r e t t e - m i c h . N E T ; t h e s l a c k e r b i t c h N E T w o r k

History

Rette-Mich.NET was purchased from Surpass Hosting and registered at Netrillium on January 1st, 2006; it consists of a Shared Hosting plan, which offers 200GB of disk space and 2000GB of monthly bandwidth at the very low price of $60 per year (and no, I'll never make use of all that, or even come close to it). Contrary to my previous domains, Clipped-Wings.NET (2004) and Not-Ashamed.NET (2005), this one managed to survive its first yearly renewal (a time during which I'd usually just get a new name, because I'd gotten tired of the former already), and is still going steady as of today.

Name

I purchased Rette-Mich.NET back when I was slightly obsessed with Tokio Hotel, a now widely famous and fangirled-over German band that still hadn't crossed the borders of its own country at the time, and therefore could be considered a unique interest. Truthfully, I never thought their music had much quality, but vocalist Bill Kaulitz's gorgeous, androgynous looks ~~(WTF's up with his hair these days???)~~ made up for his blatant lack of singing latent, and so I put up with his generally annoying voice for quite some months. This is how I began to honestly enjoy a certain track off their debut album Schrei (2005): a sad, mellow ballad named Rette Mich, which literally translates into "Rescue Me". In the meantime, versions with Bill's now graver voice have been recorded, including an English version, product of their international success. Still, I stay faithful to the original song: it is probably one of the few by them that I can say I genuinely like on a musical level.

Anyway, while I am not a fan of the German language, "Rette Mich" had a nice sound to it; furthermore, its meaning did not stick to any subject in particular, which made it appropriate for a domain name, given my wide range of interests. I suppose "rescue me" could give out the impression that I like the damsel in distress type of character, but this is not the case; I just find the expression sweet in its emotional fragility, and thought it had many advantages as a name. Either way, this was a choice I never came to regret.

As for the extension, I always knew it had to be .NET: both of my previous domains were so as well, and future ones, if any, will most likely follow the trend. Before Clipped-Wings.NET, I liked .NU better, but it was way too expensive, so I went for the next best thing. With time, however, .NET grew on me, and now I can't imagine any other extension for a domain of mine.

Slackerbitch?

Rette-Mich.NET only got a network name with its 2008 revamp, mainly because I never felt too inclined towards following this particular tradition of giving domains a title (with the exception of Clipped-Wings.NET, which was the Angelwing network); however, I thought it was time that I personalized this place a bit, and therefore decided to call it the Slackerbitch network. Now, if you know me at all -- even if only on a very shallow level --, you will know that the British band Placebo is my number one obsession, the air I breathe, the fire of my loins, etc. Honestly, though, I have been a lover of their music and lyrics (and vocalist: Brian Molko is God!) for many years now; their controversial, crude nature just won me over, and I never let go since. Either way, Slackerbitch is a B-side to their 1997 single Nancy Boy; it is one of my favorite songs by them, and one among many whose rotten words I adore. Apart from being a reference to my all-time favorite band, the song title also had the spicy ring to it that I was looking for, and alluded to my procrastinating way of dealing with webdesigning. Besides, I would rather die than choose a cheesy expression to be associated with this domain.

Layout

This domain has been through two different designs so far, both of which featured a face associated with its namesake: the ever so sexy Bill Kaulitz, vocalist of Tokio Hotel, the band responsible for the song Rette Mich. With the revamp, though, I wished to make this place as personal as possible: and since Bill and his buddies are no longer an interest of mine, they were automatically left out. I had my mind set on turning the new layout into an altar to my one never-changing passion, Brian Molko (vocalist of Placebo), but eventually decided to go for something darker and even less known and appreciated: Wuthering Heights, my all-time favorite novel.

When, in 2007, I read the masterpiece by Emily Brontë, it turned my world upside down: the fact that a solitary woman in 1847 managed to create characters with such depth and intensity seemed almost impossible to comprehend. Heathcliff and Catherine are mad passion incarnated; theirs is a story of insane, inhuman love, one that destroyed not only themselves but also everything and everyone around them. These characteristics make them the most unique, fascinating couple I've ever come across in fiction, and the novel soon became an obsession: I currently own five different copies of Wuthering Heights, two of them being highly valuable vintage books.

It soon became obvious that a tribute of some sort to this incredible story was necessary, and so the idea of featuring it on this domain came to my mind. This layout features several screenshots from the 1992 film version, starring Juliette Binoche as Catherine and Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff, as well as a gorgeous illustration of the latter by Fritz Eichenberg, from the cover of my 1945 Random House edition of Wuthering Heights. I wanted the design to reflect the dark, nightmarish feeling of the novel, and I am satisfied with the end result. All credits go to talented and very patient Vivian!

Footnote

Rette-Mich.NET is a creation of Luísa, and has been around since the first of January, 2006. Current layout and coding by the lovely Vivian.