Check Out My Guest Posts At Laughing In Purgatory and Homeschoolers Anonymous!

It's been a long time since I have wrote a guest post for Andrew Hall's blog Laughing In Purgatory. Normally it's a blog parodying what's going on in the world of politics, religion and everyday life (I've told him his blog reminds me of an atheist version of The Onion), but occasionally he has some serious posts of his own, and has from time to time, let me guest post.

Well, recently, I had a guest post published talking about my most recent blog series on my father's mental health issues as a teen. If you are a regular blog reader, you are probably familiar with it by now, but if not, start at post 1, and keep reading.

I talk about how hard it was to start that series, and how my emotions were getting the better of me when I wrote the first 3 installments all in one evening, and I can't still figure out why I even started this series.

Happiness and Atheism

I've been wanting to write more guest posts lately, and I had a backlog of guest post requests that I am still working on. Yesterday, Mike Moore, aka the Canadian Atheist, posted a guest post I sent to him recently, titled Atheism and Happiness (side note from my distracted mind: when I sent it in, the title kind of reminded me of my favorite webcomic Cyanide and Happiness).

The post was a response to an article that Canadian Atheist had talked about last week that questioned whether atheists can ever be truly happy.

 I talk about my life with depression, my new dog (a hyper and happy Lab mix), and Oprah's unusual interview with professional swimmer Diana Nyad in which she implied that atheists can't truly have a sense of awe and wonder about the universe.

Interview at the Blog You, Me, and Religion

I was approached some time ago by the writer of the blog You, Me, and Religion to do an interview over there. The blog is dedicated to gathering the stories of people of various faiths and the non-religious like me. People from all different religions and walks of life have been interviewed, and I’m happy to be a part of the project.

There’s quite a few questions in the standard interview, 21 in all, it’s a long interview, and when I was reading my responses, I was thinking, “damn, I’m long winded”. As  usual, I talk about my past, my transition from Christian fundamentalist to agnostic, and being the Undercover Agnostic, but I also dive into quite a few other issues including reincarnation, the Freethought Blogs/Atheism + controversy, Islam and Sharia, the US concept of patriotism, John Piper and Neo-Calvinism, and much more.

Here’s a few excerpts from the interview:

When asked what my reaction would be if I had children and they ended up not becoming atheist or agnostic:

If I did have a child, and they grew up and wanted to be something other than an atheist, well, that’s their choice. I wouldn’t have objections unless they become a religious fundamentalist, and/or join a dangerous cult. I’m not of the mindset that one’s children, especially when they become young adults, shouldn't have no rights, which is the way I was treated. That’s a toxic mentality to have in a family. 

Why This Millennial Gave Up on Christianity.

It’s been far too long since I have wrote a guest post for another blog. Some time ago, I had talked to the great blogger Lana Hobbs about writing a guest post, but I never got around to writing it, and it kept irritating me that I didn’t have the time. I never like to say that I am going to do something for another person, and then not do it, even if it’s circumstances that are beyond my control.

I finally finished the planned guest post last week, and Lana has posted it today. I was inspired to write my guest post after reading a much talked about post on CNN’s website by Rachel Held Evans about why people of the millenial generation are leaving churches. I saw quite a few responses to that posts from bloggers in the Christian establishment, former Christians, and young Christians struggling with their faith.

I felt like saying what I felt about the whole issue. It’s a different post from some of my more recent posts, I was in a somewhat frustrated mood when I wrote it last week, and it’s a departure from my recent posts, where I have tried to be more positive or self reflective, (but sometimes I don’t quite make it).

It’s more of a blunt, honest look at my frustrations with Christianity, and issues with Christian theology and church culture. Make sure to read the post, Why This Millenial Left Christianity on Lana Hobb’s blog.

Many of my issues were with how the teachings of a loving, merciful god common in modern Christianity didn’t reconcile with what I saw in the Bible, and in the world around me, it’s an issue that leads quite a few people to doubt fundamentalist Christianity. If you want another perspective on this, check out a recent post from another blogger named Lana, Lana Hope of Wide Open Ground titled "We Failed Her, We Didn’t Tell Her About Jesus".

