My master told a parable once, that you should pray and not lose heart. When you face the corruption of life, He says "Come boldly and trust Me."

So today was my last full day living in Columbia... for now. I would say "ever", but who knows what God has in store for Erin and I? Well, He does obviously.... but you get the point. Either way, it was the last day living in South Carolina for at least 4-5 years. 

My dad is in town to help me move, and we grabbed some dinner tonight with some friends.

Here is my future wife telling me to not take pictures of her. Look how good Degar is at posing and pretending he doesn't know I'm taking his picture.

I returned from an awesome dinner at my favorite Columbia restaurant, Miyo's, to continue packing up my apartment. OOF.

I feel like I should attempt to reflect on my time in South Carolina. I have learned and grown a lot.

I grew up in Miami, arguably the most culturally diverse city in America. I was raised participating in other cultures traditions, and learning to speak another language just to order a burger. But from living in South Carolina, I never imagined Miami would be a source of such "Cultured Ignorance". A large portion of the people in Miami travel the globe, eat exotic foods, speak different languages, and go out to fancy restaurants in obscure designer clothes. All this without having a FREAKING CLUE as to what goes on in the rest of the country. You have a large population of people who regularly  travel to South America, but have never gone north of Florida.

I could go on and on about the differences between Miami and living in South Carolina, but I won't. But I will say that I no longer have to answer the question, "So you live on a farm / in the country?", when I tell someone in Miami that I reside in South Carolina. Good God people.

I will miss having REAL BBQ with mustard bbq sauce.  I will miss seeing palmetto trees on every car, shirt, and frat dude's shoulder (OK, maybe not the last one as much.) I will miss having more local country stations than alternative rock and hip-hop COMBINED. I will miss this state, and it's been an honor living in it for 4 years.

Here's a health Carolina, forever to thee.

Hanging out is what we do best!

So I have continued the trend of hanging out as much as possible, and doing almost nothing this last week before I move. I have spent a large amount of time with BJ, Andy and Chris. Obviously. I figured I would fill you in on some of what has been going down. This will undoubtedly end up being another photo-laden post, but click 'em all, wuss! 

Friday has been our designated "Guys Night" for at least the last year or so. This friday was no different. But, it was technically the "last" Guys Night. In reality, this is a stupid statement, because whenever we visit each other, Guys Night will almost certainly ensue. Until someone has kids, and then Guys Night is going to be shot to hell. Keep that in mind BJ. Anyways, we began the night like many Guys Nights, in the parking lot of Body Rites, in 5 points. We sat around for awhile, and discussed what to do. We tried to find a 24-hour driving range, but apparently those don't exist in Columbia. Bummer. Here's a video of the guys trying to get me to poop in the parking lot. Please note a few hilarious things:

-BJ's hand motions during the "chant"

-Chris's dance, and his "poop in that" remark after the dance

-BJ's facial expression at the end of the video.

Poop Video

Anyways, the night was awesome. A waitress at Sonic told Andy her cousin would "jump his bone" because of all his tattoos. Yes, bone. SINGULAR. God. Of course we gave her Andy's number, and had her leave a message on her cousin's voicemail. I pray to God that girl calls Andy. 

Sunday we decided to have a sleepover party at my house. Check us out!

Me
BJ in his undies (Megan don't be mad)

Andy's sleeve if it were yellow, and not red.

If you recall, BJ got me a huge bucket of sunflower seeds. Andy felt the need to dump them all over himself. Pretty funny. 

This morning, BJ and I went to breakfast together, and Andy went home and barfed alone. Apparently his choice of tater tots with monterrey jack pepper cheese and a fried ice cream milkshake was a bad one. OOF.  BJ and I proceeded to eat an offensive amount of chocolate chip pancakes, among other things. Afterwards, I seriously was as full as I've ever been. We walked around The Fresh Market for awhile to make ourselves feel even more sick. Check it out:

flowers

BJ shopping

I came home and the most hysterical video chat with Josiah and Phil. I know that sounds like the most pretentious, retarded thing ever... but it ruled. Phil's camera is borderline broken. Here are some pictures of it all.

