ask lj: advice about classes

so: the Peralta Colleges courses i wanted are full, and while i could go to the first meeting and hope & beg to get let in if there's space...for a basic biology lab course, i'd bet that it's going to be full and stay that way. also, they start this week, and while i'm feeling mostly awake and human again, i'm cautious and stressed and way behind at work auuugh.

my current plan is to sign up for one of the UC Berkeley Extension courses. not a lab, sadly, because those are twice as expensive and also mostly full, but there are a few others that look interesting. they also start later (2.5-3 weeks from now) and are mostly higher-level, and cover material that would be good for me to know anyhow. i'll do the lab course at one of the close-by Peralta colleges in the spring.

i'm going to pick one & enroll tonight, but since i'm indecisive i figured i'd see if y'all had any insight, suggestions, or entirely off-topic rambling to offer.
[edit: not enrolling until tomorrow, since i'm waiting to hear what the training schedule is for doing hospice volunteer work this fall.]

options are:
. Developmental Biology, downtown Berkeley, Tuesdays 6:30-9:30pm

. General Anatomy, SF, Tuesdays 6:30-9:30pm

. Genetics, online or SF, Thursdays 6:30-9:45pm

. Cell Biology, SF, Saturdays 1:30-4:45pm

two cents?

links & lyrics

a pair of links, from the Haus list & tamnonlinear, respectively:

geeky music visual fun
and
ridiculous equine cuteness (aka OMG PONIES!!)

and lyrics to the song i was just listening to.
"Galuppi Baldasare" (Kris Delmhorst)

..."And the minor third so bitter, the six chord like a sigh,
suspension, solution, asking must we die, must we die must we die?
And the seventh says Well fellas, life might not last, but we can try...

So were you happy? I was happy. You still happy? Yes, and you?
Then more kisses! Why’d we stop them, when a million seemed so few?
There’s something in that music, lord it must be answered to."...

[booklog 2006]

50. Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi. very, very good. makes me want to go catch up on my classic-literature reading, and learn a whole lot more history.

51. & 52. Numbers in the Dark and If on a winter's night a traveler, Italo Calvino. both excellent. his stories are well-crafted and intricate and fun to read; traveler is a less-easy read, but definitely worthwhile.

53. A Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger. it hooked me fast and didn't let go 'til the very end. sweet and lovely, mostly without being saccharine about it.

54. Mixed Reviews, Aaron Cometbus. a tiny grey book with a blurry photo of birds on the cover, mostly about travelling and the pauses when he comes to rest in any given city. i think i enjoyed these pieces more than most of the other writing of his that i've read. (Double Duce and chicago stories, though at the moment i don't remember much of the latter.)

55. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde. read it a few weeks ago, and already it has disappeared from my brain, except for the bit where i've been having a number of book- and time-travel-related dreams lately.

picked up Isabelle Allende's memoir, a compilation of Mark Twain's travel-writing, and Transmetropolitan: Lonely City, which includes the issue called "Monstering." the world would be a better place with someone like Spider Jerusalem in it, especially if that would make some kind of real difference. (and for that matter, R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson. bah.) but instead of reading any of these, i've snagged McSweeney's #20 (which is just gorgeous, a bookbinding that makes me grin), Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, and Sir Apropos of Nothing from l_stboy, and am reading that last one for pure fluff & escapism. (and also because i think i saw Peter David speak once alongside Neil Gaiman & Harlan Ellison, and he was sweet and funny and seemed entirely unbothered by the fact that most of the people there had come to see one or both of the other authors, but hadn't heard of him.)