Remember kids, don't talk to strangers...

This is a darkly humoured post. You have been forewarned...

My body's clock is complete shit right now. Since I've arrived, my schedule and eating habits have shifted dramatically. For the past three weeks, I've practically been nocturnal; waking up as the sun set and staying up until it rose. I tried fixing this by pulling an all nighter and then going to bed at a normal hour. It worked for a day. Yesterday, I woke up at 11:45 AM but, for some reason, was unable to fall asleep last night. I stayed up until 4:30 AM watching Easy Rider. At 6, when the sun began to rise, I found myself really awake, so I got dressed and walked to Quayside to watch the sunrise. It is here where my tale gets a bit weird...

I'm walking along the Tyne while bits of light peer out from beyond the horizon, and the place is completely deserted, as always...
Completely deserted except for one guy standing by the river watching the sun rise about fifteen feet away from me. Naturally, the right thing to do is to start a conversation, so I did...

Me: Sunrises are really nice... *snap picture*
Guy: Yeah...

Me: I couldn't sleep, so I decided, what the hell, I'll go see the sunrise over the Tyne...

Guy: Yeah, they are. I'm gonna walk down the Quayside, wanna come..?

Me: Sure, I'm Matt...

*handshake*

Guy: Alan...

So we're walking along the Tyne as the sun comes up talking about random stuff. He figured out I was American and told me that he had been to America a few times while I told him about how I want to move here after Uni. The conversation goes on for about five minutes, him walking slightly ahead of me. Suddenly he stops, and puts his arm out in an attempt to GRAB MY CROTCH..!!!

Me: What the hell are you doing!?

*a second grab attempt, which I stop and push his arm away...*

Me: What the FUCK are you doing!!?

Alan (Creepy Craigslist Guy): Uh..sorry? I thought that's what you were in to...

Me: Um..no...

*speed walk in the opposite direction...*

I was nearly raped by a creepy old guy. I was NEARLY RAPED by a creepy old Geordie guy. WTF!!! Okay, calm down. Just pretend that didn't happen. Go back to Knoll Court, burn all your clothes, take a scalding hot shower, then curl up in a corner in the fetal position and cry for a few hours. It's gonna be okay. Somebody PLEASE tell me it's going to be okay..!!

Since when does watching sunrises make you a target for casual homosexual encounters? This is a crazy world we live in...

-Matt

A new kind of adventure...

I awoke today at 5 AM. No, wait, that's wrong. Let me start again. At 5 AM, I was still lying in bed, awake. I decided I wanted to alter my schedule a bit to allow myself to see more than a sunset's worth of daylight each day. The past few days have been awful on my psyche. So, at 5 AM, I threw away all hopes of getting to sleep at a decent hour and got out of bed. The logical thing to do was to sit up for a few hours on the computer reading blogs and refreshing Digg, but I'm determined to defeat my SAD, so I hopped in the shower and got dressed...

At 5:30 AM, I left Knoll Court and headed to the Millennium Bridge to watch the sunrise. As I was leaving the building, however, I realized that the sun never rises in Newcastle until about 7 AM (I know this from being up full nights and going to bed as the sun rises), so that gave me an hour and a half to wander the streets and find things to photograph. It's strange what you find lying around a silent city before dawn...
I say silent city because after about 2 AM, nothing in all of Newcastle is open for business (except 24 hour Tesco's) and everybody is either asleep or being quiet in their houses. I walked along Quayside and through Eldon Square, the two busiest places in the city, and there was nothing...
The Quayside...
and Northumberland street. Here's what it looks like in the middle of the day, as a reference...
So by this time, the sun was ready to come up. I decided to walk about a mile and a half to what is, in my opinion, the best view of the city. I stood at the middle of a bridge and took pictures nonstop for about half an hour. It was amazing...
Yeah, it was awesome...

Having completed my mission, it was time to return home, but not before walking across the city to take a stroll through the mall, where I finally saw another person...
Going to the mall was only to rest and get warm, the real reason I walked across the city was to get to the market just as it opened, where I could buy sausage and eggs fresh off the truck. I don't remember the last time I've had a proper breakfast, so I bet this one will be damn good. Also, because I've stayed up all night, I should be able to fix my sleeping schedule within the next couple of days..:-)

-Matt

I love this place...

