Rough draft Blog

Loyd McIntosh: Freelance Writer & Camera Jockey from Birmingham, Alabama.

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This Royal typewriter belonged to my wife's grandmother for many years. Beautiful even with the dust and cobwebs. #retro #vintage #vintagestuff

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How Many Spaces Should There Be at the End of a Sentence?

The question of whether you should put one or two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence elicits strong reactions on both sides.

This is easy - 1. Always 1.

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Even after seeing the replay a thousand times, this goal is still unbelievable. 

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My Good Grit Debut

After months of waiting my first article in Good Grit is now up on the magazine's website. Titled One Mountain at a Time - On Two Wheels, The piece on a new high school mountain biking league that was just launched earlier this spring and was a huge success right out of the gate. Check out the opening paragraph below:  

“High school football is still just two pegs below a full-fledged religion, but the days in which the sport, and it’s second cousins baseball and basketball, sucked up all the oxygen from the state’s athletic youth are quickly coming to an end – if they haven’t come to an end already. For proof, look no further than the Alabama High School Cycling League.”

Read the rest of the story here.

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I had a chance to interview former UAB quarterback and rising country music sensation Sam Hunt for a recent piece in Birmingham, Magazine. We only had a chance to talk by phone for about 20 minutes, but he seemed like a heck of a nice guy. As may be common knowledge, Hunt played a little quarterback for the UAB Blazers before he became country music's newest "it guy". What's interesting, however, is the fact that he began to develop his songwriting skills while on the UAB squad, trying out some of his material for his teammates before getting his big break in Nashville.

The timing of his success couldn't be more bittersweet. During the time his star was on the rise, selling millions of records and selling out arenas all across the fruited plane, his alma mater, UAB, was busy shutting his beloved football program down. Instead of turning his success into a public relations coup, UAB's top brass have created the PR disaster that just won't. So, on the eve of UAB President Ray Watt's decision on whether or not to reinstate the Blazer football program, I thought it was appropriate to post this piece on perhaps the team's most famous alumnus, even if he has traded his helmet and football for a cowboy hat and a guitar.

Read the full story here.

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Another old school, vintage sign in downtown Birmingham. I don't know anything about the business that used to be located here, but the sign from this vantage point is pretty cool.

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I don't know what this building on 1st Ave., South was or is, but I thought it was worth a photo after walking by it one day.

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Barber shop downtown Knoxville. Tennessee. #snapseed #barberpole #coolstuff #vintage #oldschool

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More street level scenes from downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

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Street level graffiti, Morris Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama.

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The Peanut Depot, Morris Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama.

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I pass this building, the old Woodlawn Ice House, almost every day getting on I-20 on the way home from work. I finally got around to shooting some photos one day last week. Here's one that I shot from the front seat of my car. Is that against the law? #vintage #coolstuff #oldbuildings #birminghamalabama

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Street level graffiti, downtown Birmingham, Alabama.

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Fife Restaurant neon sign, downtown Birmingham, Alabama. #vintage #birminghamalabama #downtownbirmingham

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Kim Jong-un's new do gets a ringing endorsement. 

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Getting back to my old photos from a 1994 road trip up U.S. Highway 11 in Alabama, I thought I'd share this pic. I was driving, if I recall, between the towns of Springville and Steele when this caught my eye, a small trailer turned converted into a roadside Mexican restaurant. 

As I recall, it was a little after 10 in the morning, so the place wasn't open, but I had to get some photos of the place. I pulled over and started taking some photos when the owner of the business hollered at me from his home across the street. He wandered over and, after explaining that I was just riding around shooting cool stuff, he hung out with me for a while and proceeded to open his restaurant a little early for me. I can't remember his name, but I remember he was from a small community in southern Mexico. He came to St. Clair County, Alabama, to work in the tomato fields in the area, but managed to save a little money, marry a local woman, and together they opened this place. 

He let me hang around for a bit while he started preparing for the day, and made me a couple of delicious chicken tacos and two of the best tamales I've ever eaten. I stopped back for a couple more tamales on my way home later that day. 

[loydmcintosh]

Motocycle racer David Salom was involved in an amazing crash during the FIM World Superbike Championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday morning and, somehow, came away relatively unscathed. I was watching this race live and, frankly, I feared the worst. I've been thinking about this guy all day since his accident, Amazingly, Salom's only suffered a broken finger and a mild concussion. I'd classify that as a miracle. Unbelievable.