The Final Edition: 12.13.07

2.26 Sniffles. I feel quite empty inside, knowing there will be no more Troxel lectures coming in the future. Further, being a senior, never again, ever. Frowns.
2.27 This is not a time to get all wsihy-washy, we need to go out in style. Boldness is the name of the game. Today every one of Troxel's moves will be documented for the historical blogosphere record.
2.28 The sweater motiff continues with a cookies and cream sweater that may or may not be from a few weeks ago. I distinct feeling is that I should be in a ski lodge overtakes me.
2.29 Troxel looks out at the crowd holding his manuscript he must be so proud!
2.30 We're off with a nice little black circle transition. I bet Troxel is a terrific skiier.
2.31 Another transition used subtly but strong. BAM! Colors abound. Only a few places are black ink as Troxel points out, an array of blues, violets, reds, and greens captivate the audience.
2.32 Classic Troxel diction being used the words are pronounced with verve and power, my ears are dancing with pure glee! Also, hold onto your hats but if possible we will try to get some interviews in today with key players. OK, probably not but we can dream.
2.33 They should have a concession stand outside because Troxel is better than any movie. He should write a Biblical Scholarship Screenplay about a Hebrew Professor searching for the lost vowels of the ancient language.
2.36 Briefly distracted by reading about the Mitchell Report which by the way anyone mentioned in there should never go to the Hall of Fame, but back to Troxel who would never use performance enhancing drugs.
2.37 Reflecting on the semester: ahhh, exploding mountains, Tupac, Jerubaal, good times.
2.39 Wow, packed house! Unbelievable, this is ridiculous!
2.40 Just before lecture a source tells us about the following interaction. The unnamed student was walking and saw Professor T-man who asked "One more time, (insert protected name here)?" The student replied "Yes" then Troxel walked 50 feet down the hallway turned and yelled back, "In case Marc is wondering I went with white backgrounds with black and blue today." And he delivered, its a classic Troxel background.
2.43 Troxel pauses mid-sentence in the silence I swear my heart stopped beating.
2.45 Oh so many themes in Ezra-Nehemiah, but all I can think about is Troxel with a 3 three foot long hat on skiing. You know those hats, see photo.
2.51 Took a long time to get that picture, but it was worth it. Haven't missed much Troxel has been using the word Chronicler a lot.
2.53 Oh Vandenlangendndneberggger, the theme continues (see picture).
2.54 Troxel has been looking at the screen an awful lot, it kind of makes me feel alone and left out. We need eye contact professor! It sustains us.
2.55 We have quite a collection of texts on the screen right now, I'm just waiting for them the turn into Hebrew or get highlighted or something.
2.57 34% of Chronicles is about David. 34% Take that Solomon and your crappy 16%.
2.59 Snap! We've got graphs. Graphs in an L & S class, I can't handle this, my quantitative abilities were exhausted by Astro 103. If you were wondering the graphs charted references to David.
3.01 Some things are just too amazing not to share.
3.03 Troxel has lost his place. We count it out, 7.5 seconds. Still some pauses coming even after he began speaking again. We are back on track now, talked about deathbed exchanges. If I ever have a deathbed exchange it will NOT be about the law of Moses, because the Law of Moses has been replaced by the Holy Spirit. True story, look it up. (Galatians 4:4-7)
3.07 Trox asks "Is this clear?" Perhaps for the last time.
3.08 Someone looks pretty sleepy, whoa, another graph. Its titled "Hits per 1000 words."
3.09 Someone else is doing Christmas shopping right now and has his credit card out.
3.10 Troxel is talking about the books "obsession with David," similarly does this blog qualify as an obsession with Troxel? If so should I be worried? Should Troxel be worried?
3.11 The wizardry factor is quite high right now, animated passages a rolling out onto the screen, and the graph did sort of a black hole thing and disappeared.
3.13 Troxel stops mid-word and says "So close to a sneeze, but no quite" Oh, trox, you don't need to pretend. Its ok to cry because its the last lecture. Don't hide your emotions.
3.15 Dave Vandeeeeeeeeeeberg is reading something that starts off with the phrase "Filipinos are a warm, gentle, caring, giving people."
3.16 Chronicles keeps marching on, now onto retributive justice. Also, our battery here is running out, sad day, but we have a backup.
3.18 I will simply call this photo I just posted: Vandenlangenberg's Revenge. Un-freakin believable, an error on blogspot won't let me post the image, I will go by other means.
3.21 WOOOOOOO! Troxel just referenced high places!! As you all know this is a direct reference to his classic 10.14.07 lecture where high places were examined in depth! Wow, the wizard brings it all back around. The skills can't be denied.
3.30 Wow the longest break in blogging history. Sorry, 9 minutes. I had to make that picture work and change computers and such. But fun fact, check out the picture I put up and look who's in the background JON WYLIE!