Josiah and I playing twister with the Polka-dot background effect.

Jo riding the roller coaster

I dont even know

*Phil was in an internet cafe, so Josiah kept yelling "This is a gay chat room!" until Phil had headphones on. Then...

I also recorded this video. It goes out to BJ, Chris and Andy. I'm not sure if anyone else will find this funny or not.

Then tonight, Chris kept the video chat theme alive. Andy and I joined in the window to watch Chris argue with an 18-year old friend of ours about the experiences of being older. IF YOU LOOK AT ONE THING IN THIS WHOLE BLOG, PLEASE WATCH THESE, HOLY CRAP.

-Argument 1-

-Argument 2-

I pray to God you watched those. That's Emily by the way. You can read her blog here.

Andy, Chris and I ended the night with a late run for BK, which we ate outside.

I move in 3 days.

-I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.-

You won't even know I'm gone

The last few days have been pretty interesting. I'm coming down on my last 7 days of living in Columbia, and I've been trying to spend as much time with my friends as possible. This may very well may be one huge picture update, with not much insight. Sorry.

On monday I went to lunch with Chris at Groucho's, and I figured I would take a video, "Chris Style". [If you don't understand why this is indicative of Chris, go read his blog.] Here it is:

Once I met up with Chris, I learned that he had a new pair of sunglasses. Pretty awesome.

We laid out at the pool for the rest of the afternoon, and then went home to play Pandemic II together. Pandemic II is this crazy game where you have to evolve a disease  (virus, bacteria, or parasite) by tweaking it's symptoms and resistances in hopes to wipe out all the Earth's population. It's actually really hard, because freaking Madagascar closes its ports before our diseases "Rap-Metal" or  "Aurielle", could ever reach them. We finally got it done with our disease, "Chris and Chase". Figures.

Tuesday  was also a great day. I got an Email from the guys at Stay Gold. If you remember, they have sponsored my band, and given us all sorts of free clothing and other stuff. Chris and I ran some errands, and then met up with Andy. We tried to go see Batman, but freakin Carmike had false times posted on the internet. Unbelievable. We ended up hanging out in Chris's bed, no homo.

Here's a picture of me trying a pair of Vans with a tux, to get an idea for the wedding. Chris apparently added a new piece of equipment to his assortment of weapons. Andy called it a "Shotgun Coozi". I tried to take a picture of the 3 of us hanging out, and my thumb accidentally covered the flash. Check it out. After a while of watching Ali G, Chris and Andy began jumping on the bed. This picture is awesome. Chris kicked us out after that, because it was getting late, and I think he wanted to wack it.

Yesterday, I went to lunch with Andy to Groucho's (love it). Andy had never eaten there ?! Here's another intro video a la Chris:

Here are some pretty good looking photos documenting my friends at Groucho's. 

Chris

Lukemire

Part of Andy

Zack Spurlock was in town yesterday. He's the dude that tattoos me and all my friends. Here's a rare picture of Zack outside the tattoo shop, making fun of Chris. After several of us ate big burritos, we went to Manifest and I bought Hopesfall - "No wings to speak of" 7' EP, as well as the Patton Oswalt CD/DVD and a Suffocation album. Chris, BJ and I ended the night with a trip to Krispy Kreme. If you have given up clicking on pictures at this point, I encourage you to at least view these last few. At Krispy Kreme, BJ knocked over his milk on himself. It was all over him, even in his shoes. Of course, instead of helping, Chris filmed and I took pictures. BJ's sentiments. Chris has this thing where he parts his hair, and it always makes BJ laugh. As we were leaving, BJ left his his straw in his Mr. Pibb, and Chris knocked it out of his hand, covering BJ's other shoe in Mr.Pibb. Rough night for BJ.

Lastly, BJ gave me a going away present. It is amazing.

