask: "what's for dinner?" as you pull a 50Ft socapex out of the oven.