"donniemanis.com"

Starting today, it will be much easier to get here.

Get where?

Here. This blog site.

Up until now, you probably found this site by searching for a topic or following a link I left on facebook or twitter. I hope that continues. But it recently occurred to me that it was pretty hard to find this place on your own. I mean, yeah, I thought I was pretty clever with the name "bubsbanter." but it's not easy to remember, and then when you have to add the blogspot part, it can be pretty daunting to find.

So now, if you can remember my name, you can remember the site. donniemanis.com. As simple as that.

Why did I decide to make it easier? Well, I think I first considered it when our teaching pastor Patrick Quinn was sharing last week. He was teaching about John the Baptist and made the point that every person on earth needed to find their voice. Each of us has a sweet spot where life is really humming along in tune.

So I realized I've been trying out the idea for about three years that part of my voice is using this blog to share my life with friends, family, and anyone else who will join in. Am I right about that? Who knows, other than God. But if I'm going to try to see, I'd like to make it easier for you to join in.

So come by often. Leave comments - let's have some dialogue.* And maybe together we can find our voice and become all God intended us to.

donniemanis.com

Y'all come back.



* - I'll respond to comments if it looks like you want me to. Answering a comment like "I enjoyed this" would just be feeding my obsession about closure. :)

Yes, it's true

So there it was, and I couldn't take it back:

Donnie Manis ‏@Donnie19

I left an Alabama game early once. #endoftheworldconfession

 I was just having a little fun with whole Mayan apocalypse thing. You know - the end of the world that didn't happen today. Thought that would be a funny little line to throw out in the pretense of last confessions. But jusging from a couple of tweets, I shocked a few people:

5tacyw ‏@5tacyw

@Donnie19 😱

Esther Workman ‏@estherscott

@Donnie19 me too.......so ashamed. #endoftheworldconfessions

MacyMatthews12 ‏@MacyMatthews12

@Donnie19 what?!

So...here's the story. I did the right thing, I promise!

Alabama was playing in the inaugural Music City Bowl in Nashville, and my good friend Lee was living there. His girlfriend had a friend who was, well, a prospect for me in her mind. And so the set-up was on. I would pick up the young lady in Athens, AL, meet the other couple in Nashville and we would hang out all centered around the football game.

She was nice. She was very attractive. And I thought we got along pretty well. Not a bad date. And then we all headed to the game.

If you are an Alabama fan, you probably know that night as an unmitigated disaster. If you are a Hokie, it was a glorious night. The Tide got crushed 38-7, and it wasn't that close.

The weather was miserable. It was around 30 degrees, very windy, and wet. A very oppressive rain/sleet mix was falling and we were freezing our tails off. The third quarter ended, already 38-7. Minutes ticked by. Our half of the stadium emptied. And there the four of us sat.

And suddenly a light bulb went off underneath my thick skull. Are these people as crazy as me - all three of them? Sure, I never leave a Bama game early and I'm not planning to now. I always stick it out (thus the shocked tweets above). But I got it.

So I turned and looked past my date and asked Lee, "Is the only reason nobody's mentioned leaving is that you told them I wouldn't leave no matter what?"

"Yes." Laughter. Shivering laughter, but laughter.

So I caved. I said something like this: I can't bring myself to do it, but if y'all leave I'll go with you.

And thus it happened. I was trying to be considerate to my date. But of course it was too late for that  - probably about a quarter too late. We got along 'til the end of the date and I still think she was nice, but the idea of us seeing each other again never really crossed our minds.

And so that's it. My "end of the world confession". I did leave an Alabama game early once. Once.

Roll Tide.

The speed of twitter

I came across this tweet today:

Joe Schad ‏@schadjoe

RT @LanternSports: Ohio St. confirms the Twitter policy @ Buckeyes press conferences has been lifted

I found it remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, I saw that something had been lifted that had only been announced a short time earlier. Basically, reporters assembled for the Urban Meyer press conference and were told that they would not be allowed to tweet while it was in progress. Before Twitter could even blow up over it, tweets were out that the ban had been lifted!

Such is the speed of today's news cycles. Last week the social media was hit with news that a local Tuscaloosa area (Northport actually) bakery had been told to cease and desist from making treats with Alabama's script A. Twitter and Facebook blew up over it, and an apology was issued by the end of the day. Such a thing would not have been heard of a few years ago.

So keep up people! THe world is changing. Unless it stopped changing while I wrote this.