Tonight is my last triva night at Hudson's, follwed by a private screening of Stepbrothers.

WOOOOOOOOO!

I've covered this country far and wide, but I'll always be a son of the south

I got back from my trip to Florida with Erin tonight. We flew down to Tampa to find a place for us to live once we get married. It took nearly 3 days, but we found a place! We're both totally stoked.

The first few days of August, I will be relocating to Dunedin, Florida. We will be living downtown, which is really awesome. The downtown area has some really cool shops and restaurants. There actually aren't any large billboards or chain restaurants or clothing stores downtown, which makes it that much nicer. Obviously we are close to all those wonderful chain establishments if we need them. Dunedin is also home to the Single A Dunedin Blue Jays, which will also be awesome.

I took a couple pictures of the Condo we found. Check it out!

Front of our building.

Our unit is the 3rd floor balcony.

Back of the building.

Pool area.

Probably the best part about the Condo is that it backs up to the ocean! It's not on the water, but it's super close. Check out the road from the back of the Condo to the water. There's also a really nice Marina around the corner.

Across the Bay from our Condo is Caladesi Island, which is regularly voted as one of the top beaches in America. It won 1st for 2008!

The majority of the trip was spent finding a place as awesome as this, but I did get to spend most all of the time with my Dad, who is probably the best human being currently alive.

That's about all I've got. I should be pretty busy these next few weeks getting things together to move out. What a crazy thought.

- Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Blame it on the Holy Rollers

Since I've been back from tour, I took a little trip with Chris, Andy and BJ to warped tour in Jacksonville. We got a hotel that night, and hung out in Savannah the next day. The trip was awesome. The 4 of us staying in a Hilton was entirely ridiculous. 

I bought a new pair of Vans and Nikes from the outlet mall in Florida.

Today I started figuring out what I'm doing for the wedding tuxedo-wise. Yikes. Also, I finally purchased a new camera! Took me long enough! I decided to abandon the Sony idea, and settled on a Canon SD 870 IS. I guess style-wise it isn't the "sleekest" camera, but it does have a pretty big screen. I'm really happy with it so far. It was probably the best reviewed camera online.

In other news, SB98 played  what could possibly be our last show ever tonight to about 35 people. I had fun though.  Here are a few pictures from the show.

Chris 

Michael 

Me

After the show, some of us went to eat at Yesterdays. Their southern fried chicken is on point. Here's a pretty cool picture I took of Andy at Yesterdays. Next door to Yesterdays is some other bar I don't know the name of, and there was a band playing there. This band had their BUS parked outside the bar. I should probably mention this was not a band I was interested in hearing. Anyways, check out the graphics on their tour bus.

Tomorrow Erin and I are headed to Hilton Head to taste cake and meet with the Pastor. Friday we are flying to Tampa for the weekend to go house-hunting. Crazy! We'll be back in Columbia late Sunday night.

Here are the rest of the pictures I took today with my new camera. Check them out, I think they're pretty awesome.

BJ's Cardinal

Me Loungin'

Andy and Lil B

BJ and Andy

I put the sticker on my computer that the dude from Stay Gold gave me. Check out his store when it opens up. He sponsored my band, and has awesome designs!

Listen to Impending Doom

Tour is over...

So bummed.

It was such an awesome time though. I would say of all the tours The Red Baron has done, this was the best one. I think for once all of our hearts were in the right place, and we had awesome attitudes about everything. We literally did not get in one argument the entire time. Praise God!

After Cornerstone, we played a really tiny show in the middle of nowhere, and stayed with a really nice girl named Blossom, in Carbondale, IL. She let us use her kiddie pool. Check out jake loungin'. After that we celebrated me passing my last college course, meaning I can officially graduate in a few weeks!

Over the next week, we drove alot, played shows, played an AMAZING show in Louisville to a bunch of friends and some awesome people from Puerto Rico! (check out Clear Convictions. So good.) Attended Warped Tour in Atlanta, was so much fun.

