Why did June 22nd end?

My day started at 7 a.m. with me doing a voice recording for a university.

When I got to work, I found that I was part of a Korea Times Interview with Songmi Han.

* * *

Greenlight to Freedom sold some more copies so it bounced up in a few categories.

* * *

We had lunch with executives of a foundation. Jin Park, formerly of the National Assembly and now the Minister of Foreign Affairs, happened to be having lunch nearby. We gave him a signed copy of Greenlight to Freedom.

He gave a moving testimonial about me last year.

* * *

After lunch, FSI's co-founders Casey Lartigue & Eunkoo Lee returned to the office with Songmi Han. She finished signing copies of the book.

On Instagram she wrote: "I'm sure today is my lucky day."

* * *

I had a mentoring session with a North Korean refugee with an incredible story that he may tell one day.

* * *

Evelyn Jeong stopped by for the second consecutive day to work on her book.

* * *

The day started with an article in the Korea Times. It ended with dinner at the Seoul Press Club with top executives, editors and columnists with the Korea Times.

My former editor at the Korea Times who is now the president and publisher.

At the suggestion of one of the top executives, I gave a copy of Greenlight to a professor at the meeting.

This was probably the most incredible moment. A former Miss Korea not only recognized me but she said that we participated in a roundtable discussion a few years ago. She said that I made an incredible impression on her. I couldn't remember which event she was referring to, but it was great to hear!

* * *

Jeong-cheol Lee was featured on Arirang TV Radio. At the Korea Times dinner I posted the photo about the event on Instagram then took a screen shot when James was on.

* * *

Eunkoo Lee and I were in another Eunmi Park video, uploaded at 10 pm.

* * *

H.L. Mencken wrote that editorial writers need to get out of the office at least once a week. Today I met with:

* A top-level government official I have known for about a decade.

* Foundation executives

* North Korean refugees

* a former Miss Korea remembered a meeting we had several years ago.

* Newspaper columnists, editors and executives

* at 7 am, I did a voice recording for a university.

* Counseling a volunteer

* Checking many things

* in addition to those things, I was featured in a newspaper article and YouTube video.

That is some of the fun stuff that I did today!

Waiting for me at the office: Two books that I need to edit.

I have many requests that are waiting for, I need to edit some speeches, keep our donors updated, recruit people for our two events this weekend, raise money for a trip to the USA, etc.

Throughout my professional career I have had people tell me to slow down, that I'm doing so many things that they can't keep up. I usually respond by telling them that this is the way I live and that as long as I don't get confused that things will be fine.

Occasionaly people contact me, asking if I can tell them about my upcoming activities. That usually takes a few minutes. People ask me to reflect on what I just did, and that takes even more time. I have learned that supporters are fine with just one update a week, but those updates are so long that I doubt they read them.

Manufactured cases

My former Cato Institute colleague Bob Levy is profiled by the Associated Press for his role in the challenge to the DC gun ban. One great thing about Levy is that he tells it like it is. As the article quotes: And Levy freely admits the case is manufactured, not one that bubbled up by chance from the district's steady flow of criminal cases involving guns. He wanted presentable plaintiffs to make a case for gun rights, not criminals. "We didn't want crack heads and bank robbers to be poster boys for the Second Amendment," he said. Is there a problem with this case being manufactured? I heard a talking head on the radio complaining a while ago that this case wasn't from real DC residents, that it was from outsiders. What's wrong with that? There may be some times that it takes an outsider to challenge an injustice or bad law. Did DC residents claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was an outsider who should have minded his own business? And about the case being ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

"Yoegi Anjuseyo!"

* I have a short reflection in today's Korea Times about an encounter with an unfriendly looking Korean man on the subway. It was a reminder not to be too quick in judging people in Korea. 09-13-2011 16:47 'Yeogi Anjeuseyo!' By Casey Lartigue Jr. The recent incident in which an American English teacher bullied an elderly Korean man and other passengers on the bus reminded me of a more pleasing incident from years ago. I was on the subway, taking the train outside of Seoul for a work assignment. I have the habit of standing on the subway to strategically position myself near the doors in case my stop magically appears. On that particular day, there was a Korean man STARING at me. Not just looking at me, but intensely staring at me. He had an incredible frown on his face. Not just for one stop, but for several stops the guy just kept staring at me. If I had known more Korean then I would have been able to curse him ...

2014-02-14 Yeon-Mi Park`s debut

Yeonmi Park, February 14, 2014, making her debut! Yesterday I was one of the speakers at a special session on North Korean refugees at the Canadian Maple International School. Wow, it was a wonderful time! * Yeon-Mi Park delivered her first major speech in English. She was wonderful! She told her story (35 minute speech without notes), discussed different aspects of North Korea, and then handled questions from students for more than an hour. She did seem to be nervous at the beginning-she took a deep breath just as she started, looked at me, then told her story from her heart. * Returning from the speech, I told Yeonmi that she had star potential. She told me that she didn't believe it, but I told her that the way she handled Q&A and told her story, I would be lucky to have her still returning my phone calls within a year. * The students had many questions. They have been learning about North Korea. They are now reading "Escape from Camp 14" featuring Shin Dong-h...

2020-11-26 My basketball story

This photo was uploaded today by my aunt Annette. This was back in the day, when 1) I had a head full of hair and 2) played basketball a lot. That first year of playing organized basketball, I focused on playing defense. It seemed that everyone wanted to shoot the ball, so I passed the ball and played defense. I probably led the league in steals, rebounds and blocked shots. I enjoyed taking on the best player from the other team, I felt like I would get better, quickly. The second year, I was a different player. I will never forget the first game that second year--we lost 29 to 26, I scored 18 points. I probably led the universe in scoring that second year, although we didn't win much. One thing I learned from that experience is that one great player 9 (at least in his own mind) can't beat a team. An eye injury ended my pro career before it began, to this day I still have floaters in my eyes because of the injury. I started wearing glasses, but the problem never went away. On t...

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