Q&A With Samantha Field of Defeating the Dragons

I'm happy that Samantha Field of the blog Defeating the Dragons recently agreed to a Q&A interview for the blog. Like Lana, who I did a Q&A interview with several months ago, Samantha is a survivor of the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) movement and a homeschool alumni

I've been reading her blog for a while now, it's funny how the name of the blog reminds me of the band Imagine Dragons. I will have a guest post of my own on her blog post this upcoming week, I will let you know when it's published

I asked her about her time in the IFB, (you can read more about it here), and about why she thinks that some people who leave fundamentalism leave Christianity altogether, and why some people stay in Christianity. (This is a question that I have been pondering for some time).

1. For my readers who may not be familiar with your blog, Defeating the Dragons, or with the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) organization, can you explain what the IFB is, and what your experiences with them were like?

On the surface, IFB churches all have extremely conservative "standards," (known as "legalism" in mainline evangelicalism. IFB churches re-define "legalism" to mean something entirely different). These standards usually show up in no contemporary music of any kind, Christian or otherwise, no dancing, no alcohol consumption, never go to a movie theater, do not have cable TV, and insane "modesty" rules for men and women. 

Dinosaur with saddle at Ken Ham's Creation Museum

Ideologically, you are Tea Party Republican, and a Young Earth Creationist. Many IFBs homeschool their children and are extremely anti-public education. I grew up in the South, so most of the IFBs I knew were explicitly racist-- they believed that segregation is "biblical" and that inter-racial marriage is a sin. 

The biggest part about being IFB, though, is being absolutely certain that you have "the right doctrine," and you essentially despise anyone who disagrees with you-- so, pretty much everyone, including Christians who aren't IFB. IFBs have a persecution complex like none other-- they glory in being the laughingstock of everyone, and frequently rail against "being politically correct" (which, they also re-define). This results in the IFB doctrine known as "Separation," which means exactly what it looks like. They do their best to never encounter anyone or anything that disagrees with them.

2. What convinced you to stay in Christianity despite what you went through in the IFB? Was there ever a time where you considered giving up on Christianity altogether? 

Step Forward and Call for Change

I can't believe that I finally got a guest post done for Homeschoolers Anonymous, I was beginning to think that it couldn't happen. I got so bogged down, and I had a great deal of writers block. It's an odd conundrum  being a former fundamentalist blogger, everyone wants your story, but it's hard to bring back all those memories, and it's hard to find a way to keep from repeating yourself over and over.

Anyway, I decided instead of doing a more biographical post like I have done in the past for blogs like Leaving Fundamentalism and The Wartburg Watch, I decided to go more with a topic instead. The guest post has to do with the issue of socialization in homeschooling. Here's an excerpt from the guest post,

I spent about a year at a well known Southern Baptist university, and some of the people there were homeschool alumni. They use to make jokes about the “awkward homeschool kid” stereotype, and many of them were even members of a Facebook group that was built around such jokes. 

Guest Post: Breaking Free from Fundamentalism

Today's post is a guest post from Lana of the blog Wide Open Ground. She successfully broke free from her fundamentalist family, who were followers of IFB cult leader Bill Gothard.

She is now a liberal Christian, (a self-described Christian universalist), and a missionary in Southeast Asia.

She writes about her childhood and experiences now in her blog, Wide Open Ground, and she is also now a contributing writer to the wildly successful blog project, Homeschoolers Anonymous, which is a collaborative project where former fundamentalists like us are given a chance to talk about our homeschooling past.

I had asked her recently if she would like to talk about what her advice would be for young adults who are trying to break free from a fundamentalist background, which is something that has been on my mind lately, since I will be coming out to the people around me sometime in the near future. This is her story, and her advice. She said that she wrote this young adults in mind, people who are just starting out their adult lives. If someone is a teen, well of course, this wouldn't work. Short of there being physical/sexual abuse in the home, where local authorities can get involved, there's not much a teen could do if stuck in a fundamentalist home. (Sometimes, it does occur in fundamentalist households).

I came from a fundamental Christian background. I was homeschooled for 12 years, and my family was members of ATI, a fundamentalist group led by Bill Gothard. I grew up in a vacuum, believing that public schools were synagogues of Satan and the teachers were its priests. After elementary school I had only a couple of friends, none of which were from public schools. I wore mostly dresses, never watched TV and never listened to any kind of contemporary Christian music.