Here are some pictures since the last update.

Phil sleeping under a hoodie, and being rap-metal.

Driving to Warped Tour on our day off.

We ended the tour with an awesome show in Columbia, with my best friends (and other band) Spring Break '98. Check out some pictures of my dudes wearing some of the SB98 visors that BJ made.

PHIL

BLACK JOHN

Last picture from tour, is the least important one, but probably one of the more humorous ones. Tour payout time.

In closing, tonight I spent time fishing, eating, and swimming with my 3 best friends in the whole world. I am eternally thankful that I am so close to such human beings, and that we are all so alike. It blows my mind. Life is good, Praise Jesus!

Tour Update!

So we played our show tonight in some tiny town in Illinois, and are staying at this awesome girls house. She has wireless, so I have a chance to upload pictures and such. This post is FULL of pictures, and some videos, so enjoy! CLICK THEM ALL!  \m/

CORNERSTONE!

Like I said in an earlier post, Cornerstone was amazing. Check out this little intro video. Here are some pictures of what went down. When we got there, some protestors were hanging out by the entrance. Awesome. Our set was pretty amazing on both days. Zack from Take it Back! totally gave us an extra tent he had, which was awesome. Praise God.  John and I (me!) set it up immediately. This was our camp setup. Here's what the area looked like.  You can see a video of John and I in the tent here. We spent most of the time promoting our shows while we were there. Here too. Here is a picture of John, Josiah and I after our first set. Check out John at our merch table with the sign he made.  

I got to watch some killer bands, like these dudes. Also, I watched The Chariot wreck their equipment, and their bass player stacked all the cabinets and stood on top of them. He eventually fell. We also watched Life In Your Way play their last set. Check out this video I took of them playing "Salty Grave". Towards the end of the video, you can see Josiah stand up on a monitor and jump on everybody.

Other activities include Josiah wearing a beard and dancing with John like a ballerina (awesome video), as well as me getting sponsored by Jagermeister. Pretty awesome.

Hope you've enjoyed the update so far. Tomorrow is a day off, and then the day after we are playing with Clear Convictions (from Puerto Rico!) in Louisville. The 9th we're going to warped tour in Atlanta, and the 10th ends tour with the SB98 reunion show!

I am still sick, and it seems as if the rest of my band has also caught something. Phil has a horrible toothache, and may go get it pulled tomorrow while the rest of us are at the movies.

Pray for healing.

-"Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus"

Praise the Lion of Judah, with blood on His mane

Cornerstone is over!
It has been AMAZING to say the least. God is so good! This has been one of the most encouraging weeks of my life.

Our sets went really well, and we re nearly sold out of merch. God is raising up an army of kids in the underground scene, and it's so exciting to have seen it all come together. I have tons of pictures and videos, but they'll have to wait until later, seeing as how I'm currently updating from my phone in a Buffalo Wild Wings outside of Bushnell, Illinois watching the UFC event.

Pray for our safety, were traveling in an SUV. Also, I'm getting sick, so pray that God heals that. Being sick on the road sucks.

Til Later...

On the road again

...Grabbing my bags, walking out the door. Leaving for tour.... peace out Columbia!

I love you all my friends. I'll try to update along the way.

New blog!

If you're reading this, you've found my new blog.

As I explained on the old blog, I felt that the web address to the previous blog was a bit too obvious, and I wasn't interested in complete "randos" reading my blog because they have my business card, and decided to search for me. freaks.

Anyways, this makes it a little bit more private, at least if somebody stumbles upon this they will know it's Chase's blog. But Chase who?

Exactly.

The name of this blog was inspired by the book, I am not but I know I AM by Louie Giglio. It references the story of Moses, when God sends him to Pharoah. When Moses asks who he should say sent him, God answers, "Tell them I AM sent you". Here's an excerpt from the book:

God knew it was imperative for Moses to know who he was-- that He was I AM. I AM is the present tense, active form of the verb "to be". 

