May 29 2012

2012 St. Jude Children’s Hospital Marathon Race

Recently, I received an email from St. Jude Children’s Hospital regarding the 2012 Marathon. I have actively supported St. Jude for a number of years now, because it is one of the few larger charities in which I strongly believe. I can’t imagine the pain associated with having a child with a terminal illness, especially ones that can cause so much suffering like cancer can. Regardless of funding, St. Jude never turns away a child or his/her family, and that is a worthy cause.

2012 St. Jude Children's Hospital marathon race

Given that I have taken to running over the course of the last year or so, it only makes sense that I should run in the race. Given that I’m exhausted when I finish my 15km (~9.33 miles) daily run, I don’t think that there’s anyway that I could run a marathon–26.2 miles, or about 42km. I know the limits of my body in its current condition, and I think that tripling my distance is essentially out of the question at this time. Seeing as the half-marathon’s registration had already closed, I signed up for the 5k run as a St. Jude Hero. As such, I will be raising funds based on the length of my run, and would greatly appreciate any contributions that you are willing to make. I will have a small website dedicated to my fundraising efforts for the race, which I will link in a new post.

The 5k is set for Saturday, 01 December 2012 starting at 07:15 GMT-6 (CDT). That’s all the information that I have at this time, but I will post more once I know.

Cheers,
Zach

May 28 2012

Categorical change and reclassification

One of the interesting aspects about going through all of the former posts on my blog is that it allows me to continuously re-evaluate the applicability and sufficiency of the categories. For instance, I realised that having a category of “Scholarly / Serious” lead to a lot of ambiguity and cross-posting. For that reason, I decided to split the two categories, and reassign posts accordingly. I think that this change will allow for my fine-tuned searching and grouping, both of former posts, and for future ones as well.

As another quick update, I’m about 65% or so through the tagging process. I can’t believe how long it takes to go through previous entries, and tag them. One of the challenges of that task is coming up with tags that are universal enough to allow for multiple posts, yet specific enough to make sense in a hierarchical classification system. Coupled with that challenge is the vague distinction between tagging and categorising. Categories, in my opinion, are very broad and are applied to the post overall, whereas tags are more about smaller components therein and less about the broad meaning.

Anyway, I’m hoping to be finished with these blog updates sometime soon, as they are getting to be a bit tedious and mundane. There are a bunch of other (more interesting) things about which I’d like to write, but it makes sense (in terms of efficiency) to get these tasks out of the way beforehand.

Cheers,
Zach

May 27 2012

Brooks Brothers clearance centre in Garland, NC


Yesterday, I decided to make quite a drive to the Brooks Brothers clearance centre in Garland, NC, USA. There used to be another clearance location in Olathe, KS, but it closed years ago, leaving the one in North Carolina as the only one of its kind. Anyway, as many of you know, Brooks Brothers is my favourite brand of clothing, and so going there made me like a kid in a toy store! Basically, when particular items don’t sell for one reason or another (unusual sizing, unpopular styling, or just overstock), they are put in the “Sale” section of the Brooks Brothers website. They are generally marked down by 25% – 60% from the original tag price. However, if the items still don’t sell, they are ultimately sent to the clearance centre in Garland, NC (which is, naturally, right next to the Piggly Wiggly):

Brooks Brothers clearance in Garland NCPiggly Wiggly Garland NC

Fortunately for me, I’m a somewhat unusual size. Therefore, there were many items that fit me nicely. The prices at the clearance centre are unlike any other deals that one can get from Brooks Brothers. For instance, I got a sport coat for $29.00 USD instead of the tag price of $598.00 USD (nothing like approximately 95% off :)). Anyway, I left there with a huge amount of shirts, sweaters, some pants, and even the previously-mentioned sport coat for a mere fraction of what I would have paid for the lot in the store!

Brooks Brothers Garland NC purchases

Not too bad if I do say so myself… and I do. I’m hoping that I get another opportunity to go to the clearance centre in Garland at some point. I would also like to just spend a day or so in the area, because it is a beautifully quaint little country town, with fresh produce stands lining the roads, Mom & Pop shops, and crafts all around.

Brooks Brothers Garland NC tags

Cheers,
Zach

P.S. I would imagine that BB chose Garland, NC as the primary outlet centre because they also own the Garland Shirt Company, which manufacturers many of the Oxfords, dress shirts, and sports shirts that are nearly synonymous with the quality that is Brooks Brothers.