Today I’m out of it all and overall thriving. If you are leaving fundamentalism, let me encourage you that it does get better. Here are a few little tips on leaving, and then you can comment and add to the list.
First, admit that fundamentalism damaged you. Oddly, this has been hard for me. See my family was also dysfunctional, so at first I thought my struggles were only a result of childhood hurts. It’s true that my family was dysfunctional, and it’s true my parents hurt me, but let’s not underestimate the kind of damage that social isolation and a gendered childhood did to me as well. If you are leaving fundamentalism, be prepared for everyone to tell you your problem is either in your head, or it’s just your family. Ignore them. 

Guest Post at Homeschoolers Anonymous

I have the honor of having a guest post republished at Homeschoolers Anonymous. HA is a great new blog where people raised in fundamentalist homeschooling families (like me) can tell their stories.

 The site has only been around for a little over a month, and already it has debuted to great fanfare, there was even a article written about it on the liberal site The Daily Best recently.

I'm happy to have the honor of being published there, my guest post is a republication of a post I wrote several months ago for the blog Reason Being, it was originally posted in December. Check out my post, Looking Back at My Fundamentalist Homeschooling Past, and also read the other personal stories at Homeschoolers Anonymous. I will also be writing an original guest post for them sometime in the near future, it will be announced when published.

Loss of Faith: My Guest Post at The Wartburg Watch

This is only my second time writing for a Christian website (the last time is when I was interviewed by liberal christian blogger Lana of Wide Open Ground).

I have have been reading TWW for a while now, and though I obviously don't agree with them on spiritual matters, I applaud the courage of the writers, Dee and Deb in their willingness to confront the problems within evangelical and fundamentalist circles.

They are not afraid to take on issues like young earth creationism, patriarchal pastors, cult groups like Sovereign Grace Ministries, or churches that try to protect pedophiles. I also admire their willingness to listen  to former Christians like me and Christian Agnostic, and let us explain why we have left the faith. The site has become a refuge for people who have been pushed around by fundamentalist/evangelical churches, whether they are agnostic, questioning/doubting, or still Christian.

My Pathetic Attempt At Humor

That's the self deprecating title of my (hopefully) humorous guest post at Laughing in Purgatory. I'm sure regular readers of the blog (or my Google + page) will be familiar with Andrew Hall's sharp sense of humor and parody. If not, I think this recent post of his, Neil DeGrasse Tyson Unveils NASA's New Scratch Ticket should give you an idea, or some of his great memes, like this one:

Well, I know my attempt at humor on Laughing in Purgatory won't be anywhere as good as Andrew's comedy, but if you still want to read it anyway, here it goes, check it out.

Always remember that I accept guest posts here at Ramblings of Sheldonl, if you have an idea for a guest post, e-mail me at ramblingsofsheldon@gmail.com.

Questions for My Readers (and a Few Ideas)

Lately, I have been wondering how you, my readers feel about the blog. What do you want to see more of around the blog? What do you want to see less of?

Apparently, I'm making my audience happy somehow, there's been over 1,400 people reading the blog this week, but I want to know what exactly I should be doing in the future.


I want to know what kind of posts you as a reader prefer. What is your favorite series on the blog? Exposing the IFB ? Exposing Extremism ? Undercover Agnostic ? Or would you rather see more non-religion related posts like my post on catfish and St. Louis area culture? Am I keeping a good balance of religion vs non-religion related posts? Do you want to see more guest posts and/or Q and A interviews?

I really want to know what works when it comes to promoting the blog too. How did you find the blog? Was it through my Google + page? Was it because of a guest post that I wrote for another blog? Did someone share one of my posts on Facebook or Twitter?

Did I find you instead? I wonder if some of the bloggers that have become fans of this blog have come here because I found them first, and started commenting on their blog.

I just want to know what works. Though I started this blog as a way to just vent whatever came to mind, and help to move on from my past, ( I never expected anyone would really read it), I feel many times an obligation to my readers. Though I still use the blog to vent sometimes, I feel like I don't want to write what the readers don't want to read.

I want to know what keeps readers coming back for more of my writing.

Guest Post: Promoting Your Beliefs

Evangelism, by it’s base definition, refers to the preaching of the 4 gospels.

The actual definition of Evangelism is to preach to others about the 4 gospels of the New Testament.  No brainer right?  But symbolically, this word has meant a lot of things to all of us.  For those who are a part of evangelical Christian religions, it means “spreading the good word”. 

