isaacbrocato - Tumblr blog

[isaacbrocato]

It is Thanksgiving! I could go on and on about how thankful I am for my experience here at HBU. The past few weeks have been crazy busy for me. As a member of Student Foundation, the highest service organization on campus, I was blessed to staff at the Spirit of Excellence Gala. The Spirit of Excellence is HBU’s highest award given to benefactors and others who have been highly instrumental in HBU’s growth. It was a $500 per plate dinner, if that puts things in perspective, and Spencer Tillman MC’d while the keynote speaker was Lou Holtz. More recently, I was invited to attend a Christian Men’s breakfast where Lance Berkman spoke about living his faith out on the field. It was such an awesome experience. Now, I am chilling with my family eating round two of the Thanksgiving meal. Happy Thanksgiving!

[isaacbrocato]

[isaacbrocato]

Yes, there are other uses. Target shooting. There are tons of shooting competitions involving hand guns. Furthermore, even in using the gun in self defense, simply brandishing the weapon will typically cause the attacker to back down. One does not need to even shoot the attacker. Or, if the attacker continues to advance, one need not shoot to kill.

[isaacbrocato]

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!!!!! ELVES AND DWARVES HATE EACH OTHER!!!

[isaacbrocato]

[isaacbrocato]

Wow. I'm a guy, but this still applies to me...

via: iwastesomuchtime

edited to make it better veiwable on tumblr

[isaacbrocato]

Calling all social butterflies out there! HBU is the place for you! (Hey, I rhymed!) Why do I say this? Because I’m a social butterfly, and I never run out of events to attend here. Really, between my friends and the school, I constantly have opportunities to socialize and get my mind off school work.

Thursday night, the fraternity ΒΥΧ (Brothers Under Christ) had their annual Java Jam. Five dollars covered the cost of unlimited pancakes (chocolate chip, blueberry, and buttermilk) and drip coffee. Another couple of dollars granted the lucky buyer a specialty coffee made from professional baristas (A.K.A. college students who work at Starbucks). Finally, to top it off, there was FREE ENTERTAINMENT! The line up was student after student skilled in singing, writing, and instrument playing, with the highlight of the night being two of Saleim Kahleh’s (Director of Campus Rec) youngest children (elementary age) play and sing a Toby Mac song. It was beautiful.

Friday night, my roommate and fellow blogger Nathan Cobb and I decided to camp overnight in our hammocks. We drove about an hour away to flee the distractions of life, and spent the rest of the evening philosophizing and enjoying the small things.

Saturday night, the sorority ΣΦΛ (Sigma Phi Lambda, or Phi Lamb for short) had their semi-formal, and I was invited to attend with another fellow blogger, Alisan O’Quinn. As an Academy Award themed murder mystery, everyone received a personality and clues to figure out who the murderer was. The rest of the evening involved people talking to complete strangers as if they were great friends, and vice-versa. A perfect event for almost all personality types, it contained a mix of acting, detective work, goofiness, and all around fun.

Sunday night,…I rested.

[isaacbrocato]

lotr meets mean girls → part 4/?

[isaacbrocato]

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Harry Potter series - JK Rowling  To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee  Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman Great Expectations - Charles Dickens Little Women - Louisa M Alcott Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy Catch 22 - Joseph Heller Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien  Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger Middlemarch - George Eliot Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald Bleak House - Charles Dickens War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck  Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy David Copperfield - Charles Dickens Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis Emma - Jane Austen Persuasion - Jane Austen The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden Winnie the Pooh- A.A. Millne Animal Farm - George Orwell The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood Lord of the Flies - William Golding Atonement - Ian McEwan Life of Pi - Yann Martel Dune - Frank Herbert  Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens Brave New World - Aldous Huxley The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck  Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov The Secret History - Donna Tartt The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas On The Road - Jack Kerouac Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie  Moby Dick - Herman Melville Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens Dracula - Bram Stoker The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson Ulysses - James Joyce  The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome Germinal - Emile Zola Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray Possession - AS Byatt A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell The Color Purple - Alice Walker The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry Charlotte’s Web - EB White The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery  The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks Watership Down - Richard Adams  A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole  A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas Hamlet - William Shakespeare Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

[isaacbrocato]

There are two options between which you must decide before you go to college: live on campus, or commute. Of course, if you live right next door to HBU, then I suppose commuting is a reasonable and probably wise decision…it’ll cut down on a few costs. However, if you can otherwise help it at all,...

