Best part about living in China?  The “on/off” switch.  We can watch the news . . . when we want.  We can follow politics . . . when we want.  We can check in on Hollywood . . . when we want.  When we don’t however, we can turn it off and never hear another word.

I honestly don’t miss the constant bombardment of trending news events deemed relevant by massive media corporations and public opinion polls.  It’s actually quite nice to not feel completely consumed by what CNN and Fox News are arguing about . . . every single moment of every single day.   Charlie Sheen’s “winning”, Barack Obama’s birth certificate and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child(ren) are stories we can access at will or remain blissfully ignorant of. The trade-off is that we are blissfully ignorant.  By Western standards we are painfully out of touch with what’s hot in the news this week.  In my opinion that is the definition of a “fair trade.”

However . . . considering the fact that we are 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and therefore theoretically subject to the end of the world at least a half day before most of our family and friends, could we bother someone in the Western Hemisphere to mention that next time? Post it on Facebook? Send us a note?  I’m just sayin’.  And for scratching our back . . . we’ll let you know a half day in advance when the world doesn’t end as predicted.