WHOOP ASS or RED BULL?
Rancho Cordova, CA (just outside The Governator's Sacramento)

The answer, it seems, is both. One energy drink very Asian, the other very American (after all the cartoon character on the can of "whoop ass" has "USA" tattooed on his fist), they'll both provide enough Taurine and menace to cajole my mindbody into Chiner time over the 13-hour flight this afternoon.

When I land in the Pudong Airport in Shanghai at 7pm feeling like I've pulled an all-nighter, I'll just settle in for a little sleep camelling, replenishing where the Taurine took its toll. That, and I'll say hello to my mother. Then it's exercise. Hard exercise. This is an experiment to see how quickly I can beat back the jet lag.

Whoop, whoop, whoop, whooop, whooop!