I’m hitting myself for not taking a picture, but, oh well. In my office building, there’s a sort-of cafeteria where there are many different kinds of food stalls, and you put money on a charge card. Well, apparently, the landlord is kicking these guys out (the whole operation) because they claim they haven’t paid rent since moving in. After getting off the elevator, the landlord posted a big A2-sized notice stating what’s going on and how today is the last day!

I was “Toastmaster” at my Toastmaster’s meeting last night, which means, I lead the meeting. And one of the responsibilities of Toastmaster is to give an opening speech. This is the 2nd time this year I have had this role - 2 speeches that could have been used towards my Competent Communicator manual, but, oh well… I’m also working on the Competent Leader manual, so at least one requirement was fulfilled!

I was checking my RSS feeds today, and one of the Official Google feeds that I subscribe to had a posting about the new Google Calendar Sync tool! Sure enough, then I accessed my Google Calendar, I found this nice link at the top: I always wanted to use Google Calendar, but I;ve been kind of stuck using my work Outlook Calendar to manage my life as I have my phone syncing to it, and it worked quite well, but I was missing the online aspect.

I had my first almost run-in with a Beijing Traffic cop this morning. In the almost 5 years I’ve been riding my motorbike through Beijing, I have enjoyed an almost-invincibility / invisibility from the traffic police. Sure, I’ve heard stories of foreigners being stopped (driving either cars or motorbikes) by traffic cops for one thing or another, but usually playing the old “sorry, I don’t speak Chinese” trick was enough to get out of it.

Results of fireworks Originally uploaded by chrisdrum Walking along the street last night around 10pm, the city sounds like a war zone - people are taking full advantage of this being the last night of the Chinese Spring Festival - they’re setting off every last firework they can get a hold of. What’s left is these cardboard boxes with cylinder tubes used to launch the fireworks into the sky. I’m impressed the city organized these “we do everything from haul garbage to moving household appliances” cyclists to help with the massive clean up effort, in real time.

I started with my 2nd speech at Toastmasters to post the speech I presented on my Website. Last night, I presented my 3rd speech. The topic was in regards to Beijing Traffic - I presented some ideas on how Beijing could improve what is becoming a disaster. As a disclaimer, I am not an expert in the field of traffic management, nor have I studied the ideas presented in my speech.