What have I been up to the past few days, you ask? Well, mostly nothing, not gonna lie. Today I woke up at 4 PM, but I still find myself having to run outside and see the light at least once per day. The past few days have been filled with little adventures to the Quayside or in town to explore. I found a really cool music shop in town with Flower and Eugen the other day and played a £539 guitar, roughly $1000. Today I took a trip to a free art museum, The Baltic, but arrived just in time to see it close. It's okay, though, because I got a few cool pictures on the way...
I'm not sure I've posted a picture of what it looks like in town, but...
This is where I go shopping every day..:-)

And, last but not least...
Another picture of the amazing English sky. This one is straight out of the camera, unphotoshoped...

That's all for today..:-)

-Matt

Consolidation of ideas...

I like a lot of things. Unfortunately, all of those things will never translate into what everybody keeps referring to as 'my future career'. Having an extensive knowledge of the physics of the Gundam universe or all of the Dragon Ball family trees doesn't do much when listed on a job application under 'skills'. Knowing that sus2 chords always resolve to minor 7ths won't impress many future bosses. My latest financially devoid passion has been photography and blogging (don't worry, reader(s), I'm not going to stop blogging to pursue hobbies with more monetary value). Basically, my current skill set and various hobbies add up to me being poor and lonely in the distant future (the year 2000). What, then, am I to do..?

Here's an idea. What if I go home on May 31st and spend the summer paying off car insurance and then buying a digital SLR camera. Then, with my new beast camera, take as many photography classes as possible in my last year at TCNJ, graduating with my degree in history and (hopefully) a photography minor. After I graduate, I'll buy a plane ticket to Newcastle and live with all of my friends, working as a tour guide or something while trying to make money with my artsy farts pitchahs..?

I'll live in a place that I love surrounded by friends, I'll have not wasted away my college career on a major that is totally devoid of career opportunities (outside of teaching..bleh), and I'll get to enjoy my hobbies on the side, hopefully replacing my day job with the funds provided by my hobbies. Sound like a good life? I think yes..:-)

-Matt

New twists on some old stuff...

I've been looking at some of my older pre-photoshop pictures and, even though I'm proud of my earliest attempts at artsy farts, I think a few minor adjustments did some good. Without further ado, I present to my reader(s) with some vintage Matt photos, newly remastered with Dolby 5.1 digital surround sound and with Hi-Def video...
But, no. I'm not completely starved of original content at the moment. I have a picture which has NEVER BEEN SEEN on the internet. HBoO is gonna kill me for this one...
She doesn't like it because it makes her look really sad and teary-eyed, but I think it's beautiful. What do you guys think..?

-Matt

Squishy things...

Here are a few leftover pictures from the past few sleepless nights (don't worry, I don't have insomnia, it's just that everybody sleeps during the day)..:-)
This is the result of a Trailer Park Boys marathon being more important than eating dinner...
Why eat a bowl of rice when you can eat a pyramid of rice..?
I don't care what you guys think about waterboarding, but Chinese noodle torture is cruel and unusual punishment...
This sticky pink blob is either on the ceiling, the wall, or the floor. Can you guess which? First person to do so wins a FABULOUS PRIZE (Disclaimer: Fabulous prize may or may not be a figment of author's imagination)..!

The sun will soon be up, which means it's just about time for bed. Goodnight all..:-)

-Matt

Here we go...

There is a condition out there called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). It's the name that psychologists slapped onto the feeling you get around this time of year, when you've been trapped indoors for months because it's physically painful to walk outside. The condition is aptly named, because the symptoms of SAD are, well, being sad. Along with this, people affected by SAD lose weight because they can't be assed to go outside to the market, grow patchy facial hair because they can't be bothered to shave, and have unkempt hair, because, well, what's the point..?
This hits me every year on March 1st. There is some mechanism in my brain that says, "February is over, go outside and enjoy the warmth." I excitedly rush outdoors only to find that it's 23 degrees outside with 35 mph winds. Then I shuffle back inside, because why bother picking up my feet..?

This year, however, I made a plan. Last night before I went to bed At 7 AM, I convinced my friends to spend today outside shopping for stuff. We had plenty of excuses to get out; we needed hookah coals, meat and vegetables, and we longed for daylight. The group has become nocturnal. We all stay up until sunrise then sleep until sunset. We made a pact to wake up before 2 and go see civilization in the daylight...

Surprisingly, we were all able to wake up. We walked around town with good feelings and a huge sense of accomplishment. We were all ecstatic to see daylight and enjoy the sun. It was cold, as always, but we rose above it and enjoyed our day. I got a little picture happy...
That last one is just for fun..:-P

Moral of the story: Winter sucks, move to someplace warm Only a few miserable weeks left Mind over matter, it's possible to enjoy a cold shitty day..:-)

-Matt