Things I Miss: ‘A Letter to a Domain’

It’s been a while since I have written a Things I Miss post, and I have been thinking of so many things lately. I find that when I talk to Nick, we always come across things from our childhood or from our past, and we start a lot of sentences with ‘Do you remember…’

Today, though, I’m writing about something that I completely forgot about until recently when I was chatting with my friend Rachel. It’s called A Letter to a Domain, and was a series of letters I wrote on an occasional basis (basically any time I felt like it), starting in 2009.

The quaint thing about these letters was that I wrote them to various domain names that I owned: expressing my thoughts about them, their purpose or their planned purpose, or even ones that I had let expire and wished I hadn’t. As a domain name addict, the letters were amusing but fitting to my personality, and I was even more amused that people enjoyed reading them.

After writing a good handful, I wrote to a domain name owned by my friend Georgia Kate. From there, I started to slowly write about other domain names I was curious about, or that I knew belonged to my friends.

I think I had all the letters posted on my creative writing blog/portfolio – at least when I had one separate from my blog. After that, I became less obsessed with domain names and more obsessed with subdomains, so the letters sat on the subdomain letters.georgie.nu.

I miss writing these because they were quite funny, and they brought out a humour that I don’t think could be brought out in any other way. Domain names are completely intangible things. They’re not just material or non-living, but they really are intangible, so personifying them puts a strange image in all our minds, and we all have a different image or view of a domain name.

When I think of Hey Georgie, I think of a more open, fun, but mature version of myself, at least compared to my shy teenage self. Other people might immediately think of the bright teal. For others, something along the lines of ‘fashion blog’ come to mind. Nick said he simply thinks of me.

If you would like, you can actually still view some of the letters on archive.org. I have included a sample of letters below.

My first letter to a domain

8th July 2009

Dear Heartdrops.org,

I really like updating you a lot. The thing is, why the hell did I introduce reviews to you in the first place? People are applying non stop. Well, they have been lately.

Thanks for being my first domain, though. We’ve had good, good times. I know you wanted me to grab a few more .orgs to keep you company, but I thought you liked being special?

Yours sincerely,

Georgina

My last letter to a domain

7th August 2011

Dear Woodnotes.org,

Sorry, you’re gone. I had to do it. For a moment there I just looked out the window and tried to remember what I actually did with you before. A hub of fanlistings. Right. Maybe I couldn’t stand this stupid “MOO” and “Majestic Opus Organisation” thing that didn’t really work. I don’t think I was too fond of the nickname. Oh, and the name? Woodnotes. It came about when I also thought of Woolbird and other weird shit, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t too keen.

The whole educational blog thing. Really. Just because I posted lecture notes on Tumblr! Well, I liked you better than Slowdawn, I’ll give you that. Ick. Poor bastard, ‘im. I just had to let you go. I closed like, what, two fanlistings on the hub, and then there were only three left. Not comparing you with Neverfly, he’s got two… different situation, this. Because it’s not like you had a bunch of icons and all that.

I’m not trying to be mean. :( It was time, dude. It was time.

It’s alright. Luana bought you, she’ll go and use you for one of her character blogs or something. I know she’ll do a damned good job. I’m missin’ you. I don’t really mean to come off as a drunk person. :P

—Georgie

One of my favourites

21st July 2011

Dear Kyuuten.net,

I want to keep what you were. Who knows what you will be, and in some time, I’ll write this again and say who you are. Your history is important to me.

In 2010, many ideas came to mind for something new. Something special. There was the idea of using Japanese words for name. Namecheap were having a sale on domains, and I couldn’t resist, so I began brainstorming names.

I had studied Japanese in high school for four years, so I used my rusty knowledge as a basis for thinking up names.

You know what you could have been? You could have been uyoku (wings), aijou (love), airashii (lovely/adorable), kanjou and jousho (feeling/emotion), or kokimi (sentiment).

But, I thought that kyuuten was the one I liked the most:

kyuuten — Japanese for sky, heavens, or palace

One of my favourite animes is Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta, or, in English — Laputa/Castle in the Sky, a 1986 film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is also the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli, and I love their films. That’s what inspired me. It may be years, decades, before I own that fanlisting, but it was what inspired me to create what was ultimately a collective of anime fanlistings, few and far between.

You were the Diamond Skies Network. And that’s what you’ll always be, in my head.

♥ Georgie

Your own letter?

I wonder what I would write now to hey.georgie.nu. I haven’t thought about it. If you’re feeling creative and like the idea, I would love for you to write your own little letter to a domain in the comments. :)

Comments on this post

Interesting concept! I never thought about writing a letter to my domains. That would be a fun thing to do one of these days! This is a great idea, Georgie :) I’m far too tired to write a letter now, but maybe in a separate blog post with a reference to this entry! ^^