Continuing Choices

The Stanford Continuing Studies catalog arrived in the mail the other day. Always a sucker for course catalogs, I've been browsing happily through it, trying to decide what to take next quarter. Here are some of the ones that look fun so far:

• The History and Mystery of Design - About designing all sorts of stuff.
• The Question Is Art - "What is art?" sorts of topics, coordinated with an exhibit at the Cantor Arts Center
• Ancient Epic and the Hero - I'm probably more interested in taking the class than reading the books, though.
• Encounters With Others: Travel Narratives - I've been thinking and reading a lot about traveling lately (and soon I'll be doing it!).
• Voice and Speech - Maybe interesting to me because of my recent interest in audio books and/or singing.
• The Structure of English Words - Probably less useful than any of the others, but intriguing nonetheless.
• James Joyce's Ulysses - Would be more tempting if I hadn't already slogged my way through it last year.
• A Passion for Bach - I really miss taking music classes.
• Excellence Is No Accident - A "mental skills training program" of some sort.

Right now the Bach class is looking like the most likely one, though Travel Narratives is close, as is Voice and Speech. I wish I could take them all, but I can think about it for a few weeks before registration at least.

Unfortunately, scheduling enters into the equation, too. If I get a class on Monday nights, then I'll have to miss West Coast Swing for a quarter. Thursday nights are tricky because of Irish sessions and because I don't know if Richard's going to teach an evening dance class I'll want to take. Wednesdays and Tuesdays are better, because I can put my Project Read nights on either one, but that would mean that I couldn't go to other things like Irish dances or Swing Central on Tuesdays, or (more likely) take an evening off. So I'll have to think about how I want it to all work out.