3.31 Back to the trox: He has his arms crossed and is swaying a little bit from side to side, clearly he's upset about the lack of Persian and Greek terms in Chronicles. We don't always get what we want.
3.33 The whole lecture is coming together now, but I can't understand it because the emotional weight on my soul from knowing be are 12 minutes from the end.
3.35 YES! "Is this clear?" He knows what we want and every good performer gives the audience what they want. By the way Trox, we also all want A's.
3.36 There was a flipping, fly-in effect that brought up what else but-- THE FIRST SLIDE OF THE CLASS! We are wrapping up and my emotions are going to get the best of me.
3.37 I'm remembering learning the word Tetragrammaton, I'm remembering there for some reason being a picture of Bill Clinton on the screen, and I'm remembering when Troxel used the red emergency phone to prevent seizure. What a class. What a man. What a long, strange trip its been.
3.39 Thanks for coming along with us, thanks for joining us on the journey, its been something. You've laughed, you've cried, you've slept, you've abused the other people in your study groups, but most of all, you've grown.

12.6.07 Lecture

2.27 Well this is certainly exciting as today will be the Song of Songs edition. Several people, who are not even in our class, have expressed interest in coming to this event, let's see if they show up.
2.29 Troxel has been in the room for 4 or 5 minutes already, he's looking very composed. Standing very tall, great posture. Almost to the point where I wonder if he's been doing exercises to strengthen his back.
3.30 Dave Vandenlangeneneneneneneneberg does an Arsenio Hall "woo woo woo" when Troxel introduces Song of Songs as the topic.
3.31 Wow, we are flying. We've had an announcement about the final, a transition out of wisdom literature, and a intro into the book of Ruth all in the first 60 seconds of lecture.
3.33 So before we get into what most people are referring to as "the main event" we'll dive into Ruth. Troxel tells us its a novella.
3.34 My co-blogger just raised his eyebrows at me. Looking at our course material for today, I'm more than a little worried. In the meantime, lets look to Troxel's attire. Once again, for at least the 3rd lecture in a row, we see Trox sporting a sweater with a collared shirt underneath. It goes without saying that the top button is undone, as Trox is always cool and always chill. The sweater is made up of a series of colored rectangles of brown, red, and gray (or grey as some would say).
3.36 "Woo woo woo" Yeah right. Vanden-etc-berg is already out.
3.37 We are seeing the use of check marks as bullets and some vertical blinds animations to reveal most passages.
2.38 The fickle relationships between mother-in-law and spouse are being discussed which makes me think of Everybody Loves Raymond, which makes me really angry. That show makes me very angry. Explaining why would take a lot of words.
2.39 Now Troxel is referencing gleaning, which is an admirable process, but nonetheless makes me think of a painting from Art History 202, which was the single worst class I've ever taken. Troxel keeps unintentionally bring back bad memories, I trust he'll make a comeback.
2.41 Good crowd today I note as Troxel uses the phrase "Ruth is to gussy herself up . . . " I love the word gussy.
2.42 "Clearly something more is going on here than just having your tootsies bare" I think that's better if I don't explain the context.
2.43 Why don't weddings consist of some sort of covering with a cloak anymore. "I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may place the trenchcoat on her." Heartwarming.
2.45 Wylie still sitting in the back. Hypothesis: Maybe he's just trying to make sure TA Steve isn't lonely because TA Steve has crutches and has to sit in the back.
2.47 For those he formed search parties and were combing the snow, BJ Hilbelink was never trapped in an avalanche or missing in the snow. Turns out he was actually just sitting one row further back than usual.
2.48 Wow, back with a bang. Van . . . berg somehow throws his Nalgene not just across the aisle but down a row, waking up a guy, who hands it back then immediately goes back to sleep.
2.51 Hands moving in unison Troxel emphasizes his point, really quite bold and impressive.
2.52 We're now turning to Boaz, which would be a great name for a hermit crab or a koala.
2.54 Troxel's talking about the "provocative" language that is being used in Ruth.
2.55 Most people's feet aren't just that hairy. For those of you who self-identify as nerds, yes, except hobbits . . . nerds.
2.57 Still talking about Boaz and Naomi. So now I'm imagining this as a cartoon, which is a little strange as Boaz the talking koala, is now scheming and personally, koalas seem to be good natured to me.
3.00 Watch out Troxel just said "piertry". The two "r" sounds were very subtle, but were certainly there.
3.02 Koalas "rest motionless for about 19 hours a day, sleeping most of that time. Koalas that are disturbed are known to be violent, their teeth and claws capable of causing considerable injury to humans" according to Wikipedia, as it turns out, their lazy jerks.
3.03 A source tells me that koalas are poisonous also. Double jerks. Poisonous fur.
3.04 This could be it, this could be the sass, Nate Sweet has just asked a question, he was promising sass long ago, what? He asks if the story could also be seen to show virtue for women, which while it does challenge Troxel's entire argument, is certainly not sassy. Better luck next week Sweet.