[isaacbrocato]

With another home football game coming, HBU students gathered in Holocombe Mall for our second ever Husky Howl, and the next night we went to BBVA Compass Stadium for our second home game, this time against Abilene Christian University. Probably one of the best parts of these first few games and...

[isaacbrocato]

The Students Make the Tradition

With another home football game coming, HBU students gathered in Holocombe Mall for our second ever Husky Howl, and the next night we went to BBVA Compass Stadium for our second home game, this time against Abilene Christian University. Probably one of the best parts of these first few games and Husky Howls is that we as students are helping to establish tradition. Sure, the Rec Team leads the cheers, and the Student Programming Board puts on the Husky Howl, and I suppose it's the football team who plays in the games, but without the rest of us loyal fans, none of this could happen!

In order to have cheers, you have to have people willing to cheer. The Cheerleaders and Elite Dance team do a great job, but if they were the only ones cheering, things would be sad. In order to have a Husky Howl (basically a pep rally the night before), you need to have people willing to howl. That's what is so great about all this! We as students get to have such a big part in making this official.

One example is found in one of the cheers. It was originally intended to be done only at the first kickoff, but now we have sorta altered its use and we do it for all the kickoffs (and this was only our fourth game!). Also, we had a fight song, for for some reason we never used it at other sports games. Now, though I don't know ever word, I'm humming the tune around campus. Much thanks to my attendance at Husky Howl for ingraining it in my head over and over.

Though we lost pretty badly to ACU this past game, babies are guaranteed to trip when they are learning how to walk and run. Likewise, The HBU Huskies Football team has gone up and down, but we aren't complaining! We're 2 for 2! DAWGS UP!! WOOF!

[isaacbrocato]

I think that this really hinges on a belief of purgatory. Personally, I don't find that concept in the Bible, so when I think of prayer for the dead, though it might be well meant, it seems pointless. Once we die, we don't get a second chance. We had our opportunity to accept or reject Christ, and heaven or hell is the waiting place for final judgement/new heavens and new earth. What is that final judgement then? It determines the level of punishment the sinner receives according to his works. Nonetheless, these are some interesting thoughts.

I find it strange that people object to prayer for the dead. I used to, simply because my church forbid it. But now, being in the Anglican tradition has allowed me the chance to openly explore intercession for the dead apart from any command to or not to. And I think it opened my mind to the...

[isaacbrocato]

What you see here is typical meal in the life of my roommates. The four of us take turns making dinners every night, each week picking a different theme. This stuffed pumpkin is from pumpkin/squash week. I filled it with ground beef, cheese, broccoli, stuffing, onions, cream of mushroom, and a bit of mayo. Cooked the pumpkin in the oven for about an hour and a half, and we've been eating from it for a few days now. One week was Asian food week, and I made some Indian curry chicken. Near the beginning, fellow blogger Nathan Cobb mad some crepes and some stuffed zucchini. It is so nice being able to live in a suite with a kitchen. This way, we can eat whatever we want and not be constrained to the choices at the Baugh (the dining center here). I know for sure that being able to cook meals with my roommates has definitely brought us closer and made our experience much more memorable.

[isaacbrocato]

A Brief Bio

Greetings! My name is Isaac Brocato, and I am part of HBU Collective, a group of students who blog, vlog, and take pictures for Houston Baptist University. I am currently a Sophomore, and I major in Biblical Languages with a minor in Latin. Yes, you read this correctly. I plan to graduate knowing three more languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin) than I did coming in to HBU.

I am extremely active in HBU's Honors College, helping plan events, attending events, eating food at events, and representing my class and house (we have four houses in the Honors College, similar to the four houses in Harry Potter).

When I am not studying, eating, or sleeping, you can probably find me with my roommates in search of a new coffee shop in Houston, or randomly walking across campus in search of an adventure.

I prefer to go to bed early and wake up early (the best sleep I ever had was from 8 pm to 4 am), but college life just doesn't roll that way, so I instead settle for 11 to 8.

I enjoy going against the grain, so I typically wear business casual to my classes (I rock those bow ties). However, during finals week I join the crowd and wear sweatpants and a tee shirt.

I love my Savior Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) and seek to glorify Him in all that I do.

I am quite optimistic about life, yet I take it with a grain of salt and a dose of reality to keep me straight.

Now that you know all about me, I hope you enjoy reading about my life and the life of HBU!

[isaacbrocato]

The Flesh and the Spirit: A Midrash on Spirituality and Why God Made Man and Loved Him Most of All

I have decided to write in a style similar to a midrash.  A midrash is a Jewish form of speculating about why God is who He His and why He has done what He has done.  Specifically, I am speculating on what makes us special as humans.