God was telling Moses:

I AM the center of everything.

I AM running the show.

I AM the same every day, forever.

I AM the owner of everything.

I AM the Creator and Sustainer of life.

I AM more than enough.

I AM inexhaustible and immeasurable.

I AM God.

In a heartbeat, Moses knew God's name-- and something more. He finally knew his. For if God's name is I AM, Moses' name must be I am not.

I am not the center of everything.

I am not in control.

I am not the solution.

I am not all-powerful.

I am not calling the shots.

I am not the owner of anything.

That's my name too. And yours.

We can choose to cling to starring roles in the little-bitty stories of us, or we can exchange our fleeting moment in the spotlight for a supporting role in the eternally beautiful epic that is the Story of God.

Think of it as trading up. Abandoning the former and embracing the latter will allow our little lives to be filled with the wonder of God as we live for His fame and the unending applause of His name.

Amen.

"Acknowledging death, I no longer mourn my own loss..."

Today, I had my last actual class period of college. Ever. Tomorrow is my final exam, and I am done with college. Forever. I think...
I know I'm late with the whole "Last day of school, woooo!" business, seeing as it's already July... but screw it, I'm stoked to be done.

I went out to Harbison today to buy a digital camera. I did a decent amount of research, and found one that I liked. The only two places that carry it in Columbia (which both happen to be Circuit City) were sold out. At the time, this was frustrating. On my way back downtown, I decided to stop by Chick-Fil-A. My total was around 9 dollars (I know, I can eat. See: ripped shorts), so I used my debit card. Turns out it expired a day early, and I don't have my replacement yet. So, it was probably a good thing the cameras were sold out, because trying to buy one (and not being able to) would be far more frustrating than them being sold out. Oh, I should add that I changed my order so I could afford it with my $6 in cash. The girl who gave me my food kept the original order, and charged me $5 bucks for it. Being good looking is awesome! Just kidding.

As of tonight, CM Punk is the new Heavyweight Champion of the World. I totally don't watch WWE, but anytime a straight edge dude is winning world championships, I can back that. Also, anyone whose catchphrase is "Straight Edge means I'm better than you" is down in my book.

My other band, Spring Break '98 had practice tonight, because we're playing our "reunion" show with my band on July 10th. Should be awesome.

Blue Coconut CreamSlush from Sonic is my new jam.

I leave for tour in 1 day. Cannot wait. Too bad I won't have a new camera or a debit card that works for it. oh well.


- ...and I begin to sing praises to the One who has me here

"I turned 21 in prison, doing life without parole..."

(6/30/08)

Late last night/early Saturday morning, I returned from my trip to Jacksonville to play another show with my band. Chris, Erin and Andy came with. Turned out to be an awesome time. We got to "The Venue" with enough time for me to tune and step on stage. The sound was abysmal (see Chris?), but we had fun, so screw it. With Blood Comes Cleansing was probably the best band that night, they killed it. They are so full and heavy live, it blows my mind.

In meeting up with the band, I was given my tour pass. I will probably wear this one on my keys until I move away in August, seeing as how it annoys BJ.

Today I went on a fishing adventure with my friends Chris, BJ and Andy, and it was awesome.... obviously. We didn't catch anything but it was fun. We got some sun, and I even ripped my shorts. Remember my post about lifting, and drinking a gallon of milk a day? Well apparently this has all made my legs and butt much larger. Check out the video of my ripped shorts.

I also saw the movie "Wanted" tonight with Erin. It was super entertaining. Obviously not very believable, and pretty cheesy... but still awesome nonetheless. There was actually a mildly interesting story-line, plus you get to see Angelina Jolie's naked butt.

I will hopefully have a new camera soon, so I can update nice pictures, and possibly even neat videos like my counterpart Chris. Leave me good digital camera suggestions as a comment. If you have a camera you really like, tell me about it!