 For those who are not there, it means being annoyed by others trying to sell you on something.  And for those who have been there and are no longer, well, I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what that means, I’ve not been there.  But when I talk to many who have left, it seems like a really dark place, something that I can either guess is a pang of guilt for having done so in the past, mixed with a ton of anger that they feel that they were manipulated into such a life/lifestyle/belief.  I may be very wrong, but it’s simply what I see watching from the outside.

Living a Double Life

That is the title of my biographical guest post at the blog Republic of Gilead. The name of the blog comes from the book, The Handmaid's Tale, a futuristic novel where a fundamentalist militant group called the Sons of Jacob takes over the United States, and turns it into the Republic of Gilead.

In the about page on the blog, the blog creator, Ahab, says that he does not want to wake up one day in the Republic of Gilead. His blog is a fundamentalism/cult watch site, dedicated to exposing extremism  and looking at trends within extremist groups.

Well, enough of my blathering on, about the post, read my guest post, Living a Double Life, about my life undercover within fundamentalism at Republic of Gilead.

As a side note, I always like to share blogs of note with you, my readers, I read quite a few blogs myself, as you can see from my blogroll here to the right, here's a few things I have found interesting in the blogging world lately:

Andrew Hall, creator of the satire blog Laughing In Purgatory is someone that I am honored to know. He's a great comedy writer, and has even wrote two guest posts, both of which were very popular with readers, especially his last guest post, Evangelicals Are Excited That Science Is Wrong Again.

Yesterday on his blog, he published a project that he worked on with several fellow atheist bloggers called What Would You Put In The Bible?, it is what is sounds like, the bloggers were asked what should be written in the Bible, but isn't in there currently. Some submissions were serious, others were rather hilarious.

On a unrelated note, I have started running across blogs opposing religious extremism and cult groups by writers who are Christians themselves. I think this is a great trend, and it goes to show that even Christians are getting tired of the extremism.

One of these blogs that I have been following for about the last 6 months or so is Commandments of Men. The writer of this blog, Lewis, is a very liberal Christian (read his post on "worshiping the Bible", it will help you to understand just how liberal of a Christian he is), who nearly married a woman whose family was a part of the "Christian Patriarchy" movement (his series, The Joke Was on Me, talks about this).

He writes about that experience, his viewpoints on faith, and about various extremist/cult organizations.

Another great blog in this blogging genre is The Wartburg Watch This blog focuses mostly on the cult group, Sovereign Grace Ministires, which I have written about in the past, and was started to expose SGM but now focuses on other extremist and abusive

The writing is so good, and backed up by plenty of links, resources and personal stories that I have used The Wartburg Watch as a resource and reference in some of my blog posts, like a recent post exposing the extremist connections of the Kendrick Brothers, two popular Christian film makers, responsible for movies such as Fireproof, and Facing the Giants.

If you know of any great blogs that I currently do not have in my blogroll, or I haven't mentioned before, tell me about them, I'll take a look, I always like to keep up with the great blogs that are out there.

Am I the Only Person Who Doesn't Understand Fear of Death?

It's something that I have truly have been wondering for a long time. Fear of death is something that has never seemed to be a worry of mine, both in my fundamentalist past, and now as an agnostic.

When I received an invitation to write a guest post for the blog Sunstone's Cafe, I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain how I feel on the matter.

The author of the blog, Paul Sunstone, is a fan of my blog and you know me, I can't resist an opportunity for a guest post when one comes up. Despite the topic, this post is actually rather upbeat in tone, especially at the end.

I know that's highly surprising to regular readers, and I can almost hear the shock already. Me? Upbeat? Yes, it is possible.

Check out the post, Living Without Fear of Death at Sunstone's cafe, and make sure to stick around and read more of his blog, he is a great blogger, and one that I am proud to endorse.

As always, if you have an idea for a guest post, check out my submission guidelines first, then e-mail me your idea for a guest post to ramblingsofsheldon@gmail.com.

(P.S, hey Ahab, don't worry, I'm still working on the guest post for your blog)

Guest Post at My Secret Atheist Blog

Yesterday the guest post I submitted to one of my great online friends, Montreal blogger Godless Poutine, was posted on his blog. It's a great honor to be a guest poster, he is the blogger who inspired me to start writing.

