For the record, I’ve been humbled by how many of you from outside the U.S. interact on here:

Which is why I scheduled this one to post at three in the morning my time, what Ray Bradbury called “no souls hour” in Something Wicked This Way Comes. No, I’m not awake–I’m probably dreaming of being an Animorph or a luck dragon or the Great Sky Turtle himself.

But yes, I’m proud that you’re reading something I wrote at an hour that is, for you, on London time (8AM) or Cairo time (10AM) or Tehran time (Noonish) or Colombo time (1:30pm) or Bangkok time (3:00pm) or Guam time (6:00 pm) or even Auckland time at a wonderful eight o’clock tomorrow night. Wow, that sounded like a hobbit’s litany of mealtimes. Elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon Tea?

I want you to know I love having you here (as indicated by my In Your Native Tongue post) and am an international man through-and-through.

However I’ve some competitive objectives for our international visitors:

1. More interaction from other English speakers. I’d love to hear more from everyone in Australia, UK, South Africa and Canada as well as connect with some of your friends. Thanks to Neilcrabtree, Alicethroughthemacrolens and other non-US Literators for already doing this.
2. Visitors from currently blank countries. This includes but is not limited to Greenland, the Stans (Kazakhstan, Turkministan, Tajikstan, etc.), Iran, Sudan, Bolivia, Senegal & Papua New Guinea.
3. Competitiveness. This is your chance to put all of these arrogant American readers to shame. How about a healthy Competition? America VS the rest of the world for total number of hits through the month of August. The winning hemisphere will get… I dunno I’ll think of something fun.

Let the games begin.