Amazon's EBook Publishing Scandal

This has just been a week of discovering publishing mishaps...

Amazon, I support your policy on publishing everyone. As a writer, I really, truly do. I am also all for free speech, really, I am. But a book promoting pedophilia? That is the crime of all crimes and is something that can never be defended. Ever. End of story.

The independently published ebook in question is titled, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct" by Phillip R. Greaves.

Here's a BBC's article... it has more info on the whole deal, all of the drama, the controversy, what have you.

-E

This Week In Review

So, the week is almost at an end so I thought I’d do my best to fill the void with an update.

Sunday:
We made friends with random people in our hostel -- aka 3 guys from Sri Lanka, a guy from Namibia, and then a Parisian from Gambon who confessed his love for me after about 10 minutes. His name was Barton and he looked like Djimon Hounsou.

Monday:

The Huntarian Museum at the University of Glasgow was closed for the 3rd day in a row, so Jaime and I wandered around the city for the entire day. Found these really awesome bridges and ended up wandering through the equivalent of Scottish New Jersey on the North Side of the city. It was pretty epic. There is photo documentation. Then we saw A Single Man and I fell in love. It was wonderful.

Tuesday:

We took a cab to Glasgow airport at 0500, only to arrive at 5:30 and learn that we were in fact at the wrong airport (no one bothered to correct us). So we ended up taking a £100 cab ride to the correct airport an hour away and luckily got there just before the gate closed. Then after security they weighed our bags (which has never happened before) and we ended up having to pay £35 each for carry-ons that the flight crew didn’t even check. We finally got back to our flat in Dublin around 0900, just in time for Jaime to get to class. Thus ... the actual day began.

Went to lunch at Chorus, where we ran out of time so Sirus let us take our plates and silverware to class and then bring it back. It was pretty great. Kerry and I just walked in to Susanne’s class with these massive plates of omelets and chips ... people were jealous and we were full. In class I had to suffer the torment that was the movie Adam and Paul, and I’m pretty sure I am the only person that hated it with a burning passion. In a word: boring. I just wrote a review on it, so I might share my thoughts in a little bit, have no fear.

Then around 0930 Steven and Kristen finally got here (apparently the immigration guys looked me up in the computer to varify that they were staying with me and that I was a valid temporary citizen -- WEIRD) and we went to grab a pint over at Farrington’s. The music was great, but not gonna lie, we were dead. The day felt like a week.

Wednesday:

Fintan O’Toole came and spoke to us. It was pretty epic. I’ll be honest though, since he’s a theatre critic and all I definitely thought he was going to be talking to us about, you know, Irish theatre, but the entire thing ended up being about post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. It was incredibly interesting, actually, and I really want to read his new book now. After class Steven and I skyped into our first Orientation Meeting back at Pratt and were pretty amused. It was a fun time, seeing people and thinking about all the stress that awaits us back in the states. Joy.

Thursday:
Oh, today. Did I mention that the first draft of my full length play is due in less than 24 hours? Fun, right? Not. Lies. All lies. I’ve been teetering page 56 for the past week and can’t seem to stretch things out any further so far. It’s awesome. So, instead, I am watching Eraser with Kristen and Steven, drinking my third cappuccino of the day, and eagerly awaiting my take-away from Queen of Tarts.

Tonight is going to be a looooooong night.

-E

Belfast, Baby!

Not gonna lie, interwebs, all of the recent dissident IRA activity in the North made me a little anxious/nervous/excited for our trip to the UK today.

The morning started early. Very early. And I think I’ve decided that one of the worst feelings is walking past a good quality cafe that’s closed, only to buy shitty coffee at a Centra and walk back to find the good quality cafe is finally open. That’s right, interwebs -- we had to be on our bus at 8:00AM. AM. That is not kosher.

The ride was good in that we all slept, and I had a moment where I felt like the psycho in Six Shooter and just randomly burst out “SHEEP” in the middle of conversation.

First things first, we went on this epically long mural tour through the Catholic side, then the Protestant side. Not gonna lie, I found it all amazingly fascinating, but it was freaking freezing (there was still snow on the mountains) and wouldn’t have minded staying on the bus. But nooooo ... you get the real experience when you can’t feel your face in the wind.

Then we went to the Transport Museum which was pretty sick because, ya know, the Titanic was made in Belfast. AND there were trains. Lots and lots of trains! We got to play and run around and feel like boxcar children and it was basically amazeballz ... and inside.

Next came lunch in a pub and the subsequent Ireland-England rugby match (of which I only watched the last 13 minutes). In lue of the game, Jaime, Emma, Kerry, Luca, John and I went walking through the City Centre and rode the FERRIS WHEEL! That’s right -- Belfast has a ferris wheel inspired by the London Eye (which is also amazeballz). And when I say we all went, I mean Kerry, Emma, Luca and I went because John and Jaime were scared. To put it bluntly, it was stunning. To see a city with such visible barriers and divides were really fascinating. It’s nothing like Dublin or any other place I’ve been.


On a heavier note: Belfast is definitely not the city I was expecting it to be. Honestly, it didn't feel like must of a city. Similarly to how Pyongyang is supposedly a "fake city," there is something about Belfast that just didn't feel real. City Centre was alive and kicking, like Grafton Street or O'Connell, but as soon as you walked out of that zone, we were met with artillery lines, a mortar wall, and military police. It's as if the entire city is all a charade.

Top Moment --

(in a Belfast pub)
John: Well maybe one day there will be a unified Ireland.

Me: I’m pretty sure you don’t want to say that here. Just a thought.

So, until the next time I go to a still politically unstable country/province/state ...

-E