I fly out for tour on Wednesday... CANT WAIT!

oh, if you read this... leave me some comments, please! It'd be kinda cool to know who's reading this, even if I don't know you/ we don't talk anymore. DO IT.




-Hallelujah, our God reigns!

"Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, but don't nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights!"

(6/26/08)

Tonight was Trivia night out at Hudson's BBQ in good ol' Lexington, SC. wooooooooooooooo! Trivia night is always fun. Their beef brisket is on point, and our trivia team usually does pretty well. The best part about it is that our team is usually an average of 10 years younger than a majority of the other teams. Getting beat by a bunch of young bucks cant be fun. Tonight we came in 3rd place, but we continue to gain free good by placing.

Aside from BBQ, I'm on a new weight training program, and I REALLY like it. For those skinny dudes (like me) who are trying to put on mass, you should check it out. It's called "Starting Strength". I'm at the point where every workout, I am hitting personal records on most lifts, particularly squats. Love to squat. As all of my friends know, my goal is to look like this. For motivation, I watch videos of Ronnie Coleman. I suggest you do the same... he is a funny, funny man.

This weekend, Andy, Chris, Erin and I are driving to Jacksonville, FL so I can play another show on tour with my band. They/we are on the Scream the Prayer tour, and it seems to be going pretty well so far.
That being said, I have to get back to my guitar. I've got couple songs to finish learning... and writing. The Red Baron is trying to put out a praise and worship album. Not sure if that was supposed to be a secret or not, but oh well. I'm working on 2 of my favorite hymns now, "It is well" (please go watch that video, it is the same guy who sang at my grandfather's funeral!) and "Jesus paid it all".... With a little mosh here and there.


Also, the rest of The Red Baron videos are up from Brandon, FL.
Check out Mugatu, and Sick and Tired!

"We're on a road trip, we can do anything!"

(6/25/08)

This past weekend, I went on a little trip to Florida with my friends Chris and Andy. My band, The Red Baron kicked off our tour on Friday in Brandon, FL (more of that later). As usual, the trip was filled with absurd happenings and conversations, many of which were captured on Chris's new Flip (here is the video intro to such a device). Photobucket and Youtube like to take their sweet time when it pertains to uploading videos, so they may be added intermittently throughout the week. Who knows.

The trip was a huge success. We didn't have much merch, but we still did pretty well somehow. Unfortunately, I had to return to Columbia after the show on Sunday, since I am taking a summer course to graduate. I will be meeting up with the tour next week for Cornerstone, and I cannot wait!

On Friday in Brandon, we played with a band called Venia. They are ridiculously heavy, and equally as awesome dudes. Go listen to them, and buy stuff from their webstore! Our set went so well! We had not played together in about a year, but things went so smooth. Praise God! Check out this video of the show, it rules! This show was honestly one of the most fun shows I have played in a while. I love the baron!

The rest of the trip included naked bass fishing, Andy catching a bass in 3 feet of water, and other types of good ol' southern fun. It's a bummer we had to come home. Actually, this trip inspired me to start this blog, as well as Chris. Go check out his blog, I promise you it is far more interesting!

If you are interested, check out some videos of our food choices on the way. Moe's and Whataburger. Also, more poolside fun here and here.

PS - make sure you check out all the links I have sprinkled throughout the entries, they contain pictures/videos/awesomeness.


-Loved by the One, beginning and the end!

"Where do I begin?"

(6/25/08)

So this is the first entry... not really sure where this is headed, but I'm stoked!
I'm pretty sure if you're reading this currently, you know me to some degree, but I might as well give the rundown.

I'm 22, and (about to be) a graduate of The University of South Carolina, with a degree in Economics. I drink a gallon of milk a day, and I like to ride my bike. I play in a band called The Red Baron, and have toured a bunch with them. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, and also happen to be straight edge. On October 25th, I am marrying the woman of my dreams, Erin. I'm moving to Tampa in one month to start my job... which is scary and awesome at the same time.

Nice to meet you.

-Oh praise the One who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead!