The Return

It seems that I've been MIA lately; from this blog at least.

It's been over a month since my last post here.

Don't get me wrong, just because I'm posting something doesn't mean I'm out of my 'rut of un-inspiration'. I think I've come to grip with the fact that I don't need to be inspired all the time! I need to thank candeo for that as she so simply commented on my last post telling me that even the most inspiring of writers and artists had years and years of dry spells.

Moreover, it's not that I even inspire to be a great artist or writer. I just want to me a normal guy that can update his blog when things interest me. But coming to grip with the fact that 'being down' or 'uninspired' isn't really a bad thing at all. It's just a phase...I'll be back on the horse eventually. (Thank you candeo).

But the reason I am motivated to write today is not because I have changed my outlook on life or anything groundbreaking. It sounds silly but, it's because I've found some good tools online that will probably change the way I surf for awhile.

I've started using:
Laterloop
Mento
Twshot

I started using readbag a few weeks ago. Although it's great, I just found Laterloop to be a tad bit cleaner. They are both just very simple sites that allow you to add a link to to read later. For both services I was able to add a button to my Bookmark Bar in Safari, and when I don't have the time needed to really explore a site that I'm interested in, I just need to click on the button. Although both work flawlessly, in readbag a popup comes up when you do this (it disappears by itself in 5 seconds), but in Laterloop it just does a small 'fade' of the webpage that you barely even notice...but noticable enough to know something happened. Both just use a Gmail sign-in to get started which is a bonus. One less password/login to remember. You just go to www.laterloop,com when you want to re-visit the pages you saved.

I just started using Mento just this weekend. Think StumbleUpon - but it seems a little more customizable. When on a site, just click on the button you get for your Bookmarks bar and you get the following:



You can email a link just to a certain group of friends if you want (and see who ended up viewing it)...Or just send it to your Mento page (and Twitter - if you wish - at the same time). It seems really well integrated... And reading about 'Mento Mix' / 'Channels' / 'Networks', I know there is alot more than just the top layer if I chose to make it more.

Lastly, is the simple Twshot. Say you want to post a link on Twitter, just click Twshot (again in your bookmarks bar) and it automatically sets up a link (and uses a short url) and you can add a Tweet (message) to it as well. Super Simple.

These are just a few services that have put a smile on my face with the ease of use and the thought of using them in the future. I'm looking forward to using these.

And for a couple more Screenshots: