On August 27, 2020, I found a boy who would love me more than anyone ever did before.
At my weakest physically, he’s there to take care of me.
At my weakest mentally, he’s here to assure me.
He gives me hope when I feel there is none.
For more reasons than this, he is my one.
Long Beach
I quarantined in an Airbnb for two weeks before finding an apartment in downtown Long Beach.
Along with COVID, the country felt in turmoil with the murder of George Floyd. White privilege is feeling it for just a period of time and knowing that the unrest will go away with time.
In the summer, I went on a great American roadtrip with a friend. We stopped in Vegas on the way home.
What a time.
New Zealand
On March 17, 2020 (NZT), I was optimistic:
I’m currently in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m scheduled to leave for Wellington this weekend, where I plan on being for at least a few weeks. I currently have a flight back to California set for May 21st.
I’m cautiously optimistic about my chances here. I think New Zealand has done a great job of keeping the virus at bay. It feels, though, that this virus will inevitably infect every part of the world.
On March 20 (NZT), I was all alone in a hostel when I made the call:
NZ has 39 cases as of today. The US State Department has advised all citizens to return back to the states. They’ve advised that citizens “may face unpredictable circumstances, travel restrictions, and challenges in returning home or accessing health care while abroad.”
I debated for a few hours on what I should do.
On one hand, I feel like my chances in NZ are greater than that in the US, and traveling right now would only increase my risk of contracting the virus (and potentially spreading it to others).
On the other hand, I am of little use to my family in the US if the airlines choose to stop flights and I’m stuck in a foreign country and depending on their health care system if I get sick. Additionally, if the airlines stop flights, I have no idea when I would be able to return to the states.
I’ve decided to come back home.
“Home” is a good question though. I don’t have a place of my own to stay. I’m going to travel with the assumption that I will get infected, and thus I do not want to stay with any family or friends. I’ll hopefully find a place to stay which will require minimal human interaction.
On March 27 (NZT), I came back to the States:
New Zealand started lockdown a couple nights ago. The lockdown here includes shutting down all non-essential businesses (including takeaway service from restaurants). Grocery stores are still open. The one I’ve been going to was relatively calm when I went on Tuesday to get a few things.
I’m scheduled to leave Auckland at 10:55 PM tonight, landing in LA at 3:00 PM (Friday). That gives me 44 hours of Friday, March 27th. My longest day.
I reserved an Airbnb in Long Beach to stay in for the next couple weeks. My plan is to self-isolate as much as possible in case I get infected on my trip back.
After that, who knows. I suppose I’ll start apartment hunting? I think it’ll be a while before we get through this, so I can’t imagine traveling internationally for a while.
A couple weeks later (April 9), I reflected on my trip back:
The journey was eerie. I only came across a handful of people while I took two buses and a train to get to the airport.
I thought I had read something about Air New Zealand reducing the number of passengers on flights in order to spread people out more. That certainly wasn’t the case with my flight; it was full as far as I could tell.
I took a Lyft from the airport to my Airbnb. Again, it was eerie to see everything so empty.
Driving on the freeway was a different story. I was shocked to see so many people still out and about.
Southeast Asia
I absolutely loved Thailand. The food, the prices, the people—everything except the air quality. My three weeks went quickly as I worked and spent my weekends doing trails with new friends.
Exactly one year earlier (plus or minus 14 hours), I had made a wish to celebrate NYE outside the States—and there I was, at a huge outdoor party in Thailand, making friends with other foreigners. And getting a haircut for only 200 THB ($6 USD), because why not go into 2020 looking fresh?
Soon after, I left for Indonesia to meet up with two coworkers for a client project. We were there for three weeks and I got sick as many times.
I spent a couple weeks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before heading back to the States for a few weeks.
On February 4, 2020, my connecting flight through Xiamen, China was canceled:
we are sorry to inform you that your flight MF829 on FEB06,2020,from XIAMEN to LOS ANGELES has been cancelled due to public security.
I rebooked through Hong Kong and made it back to the States just fine.
In early March, when I left the States for New Zealand, there were 45 cases in California and 0 in Long Beach.
I felt like I was getting out of the country just in time to avoid COVID completely.
Leaving for Spain
I spent the summer of 2019 laying the groundwork to be away for years: I got rid of most of my belongings, packed up the rest, transferred my phone number, set up a PO Box, drafted my trust and will; you know, the usual “I’m not living in this country anymore” stuff. My goal was to be gone for years, with pit stops in the States between continents.
Every “see you later” made me feel more loved and appreciated than I had ever felt. The last ones with friends in NOLA really hit hard as I left the country.
My salt streams were replaced with jet streams as I made my way to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. I made local friends and we went for little adventures all around the island.
I frolicked in Germany at Oktoberfest with American friends.
I drank wine in Lanzarote, where the vines grow in pits on the ground.
I ran a half marathon in Havana… and then another one in Vegas.
And when I came back to Long Beach for a bit, my friends graciously put a roof over my head and welcomed me, even for Thanksgiving.
In December, I headed out for the next leg of my adventure: SE Asia.
Shortly thereafter, my heart and mind were freed from obligations and I knew…
It was time to go.
On NYE 2019, I wrote on the party’s wish-board that I wouldn’t be in the US for the following NYE.
And I wasn’t. But that’s a story for a couple days from now.
I’m a Long Beach boy, through and through—a year later, I wrote:
I absolutely love my hometown. The food, the culture, the people, the weather… I could happily spend the rest of my life there.
And that’s exactly why I had to leave.
Hi, it’s Chasen. Six years ago, I quit social media.
We have some catching up to do.
Last time we talked, I was heading back from Europe to the states. I was all alone in a hotel room when I made the call.
I felt like being on social media was a distraction from living a more fulfilling life.
This bit from the most recent Upgrade makes me think that we only have Automator and AppleScript in macOS because the OS team didn’t want Workflow/Shortcuts (which was bought by the Siri team).
Almost certainly we would have neither in macOS if they had been interested in Workflow in 2017.
Reflecting on 100 Days of SwiftUI
Reflecting on my experience with the “100 Days of SwiftUI” course, with tips on how to make the most of it.
Woo hoo! Day 100 is “just” a final exam and I passed (with merit)! Almost hard to believe that I’ve come to the end of my #100DaysOfSwiftUI journey.