My post there is about a day in my childhood I would much rather forget. I've been having more of those moments in recent months, because blogging about my past, though it has helped me to move in many ways, has also brought back memories long buried, for better or in this case worse.

My post, now up on his blog, is called Confronting My Past, I think Poutine did a great job of editing the post, it was a hard post to write, believe me.

As always, if you have a topic in mind that you would think would make for a great guest post, read my submission guidelines first, then send me an e-mail at ramblingsofsheldon@gmail.com.

Take the time to stop by the guest post page as well, my archive of past guest post posts published here, as well as guest post I have written for other blogs. There's some great reading there for everyone.

Finally, Someone Who Understands What I Am Talking About....

Some days, something happens to me as a blogger, that makes me think that all this time and energy I put into the blog each week is really worth it.

Recently, I posted a guest post from Jonny Scaramanga, creator of the blog Leaving Fundamentalism, about the A.C.E curriculum we both grew up with.

This past week, a comment was made on that post from someone else who personally experienced this atrocious curriculum as a child/teen. Here's what she had to say. Lana is a blogger (author of My Musing Corner), and a cult survivor, her parents were followers of the Bill Gothard/ATI branch of the Independent Fundamental Baptist organization.

Read the full comment here, she talks about where ACE fails in 28 different ways, it's a great read, you can read the comment in it's entirety on the post, or I've made it into a document on Google Drive, for ease of reading,  you can read it in that format here.

The Google document is accessible to anyone, no Google log in required. I'm only including some of the objections from her 28 point list here in this post, because the list, plus my comments would make for what could be the longest post I've ever published on the blog:


1. "You leave out one word of a Bible verse, and its five points off a test. "

She's right about points docked off of tests for failing to remember a Bible verse. In each book (the books are known as "PACE's"), there's a verse that they tell you to learn, and try to help you remember it with various exercises throughout the book, such as segments where the verse is given to you with words missing, and you must fill in the blanks. 

I don't know how it went in her home schooling family, but in the A.C.E school I was in until the 5th grade, the teacher would dock points for misspellings, no matter how minor, my mom was more flexible about that.

10. "The dinosaur and evolution comments are laughable." 

Jonny's aforementioned guest post talks about one of the ridiculous claims regarding creationism vs. evolution. ACE claims that a creature pulled from the ocean in 1977 of the coast of New Zealand could be a species of dinosaur. The creature was actually an animal called a basking shark. The confusion was cleared up in 1978, yet an ACE book published in 1989 was still claiming this. 

ACE also claims that the Lock Ness monster exists and is a type of dinosaur called a plesiosaur. (I wish I was joking about this)

12. "There are racist comments in there."

Read my Guest Post At Reason Being!

John Richards of the blog Reason Being has published a guest post of mine on his blog. If you remember, he has also been a guest poster here as well, and he was gracious enough to not only write his post, Good Without God for my blog, but he also linked to it on reddit's r/atheism sub forum, bringing me hundreds on new views to the blog.

He really is a great guy, and runs a very well written blog.

Check out my guest post, Looking Back At My Home Schooling Past, and make sure to read more of his posts, he is a great writer.

I do welcome guest posts on my blog, I accept proposed guest post at my blog e-mail account, ramblingsofsheldon@gmail.com.

A few things to keep in mind:

I prefer guest posts from the non-religious, whether you be atheist, agnostic, deist, or even believe in a god, but rejected organized religion.

Proposed guest posts from people more liberal religious groups like liberal Christians, Unitarians, etc, will be accepted on a case by case basis, and will depend on the proposed post and topic.

Proposed guest posts from fundamentalists will be autocratically rejected, as well as spam posts attempting to promote a business, take the spam somewhere else (and yes, I have gotten these spam proposals before).

If you want to mention your blog, and/or your social media pages, that's fine, but if I'm not familiar with you, I will check out those pages, and their content first.

I will contact anyone back who sends in a legitimate guest post proposal, I really enjoy interacting with guest posters, especially fellow bloggers, show me what you can write :)

Read My Guest Post At Laughing In Purgatory

I have the honor today of having a guest post up at the blog of comedy writer Andrew Hall. I have been a big fan of his blog Laughing In Purgatory, for some time now, and I'm happy to be a guest poster.

