Jolly Contrarian
Jolly Contrarianism & Devilish Advocacy
But seriously read this bit
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There is a Jolly Contrarian in all of us. You, me, him, her — each of us has our inner daemon, a creative destroyer, ein glücklich widersprüchlichmensch who takes over in weaker moments, when our resolve cracks and the absurdity of our professional existence reveals itself. “Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein”
If only we would let it out more often.
Then there is the Jolly Contrarian. He is a charlatan, simpleton, knave and prone to bouts of inappropriate levity. When not speaking half-truths to the disempowered he writes this wiki. He has a long-suffering spouse who may or may not be Prussian nobility. Not, most likely. But you wouldn’t know that by how she carries on.
Who is the JC?
Well, after ten years I suppose I should at least own up to who I am, so here goes: I’m Olly. (in Persian, “الی”. Geddit?) Interests, if they’re not obvious from this wiki, are financial services law, language, writing, guitars, cricket, books and mountains. And wikis: MediaWiki, which this site is written on, is the cleverest software, and I have learned a lot about it in the last decade.
While writing this wiki I’ve practised commercial law in NZ and the UK for 27 years, mostly inhouse at places I will not mention to protect their reputations as much as mine. I put in a stretch as a film and book reviewer — which I was pretty good at, as you will see from my fan mail — written a couple of books (the first one, The Montenegro Sanction, under the pen name Hunter Barkley, you can buy for a fiver from Amazon), released an album of angsty-but-ironic rock music (Dangerboy), played with my buddies in the same cool band, Supercheese, for longer than either the Beatles or Led Zeppelin managed, and drunk a lot of wine, all while being supported by my super-talented better half — whom I will spare the ignominy of naming — but she is a world-famous[1] bridge teacher, artist and the most patient spouse on the planet.
The Jolly Contrarian started out life in 2012, as AmwellClear, as a fun way way of remembering the difference between Loss, Market Quotations, Close Out Amounts and Unpaid Amounts and just kept growing.
SEO folk: before you write to offer tips on how to differentiate the JC from its competition, remember: when you write satire about derivatives THERE IS NO GODDAMN COMPETITION.
References
- ↑ In our house, anyway.