3.05 Wow. So we've moved into Song of Songs and Trox is rocking a pink color for the headings along with little pink hearts as bullets. He points them out saying "Please take note of the hearts." He asks and we respond. Yes, I take note.
3.07 After learning discussions of fruit had a sexual meaning for Ancient Near Eastern peoples, I give thanks that I've never been to a grocery store's produce section with an Ancient Near Eastern adolescent.
3.08 Five bucks says Trox cracks up with a case of the giggles at some point in this lecture.
3.09 Wow, hand motions make the text come alive. Hand out and in motion and contrasting and explaining. The catchword principle is now forever ingrained in my mind.
3.11 Aside from one guy it seems the entire class is alert, even the surrounding laptops appear on task.
3.12 Vandenlangenberg is leaning forward with an attentiveness that is rarely seen.
3.13 I secretly wish that I had grown up in an agrarian society.
3.14 Michael Fox referenced again. I still don't care what you want, he's not from Back to the Future and never will be, however if this Michael Fox could go back he'd probably go back to the 6th century BCE and then get upset because they distracted him.
3.16 Troxel explains the phrase "your eyes are doves" as better understood in our terms as "your eyes are soft," does that actually make any more sense, why are you touching people's eyes?
3.17 "And if that's what she's up to, she scores!" says Trox. Not sure why, just before he told us that there was outdoor lovemaking going on, this also seemed to have no reason except Troxel just wanted us to know.
3.18 chapter 2 verse 3 . . . . lets focus on verb tenses, yeah, ok this is getting a little awkward.
3.20 "yeah, you didn't know this was in the Bible, huh?"
3.23 Michael Fox's interpretation is being appealed to repeatedly. He argues the story is about a secret tryst. Tip for the future: If you want to keep something secret don't write something about it that ends up in the most read book in all of history.
3.25 Someone near me is drawing a picture of one of those claw machines, with all those stuffed animals in it, which reminds me of how I could go for some Perkins.
3.26 This guy cross the aisle has seriously been sleeping for at least 50 minutes in the exact same position, the only time he moved was to hand Dave's water bottle back, then out again.
3.28 Troxel shows a literal portrayal of the lover from one of these poems. To which Mike responds "Hot!"
3.30 Troxel is now covering legitimate material, but is leaving this image of the woman up on the screen. Also, my arm now reads "Chris Kopp 4 Eva" inside a heart. No I did not write that, but I do agree with it.
3.32 Troxel is going to stop early, because we have to do stupid evaluations.
3.33 Wow, Troxel is explaining how we will do the evaluations and says the "quite agile" Jonathan and "hop-along" will hand them out. TA Steve looks devastated.

Lecture 12.4.07

2.26 He's up front. We're up and running. New desktop background: the plaque outside of Bascom Hall; the "sifting and winnowing" one. An unconfirmed source who will probably be asleep soon states that this is from Amos.
2.29 "...Last week we got our feet wet with wisdom literature..."
2.31 I began to take notes in this blog window, then caught myself; realizing that I was actually participating in class instead of making random observations about Trox's appearance. This obvious shows my true character: committed to academics and the pursuit of knowledge. I did, however, delete these notes as soon as I realized what I was doing, so as not to interfere with Trox's copyright disclaimer.
2.32 Today Troxel looks very festive and is dressed for the season: a pea green sweater over a red dress shirt sets the holiday mood while his dark khakis inform us that he is in a formal, yet relaxed mood.
2.34 Today we're talking about Job. I really like Job. And Gob. Arrested Development is great.
2.35 I kind of feel like I killed Evel Knievel. I blog about him once and all of a sudden -bam- he's dead. It's a good thing that he patched things up with Kayne before he died. Rest in peace, Evel, rest in peace.
2.36 Trox is using some nice new 'pointing finger' bullet points.
2.39 Still sticking with the pointing finger bullets. These things are freaking sweet. It's like a hand. On the screen. Pointing out what I need to know.
2.41 Trox references Bildad the Shuhite then quips "... actually a quite short guy, considering his name...the Shuhite." Whoa! Shuhite... it sounds like Shoe-height! Well played, good sir. You've made mince meat of him.
2.44 Today we are sporting a light yellow background. An ever so slight marbled background is prevalent. We are also seeing a display of two highlight text colors: both blue and red.
2.45 The main text color now has shifted to a dark maroon. Cancel that. Rather, the main points are in maroon; while all supporting scripture continues to be in black. It's really a nice understated way to make those points stick out.
2.47 "...is a curse only when someone says DAMN GOD?" (caps used to attempt to show articulation and passion displayed by the Trox in saying this.
