Judilynn Alef

My blogs

A GATEKEEPER'S CHRONICLE

Blogs I follow

About me

Gender	Female
Industry	Architecture
Occupation	Cat Herder; writer
Location	Portland, Oregon, United States
Introduction	I am an old school Renaissance woman with more stories to tell than time will allow in this life. Partly truth and partly fiction best describes me and the telling. I'm a 6th generation Texan true BLUE and as such live in Oregon now. Live to travel, drive back roads of America, search out thrift shops old book stores and antique sales. On the home front I dig in the dirt and with luck get wonderful produce. Hubby does most of the cooking and I herd the cats in the house and the wildlife out back. I stop at old cemeteries and read historical markers.
Interests	social justice, growing food and eating it!, drying flowers and herbs, working with my hands, political junkie, perennial tourist, independent historian, non professional genealogist, DNA and the neurosciences, and my tour de force: problem solving.
Favorite Music	Original Delta Blues, Rhythm/Blues, Bluegrass, Cajun, Texas songwriters and singers, Billie Holliday, Patsy Cline, Peggy Lee, Wanda Jackson, 40s 'torch singers', Persian ballads, British Invasion 60s, Pow Wow songs
Favorite Books	No one bought me books as a child or read to me. Just a fact, not a complaint. My grandmother gave me 'what's this' and books about the natural world; I got all my older brother's stuff, Hardy Boys, airplane books, boy scout manual; my other grandmother sent me very used books w/ crayon markings and misspelled first names. They were always bible stories. I loved Nancy Drew and wanted to be her. In architecture school I feasted on books written about cities and buildings by designers of the time from Roman empire through to social reform of the 1930s. Reading for pleasure came very late for me. I always felt I should be 'doing something', not sitting still. Truth was reading was hard for me because I have a visual disorder that wasn't identified until I was in my 30s. I don't have binocular vision so my eyes register everything a nano second apart. I also have very little depth perception, obviously. Reading was hard work when the white between the lines stood out and the printed material came and went. My brain conditioned itself to move quickly over words. I preferred non verbal communication; so much so I created a class in grad school for non design majors to learn how to see things in various forms rather than printed words. I write better than I read; it's easier. I do love to read but the font and size determines whether I'll finish a book. Things to think about if you're interested in writing and conveying your thoughts and desires, and especially if you want to SHOW what has meaning. I'll list books soon...