you can also pick up Issue 112 January 2009 of 3D world, it has tips on what, how, and who you should ask questions to get the most out of a 3d degree.
http://graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=1698 This is a link to Blender 2.5+ bundled with the Norma rig. A pretty solid rig for practicing animation. Norman info:http://ivogrigull.com/blog/?page_id=127
Thanks Whargoul! It sounds like there's room for improvement in CB's multithreading. I shall keep brewing! @EricChadwick: Thanks very much for the crash report! That definitely needs fixing before 1.2 can be officially released :)
One more question: Which version of Python is being used now? Are they any major differences between 1,2, or 3? **edit**NVM. After some research, It seems as though Python 2 is the one to know.