2.51 Troxel is really feeling it today, though it's hard to tell it if you aren't looking at him. In all honesty, his voice isn't portraying the emotion that I'm used to it carrying. But if you look at him, his body language is telling him a completely different story. Karate motions towards the podium. Circular hand rotations. Intense head nodding. I wish I could push mute and just watch the man go. In retrospect, that is a weird thing to say.
2.55 Troxel is pronouncing Satan as "suh-thon" It makes me feel uncultured. It also makes him sound like the smartest person in the world. (Probally because he is)
2.56 Not so fast, assumptions! It appears that Trox is talking about The Satan, which is clearly shown to not equal to "satan" by a "unequal to" symbol in blue.
2.57 The red highlighted text has shifted to also being italicized.
2.58 Man, this body language is hot.
2.59 An unconfirmed source tells me that Wylie has denied accusations of him only sitting in the back of the room to avoid the watchful eyes of the blog. All I will say is this: prove it.
3.01 It looks as if we are summing up the book of Job, with the help of some nifty check mark bullet points. As we turn to "the debate that rages...", our contrast text color shifts to green. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
3.03 But where does my concept of red and green as Christmas colors come from, you may ask. This guy thinks he knows. He doesn't. He's an idiot. This place has some fancy pants symbolism. Also wrong. And this place's discussion even goes into some historical facts. Unfortunately, they're al made up. The real reason is that Jesus, Santa, and Sam Walton got together and picked the colors.
3.07 For some reason, while I was ranting, the slide show has deemed it appropriate to cross out "The Lord (YHWH)" with a large red X. Also "The land of Uz" is displayed in blue text. I wonder if it's kind of like Oz.
3.08 "Any questions..." No one dares. Trox then proceeds to talk about the necessity of questions if we don't understand something. No one dares.
3.10 Dropping into ecclesiastes. For some reason the room has begun to smell like urine. Seriously.
3.14 Some girl from the third row has the audacity to walk out. I shoot her a gaping mouthed "what are you doing" look, but she refuses to make eye contact with me.
3.16 Nothing to exciting going on on the computer screens around me. Mostly notes, a couple web browsers (news sites for the most part, I can see nyt, cnn) Boring. Somebody play a game.
3.17 We are now going into "Plato's View of the Soul" Troxel has constructed a truly diagram to demonstrate the notion. Two circle's: one which represents the human soul and one which represents the animal. Within the circles are the types of spirit that the beings posses. arrows then appear to demonstrate what portions of the soul would ascend after death, and what would... I don't know, I was kind of zoning out. It's very well executed, however.
3.20 The energy in the room is curiously low today. I'm seeing quite a few nodding heads. Troxel's energy has also noticeably dropped. HIs pate has slightly slowed, and there is a visible lack of body motions.
3.22 Where is BJ Hibellink? How could I not have noticed this? HE usually sits right next to me. He must be trapped in the snow! He probably either slipped and broke his hip or is trapped under an avalanche. How can we learn about Biblical Scholarship at a time like this!? A man is missing!
3.23 I get over it. He'll make it.
3.24 Troxel quips that Ecc 1.18 "... is not a passage that you want to tell your parents as you show them your tuition bill." Slight laughter from throughout the room. The heaviest, of course, if from Marc. Trox jokes, but he knows, too. His oldest is heading off to school next year. He must be feeling nostalgic, while at the same time proud. I am.
3.26 Hand motions are coming back into the equation. It appears that we could be about to witness a classic Troxel 'three twenty-something' turn around. Just when you think the energy is gone; there it is again.
3.27 Trox refuses to call Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes. HE instead is calling it Qohelet. Either that or these are serious typos.
3.28 Total missed opportunity to play The Byrds' "Turn, Turn, Turn." It will have to join Wylie's aspirations of Journey's "Wheel in the Sky."
3.30 Other computer people are still being boring.
3.32 I think the only person sitting in the front row is asleep. Yup. He definitely is. How do you do that? If you're going to sleep, why do you decide to be the only person in the front row. It just doesn't make sense. Perhaps he isn't sleeping, but rather fainted after experiencing the full might and glory of The Trox after witnessing it from a short distance.
3.34 Man, Stephen Still's "Love the One You're With" would be a nice complement to Ecc 9.7-10. I'm sure Troxel recognizes these musical counterparts to his lecture, but chooses not to use them, as he would rather wait for a text that matches up with another Tupac or a BIGgy track.
3.36 For the third time in two lectures, Trox references "my colleague Michael Fox." Disappointingly, this continues to not be Michael J Fox. He does, however, continue to not like being disturbed.
3.37 Another Michael Fox name drop. Trox also uses the word "credence" for the first time I may have heard it used outside of the context of a Clearwater Revival.
3.39 Dave is out. (didn't have time to grab a picture)
3.40 Trox ends lecture early and promises a Song of Songs analysis next time. You don't want to miss that.