Blog Review-The Nowhere Wolf’s Vowel Movements
“The Nowhere Wolf’s Vowel Movements” is a clever little blog combining original cartoons and the English language. Each day, the Nowhere Wolf has a new misadventure through his butchery of the English language.
The first thing that caught my eye about this blog was the header. The white header features a picture of the Nowhere Wolf and a cow, along with a brief introduction about the concept of the blog. The template pairs a light gray background with black text and red hyper links, which results in a simple but attractive combination.
The best feature of this blog is that it is updated every day. Too many blog owners think that they can get by with only updating two to three times a week, but if you really want to develop a loyal following, daily updates are a must. The daily posts are a single panel cartoon featuring the Nowhere Wolf in some sort of strange situation due to a single vowel being wrong in the caption. My personal favorite was, “It wasn’t so much an argument as an unbalanced runt, thought the Nowhere Wolf.” This caption is paired with a drawing of the Nowhere Wolf looking quite puzzled while staring at a pig leaning sideways. Obviously, this specific cartoon is a play on the word “rant,” with “A” being replaced by another vowel for a humorous outcome.
According to the description, the cartoons are first sketched everyday on pencil and paper, and then given life with Macromedia Freehand. The black and white cartoons are very nice and well designed. This blog is the brainchild of Paul Bowers, a freelance illustrator and designer. I’m impressed with not only his artistic skills, but also his sense of humor and creativity. I would guess that it’s no easy task to come up with a humorous caption each day that can also be sketched.
Overall, “The Nowhere Wolf’s Vowel Movements” is a clever and humorous blog that is designed perfectly for a daily visit and quick laugh to lighten the mood at the office.
2 Responses to “Blog Review-The Nowhere Wolf’s Vowel Movements”
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:39 pm
(How deliciously ironic!)
I was introduced to this review page at bloggeries through a journal I frequent (with unhealthy frequency), MsAdventures. Intrigued by the possibility of getting an objective take on on my own journal, I immediately signed up to the bloggeries directory, and shamelessly requested for one; a wish that was soon granted.
And now I’m turning the tables; so to speak. Muahha. Muahahhhaa. Muahhahhahhah!
I just spent quite a bit of time running through all the reviews on these pages, and even sneaked-into most of the reviewed sites that I found interesting. At the outset, I must say that I am amazed by the reviewer’s varied interests, and the soft, patient tone that’s never wavered from—even when the site being reviewed is clearly just a link farm. As easy as it seems initially, this is a non-trivial process, and we (yes, even the silent ones who don’t want to register) would like to thank you for your time and often invigorating words.
Needless to say, I cannot imagine doing something like this even remotely objectively; I find it very hard to separate my likes and dislikes from what is good or not so good.
(Oh, sweet, sweet irony!)
The review web site starts-off tentatively, where the actual schema for “objectively grading” a site is still being fleshed out, and the artwork and style is still a little rough. In breakneck pace, these issues are soon dealt with (rather intelligently and creatively I might add), and the reviews—much more substantial than one might naïvely expect—begin to stream in steadily; at about a couple of reviews each week, for the number-junkies in the audience.
There are so many different kinds of sites visited: the speciality sites, the humour sites that aren’t particularly funny, the personal journals, the link-farms, the photo journals… . All of these are given a fair and methodical shake, and the findings are usually presented in a refined, articulate style that manages to capture subtleties that can easily be missed. More importantly, and I reiterate this because I regard it as the nicest parts of this review process, the critiques are rather independent of whether or not the reviewer is a fan of the topic in question.
Kudos!
(I write this here for two reasons:
1. Nowhere wolf is my favourite find thus far.
2. It took me a while to overcome my distate for needing to sign up before I left a note.)
May 23rd, 2006 at 11:14 pm
It is an absolute joy for me to see comments here. Good or bad, I really appreciate the feedback just as much as you all do.
I was very intrigued by the thought of a blog. Not knowing exactly what a blog was, I started doing some searching. Ultimately, I stumbled across a blog directory, where there were an abundance of them. What a great idea!! I thought. So, I started a directory of my own. At first, it was with selfish intentions. I wanted my own little reservoir of blogs to look through, where I could ready and learn what they were all about. Then, I developed a sort of “Fetish” for building and adding on. Soon, I was really enjoying being a “Blog collector”, if you will. However, I still wanted to learn about them, and so I figured I might as well write about the ones I was reading. Hence, the Bloggeries Reviews blog.
I do admire all of you that take the time to be pro-active with your blogs, and to those that find time, busy or not, to make an entry at least once weekly. Myself, I would love to be able to spend more time reviewing, and am actually making the time to do more in the future. You may notice a new addition to the reviews crew. Tyler has been the reviewer of the last two blogs, and he is doing a fine job.
Thank you to those that come here and read. Whether you sign up or not, I do appreciate the visit. It is only through an act of trying to control the unwanted spam that I must require signups. I am obviously still learning about blogs, and as soon as I find a way to stop the intrusive amount of spam sent here on a daily basis, I will gladly free up the registration process.
Thank you for the good words. And to the rest of you. Read and write on!!!