Day 99 included our last quiz and challenge: add a photo credit over the image, fill in some loading/saving methods for favorites, and add sorting to the resorts list. #100DaysOfSwiftUI

For Day 98, we implemented searching resorts, replaced the facility info with icons, added a button for the user to mark favorite resorts, and added a favorite indicator in the Resorts list. #100DaysOfSwiftUI

For Day 97 we started actually building a new project using NavigationSplitView
, NavigationLink
, and format: .list(type: .and)
(for concatenating strings). #100DaysOfSwiftUI
Day 96 and we’re looking at iPad-friendly APIs for the first time.
I’ll be honest—I had not tried running any of our previous apps in the iPad simulator, but now I see they were working fine the whole time. Pretty cool!
This screenshot looks absolutely chaotic. 👹 #100DaysOfSwiftUI

Day 95 was a full challenge day—build an app from scratch based on some requirements!

Day 94 is a review and challenge day! Graphics code can be a doozy because when you get the wrong result, it’s difficult to know what’s actually wrong in the code (or with your math). 😅 I got some help with this one. 😬 #100DaysOfSwiftUI

Day 93 was a fun walk through of using GeometryReader
, including using visualEffect()
and scrollTargetBehavior()
. #100DaysOfSwiftUI

For Day 92, we started a new project (our second to last!) and learned about how layout, alignment guides, and absolute positioning work within SwiftUI.
I really loved the explainer, starting from How layout works in SwiftUI. #100DaysOfSwiftUI

Picking #100DaysOfSwiftUI back up, and in the home stretch at Day 91! It was a challenge day with a review quiz and an open-ended prompt to fix a couple minor bugs and add a feature.