Why are we different from the angels or the animals?  Angels are purely spirit while animals are simply flesh.  Moreover, the spirit realm is eternal (as much as God allows it to be) and the fleshly realm is finite and mortal.  For what reason then did God make humans, consisting of both spirit and flesh.

When God created the spiritual dimension, to some extent or another, the heavenly creatures saw God and knew Him.  Though they by no means knew everything about Him, there was no doubting that He was God and that He was there. Sure, the choice was still open as to whether they would serve Him or not, and Lucifer even led his legion of rebellious angels out of God’s presence (it might be more accurate to say that God kicked them out…).  Nonetheless, these spiritual beings knew thousands of the heavenly secrets and wonders, clearly without excuse that there is one Lord.

Then, when God made animals, he created them as dumb compared to these angels.  True, animals are full of amazing instincts, and they tend to be brilliant, but there is no choice between them and God.  They just do what they were programmed to do.  Animals eat, sleep, mate, etc.  Because they are without soul, they live their short lives here and then just die.  While the angels have all the choice in the world to serve God or not, these fleshly beings have none.  The creator crafted them because of their helpless devotion to Him.  Their very lives carry out His will.

When our Creator looked around Himself and saw the angels, He was pleased at His creation.  Further, when He peered down at the animals, He again was pleased and called it all good.  However, for the angels it was too easy to believe, and for the animals they had no choice but to ‘believe’ (or worship).

So, God decided that among all the different qualities of angel and animal, He would create a new creature that He would love most of all His creation, and this creature would love Him more than any other creature loved Him because of its constant struggle to believe in Him and serve Him in separation from Him.  Thus, God made man.  He scooped up the dust and breathed life into it.  Combining the two ‘elements’ (flesh and soul), He made the perfect type of being to live a life of yearning after God on this earth.  This being now faced a constant struggle between his spirit seeking to be up in the heavenlies with the Most High, and his flesh desiring to be on the earth among the animals and their natural instincts.  When man lived his life, the only way to keep his fleshly instincts in check was to reach up to God and call on His name.  Living a life of worship and obedience to the creator, man would feel a true sense of purpose and fulfillment.  However, man could not push away his flesh completely, because without his instincts and needs like eating, sleeping, and sex, he would die and loose part in pleasure that God gave him.  Thus, man had to keep his spiritual nature in check that his fleshly side would survive.  Together, both sides fought and worked together, at times each leading man towards God in their respective ways, but also at times each pulling man away from God in their respective ways.  Until the end came to be in which man would receive a completely new type of body, this creation was so loved by its Creator that He would eventually sacrifice Himself that man might live on.  Of course, there was an even greater magic of which the witch knew nothing.

[isaacbrocato]

The 34-3 HBU Success!

So, how about them Huskies?! Never mind that we lost terribly to SHSU. The Bearkats are good and have been around for a while, or something like that. Obviously they were going to win. However, once that was out of the way, the HBU football team traveled several hours up to north Texas to face Wayland Baptist University. It was no big deal, WE ONLY WON WITH A SCORE OF 52-28!!! Talk about an ecstatic campus for the next week. Then, Friday night at 9:00 on September 27, we had our first ever Husky Howl. I suppose you could call it a pep rally, and I tell you what, it sure rallied some pep. The awesome HBU Rec Team led us (students, faculty, alumni, and family) in some awesome new cheers, designed specifically for our football games. An alumnus—probably HBU’s biggest fan—continued to pump shots of team spirit and school pride into our veins. And last but definitely not least, our pep band made their debut performance. Comprised of around 15 members, the band is a bunch of HBU students who can play instruments and love their school, and, they play under the lead of a wonderful director. So, maybe it’s not quite that military marching band, but that didn’t phase us one bit. As we left Husky Howl, we were pumped for our first ever home game the next evening against Oklahoma Baptist. Fast forward 20 hours and we were changing into as much orange and blue as we could find. Then, kick off! But wait, where’s all the action we heard about from the game against Wayland? Oh no! Oklahoma scored a field goal! It’s 0-3! As a matter of fact, the scoreboard read 0-3 for the whole first half of the game. Suddenly, something happened in the locker room, because we picked up our game and finished strong with a 34-3 victory! Three of the touchdowns were scored by our defense and there were several more interceptions. I, for one, hooted, hollered, and woofed (we’re Huskies, we woof), as we scored play after play after play. At the end of the night, I was elated, and I know everyone else was too, not to mention our President, Dr. Robert Sloan. Here’s to many more Husky victories! DAWGS UP!!! WOOF!