Andrew Hall has also been a supporter of my blog, stopping by to comment, writing a satirical guest post, and helping to get me involved in the recent campaign to call to boycott the Boy Scouts.

I can't match his sharp wit, or his great news parody posts, which remind me often of the website The Onion, I'm a little too cerebral to write good comedy.  My guest post is about being a closeted agnostic, and what it was like to come out to two of my friends, Sam and Rose (not their actual names).

View my guest post on his blog, here, pay him a visit.

Thanks for the opportunity to be a guest poster, Andrew! 

Read My Guest Post At Confessions Of A Hertic Husband!

I had sent an e-mail to the author of the blog Confessions of a Heretic Husband asking if I could write a guest post for his blog, he agreed, and said that he wanted a guest post of on the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. I have just gotten around to checking my blog and e-mail today, and I found an e-mail saying that he has in fact posted my guest post. Check it out, it's an overview of my past posts on them, introducing them to people who may not have ever heard of them before. Sorry I couldn't come up with a more original title, but it fits my Exposing the IFB series. 

My guest post:

Exposing the Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination

It was a great honor to write for his blog, he's a great writer, and I have been reading his blog for the last several months now. If you are wondering who the picture at the top of the page is, like I was, it's late 1800's Major League Baseball player, turned evangelist, Billy Sunday.

I'm not sure why he posted that picture, perhaps he's saying that the IFB would like to go back to that time period. Maybe that is the case, I know from experience that the IFB and similar fundamentalists like to draw inspiration from famous ministers from that time period such as Billy Sunday and C.H Spurgeon. I remember how IFB members like to carry around an edition of the King James Bible known as the Scofield Bible, as though it was dropped down from Heaven by god himself.

They really do enjoy living in the past....



(Sheldon's note: For past guest posts, both that I have written for other blogs, and that have been written for my blog, plus a link to my submission guidelines, check out my Guest Posts  page.)

I Wasn't Gone That Long!

Well, I come back to my blog on a Saturday night, after being offline since Wednesday, and not posting since Monday. Life gets in the way of blogging sometimes, and apparently fans of the blog had been used to me posting four or five days a week, like I had for the previous two weeks.

I come back, and it was as if I was gone for a month or two. Several fans of the blog comment saying that they missed me, and my weekly readership count had went down from an average of 500 readers, to 215 at last check. Apparently not posting at least several times a week leads to people getting bored. I understand the frustration of my readers. I mean, you start out reading, decide you enjoy the writing, and then all of a sudden, it stops. Annoying, right?

I feel the same way about some of my favorite blogs, though some of them post rarely instead of irregularly. I get into great blogs like Incongruous Circumspection, Confessions of a Heretic Husband,  Past Tense, Present Progressive and Leaving Fundamentalism, which have incredible writing, and great personal stories behind them, but they don't post often enough. I know people are busy, just like I am, but it can be a frustrating wait for more great posts that only come around sometimes as infrequently as twice a month. Speaking of Leaving Fundamentalism, I still haven't heard anything further from it's author, Jonny Scaramanga about the guest post he was going to write. Oh well, I'll wait until it arrives, and let everyone know when I've finally received it.

Blogger has a feature that allows you to "schedule" a post, write it now, and determine at what time and date that will go up automatically on the blog, I have thought of writing posts in advance when I have the time, so that I will have a reserve of posts that I can release later, making for a more regular blogging schedule, and readers will be able to expect regular posts. What do you as a reader think of this? I'm not sure if it will post to Google + as well as the blog, when it auto posts, so I don't know how effective that will be, but I can try it. If I could get more guest posts, then this would be much easier to do, if you have something to write about for my blog, let me know at ramblingsofsheldon@gmail.com. I don't know if my readership numbers will start coming back to their original levels once I start blogging regularly again, but I could use some help, if you like a post, click to share it on social media, using the buttons at the end of each post, help to spread the word, it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading the blog, and I hope my blog list on the homepage here kept you occupied while I was gone, I always try to promote great bloggers when I come across them on both the blog and on my personal Google + page. Let me know you are out there, join the discussion either by leaving a comment at the end of the post, or talk to me on Google +. Having more readers is always great, but I want more engaged readers, people who join in on the fun, that would truly mean more to me, more people discussing the topics rather than simply reading and moving on.