The Wired Jester

Perhaps it’s time for some more background information on this blog, since it’s been rolling for a couple of weeks now, and the initial explanation got a little off the point. Ahem. So here we are: I suppose I see this place as having two functions – one, as a place to put all my photos, and two, to be a nice distraction, something entertaining and interesting, just for a few minutes. A jester’s act.

In honour of the title, I’ve posted a couple of pictures of Jester puppets that I took in Prague earlier in the year. There’s a lot of puppets in Prague – most are low-grade tourist mulch, but some are incredibly detailed little statues with complex controls that give them an uincanny sense of motion….

I’ve also added a couple of tech functions: a domain name (www.thewiredjester.co.uk) and e-mail addresses: drop me a line at
alex@thewiredjester.co.uk alexwatson117 [--at--] googlemail [dot] comif you’ve got anything to say…

Like Ronseal, it appears the World Wide Web does exactly what it says on the tin. Have added a statistics/tracking element to the site, which gives me some great feedback. Including that the site has had people from Russia and the UAE visiting, which is neat

Hello! Welcome to my weblog, The Wired Jester.

TWJ – almost the same acronym as the Wall Street Journal, so hopefully that will confer some authority. Or maybe not. No, the name was mainly chosen becuase I do like Jesters and Fools. The most famous Fool is the strange and melancholy one in Shakespeare’s King Lear. He’s the King’s constant companion, an observer, a comic and responsible for some lovely, strange speeches. Goneril, Lear’s daughter, isn’t exactly fond of him, and moans, early on:

Goneril: Not only, sir, this your all-licens’d fool,
But other of your insolent retinue
Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth
In rank and not-to-be-endured riots.

And this has exactly what to do with a weblog? Well, I like the idea of “all-licens’d” – the idea that, at the court at least, the Fool was the one who could say whatever he liked…

TWJ isn’t about any one thing in particular, and it changes as time goes on: at one time or another, it has been about T-Shirts and books, but now it’s more about technology. It’s always had my photos on it, although I now use Flickr for that. At some point I also want to start collecting links to the articles I’ve written over the past few years as a journalist.

I should of course note that this website reflects my own opinions, and not those of my employer….

This, Ladies, Gentleman and robots, is a test, to see if all this works…