Quitting my day job has been a social experiment in itself. It’s quite interesting to see how different people take the news differently. I’ll break the different responses down into different groups:

The totally caught off guard:
These people usually don’t know that news is coming. They just go about their day to day and BAM!; you hit them with some news. Based on their relationship with you, they may fall into one of the other groups listed below.

The supportive:
These are my favorite people and for obvious reason. As soon as I announced my job departure, they either called me, stopped by my office, sent me an email, or communicated with me in some form. They each clearly stated a few things:

1) They enjoyed working alongside me
2) They were curious about what my next step would be
3) We shared a few life stories
4) We agreed to try to keep in touch

I always end up with a strong dose of encouragement after a chat with someone who is supportive. It keeps me going!
Supportive people are the best people on the planet. Hands down.

The cynical:
I’m not entirely sure how these people function in society. They are the kind of people that as soon as they hear your news, they resort to some sort of sarcastic remark. While it may be ‘funny’ at first, there is always some sort of truth behind seemingly innocent remarks. Some people know how to take jokes, and others don’t know how/when its appropriate.

The jealous:
Not to be confused with the cynical. These people do NOT make any sarcastic remarks or say anything to show disapproval. Instead they feign interest

The indifferent:
A job is a job to these people. They don’t form strong relationships or bonds with anyone and don’t really care about your life changes. Whateva!

Know any other way people take good news?

If you’re like me, you are probably a bit ignorant of the political and economic troubles in other countries. It stems from the fact that we have it pretty good here in the U.S.A. We have drive-thrus, clean drinking water, government bailouts. Life is [relatively] good here and many of us hardly take the time to enlighten ourself with current events. No I’m not talking about getting your news and latest hollywood gossip from TMZ.com. I’m talking the BIG picture. World news. Seriously though, we complain about traffic on the highway and flights being delayed, yet there are people in third-world countries dying of hunger.

Basically we need to shut fu*k up.

If you’re not like me then you probably have strong ties outside of the country. Perhaps you were born and raised outside of the US and still have family living overseas. You’re an immigrant and certain global affairs affect you directly because you’ve lived it before or you know people living it now.

I am totally guilty of not paying attention to news in other countries- which is totally a bad thing. Issues oversears can have a huge impact on our lives here in the US. As if I haven’t admitted enough of my ignorance, I constantly try to convince myself to broaden my world view by tuning into international news. The only problem is, when I happen to do this, it’s kinda like tuning into a movie half way through. The movie also happens to be really complex, with lots of characters, and a very deep plot. It’s also originally in a different language and the subtitles have undergone a decent-at-best translation. World issues are never simple and this problem quickly turns me off.

Just yesterday I made my browser’s homepage the nytimes world section. If I read the headlines at the very least, I can somewhat keep up.

So, what tips do you have for staying current? Favorite news sites? RSS Feeds? Books?