Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Idontcarewhatyouthink.com and Never Bothered Asking

Editors note: Before it was Dontmindme.com, this site was ever-so-subtly-named Idontcarewhatyouthink.com. Ironically, this was written not long before the name change.

First things first. The long url. Yes, I know the url is a bit cumbersome and long, rather like a Buick Roadmaster wagon with a U-Haul trying to parallel park in heavy traffic. Well, maybe not so cumbersome as that, but I do really love the comparison, and it seemed a shame not to use it. But I digress, and that's another department here at IDC. About the name. The plain and simple truth is that all the good short .com and for that matter, .org and .net urls are taken. And most of the bad ones. Seriously. I checked. All of the chemical elements appear to be taken, and not just the ones that everyone is familiar with, like carbon, copper, and oxygen. Radium.com is taken, and actually has a rather cool Shockwave animation when you access the page. Cobalt.com is taken. Heck, even names like ytterbium.com and mendelevium.com and molybdenum.com are taken. I tried common clichés. All taken. I tried acronyms. Taken. Even idcwyt.com is taken.

So how did I arrive at the url that graces the top of your browser even now? I'm glad you asked. Here's the thing. I'm somewhat of an opinionated person, and when I say somewhat, I mean very. I'm also half Irish, so I tend to stick with what I believe even if you happen to bomb my house (although I'd really rather you didn't, I like my house, it's a nice little house and if you bomb it you'll likely get caught and spend a long time in prison, and then I'll be down a reader, won't I?) or something else drastic like that. I've learned that sometimes it's wise to shut up with my opinions, however. Just because I'm right that doesn't mean letting everyone know I'm right will necessarily make the situation any better. It might well make a situation worse. This is a tidbit of information that I did not always know, however.

Here comes the long awaited story. When I was in sixth grade my teacher asked an opinion on something of a few people in the class. I've long since forgotten what the question was, but that's not the issue here. I remember that I gave my opinion on the matter. My opinion was of course wise and correct. But someone else disagreed. I won't mention her name here, for although I highly doubt she remembers this, it's not impossible she could read this site and recall that day so many years ago and be horribly traumatized (it's also not impossible that I'll find the keys to a Porsche hanging on the key rack tomorrow morning, but let's face it, it's not likely) or angry and vengeful and come to hunt me down with an Uzi and a snarl (tip to the wise, watching X-Files and The Game with a hefty side helping of John Woo movies late at night can make one seriously paranoid). Anyway, she said something on the subject that started with "I think. . ." Her answer was of course silly and wrong and I snapped back "I don't care what you think."

And here we have the true story of my url. Yes, I got into some trouble for my attitude. Telling people that you don't care what they think isn't acceptable in grade six, especially when the teacher is right there. In a rather ironic way, this url is to remind me to retain some semblance of humility. Just because I'm right I don't have to go out and tell everyone. That's what this site is here for. And I do care what people think, in particular about this site. I just reserve the right not to agree with them or do anything about it.