I'm pleased and very honored to announce that my submission has been chosen as the official logo of the 34th West Coast Estonian Days, or Lääneranniku Eesti Päevad, to be held in Portland, Oregon next summer. My design process for this one wasn't easy but each setback eventually resulted in something better! Here's an explanation of the logo's symbolism from my proposal document (which also contains some variations and application suggestions that may be of interest):

• Overall an eight-pointed star, representing the cornflower or rukkilill
• Blue cross symbolizing the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers
• In the center, in white, the hypocycloid of Portland’s flag
• The end of the petal also suggests the forked tail of the barn swallow, Estonia’s national bird
• Stepped color gradients add depth and texture, recall traditional Estonian mustrid
• Arrows pointing inward, symbolizing the meeting of the West Coast Estonian community

I'm grateful to Kalev Sepp, Kalle Merilo, Triina Merilo, Helve Kalmann, the board of directors and all of the organizers of LEP 2019 for this opportunity to add something to one of my favorite festivals. I'll see you all in Portland!

Saturday night's talk at The Projects of FATVillage went well. I was glad to have the opportunity to do a live demonstration of the musical swings technology. Getting it to work again, presenting it, and having stimulating interactions with people suggested many ideas for improvements to this and similar interactive musical exhibits.

Many thanks to a great audience for attending and speaking to us after the show; it's obvious that many guests were simmering with interesting ideas, of which I hope to hear more in the future. Also, my special thanks go to the following people and institutions:

• The Projects of FATVillage
• Irene Revelas, Hacklab North Boynton
• Leo Wolfe, Makerbright
• Melissa Norelli Hassan, Unity School
• Gemma Ward, Unity School
• Edutec Research Group, Citilab
• Daily Tout Les Jours

On April 14th at 6 PM I'll be presenting a talk at Fort Lauderdale's FATVillage Projects (in the Flagler Arts and Technology district near downtown) as part of their Art+Tech Incubator Lecture and Workshop Series. My topic will be the musical swings project I helped with last year and about using electronics in interactive art installations. Hope to see you there!

Inspired by the personal websites of Silicon Valley autodidact Susan J. Fowler and Estonian parliamentarian Kaja Kallas I've published a reading list of books I've completed recently. I intend to use this published list as a way of motivating myself to read more and better works and to give myself a place to write a bit about some of them. Compiling the list for the last three years has already suggested changes I should make. Check back often as I'll update the page with each new book I read.

In recent months I've been edging closer and closer to taking my love of architecture a little more seriously. What with October's trip to Dubai and consequent gawking at some absurdly fanciful (and yet actually realized!) designs for towers, a few mildly architectural home projects I'm working on, and my fascination with Netflix's new show The World's Most Extraordinary Homes, it's time to indulge in publishing some old architectural fantasies of mine. Here's a page of doodles from last January, mostly playing with the terraced idea that's been so important a part of skyscraper design since the beginning: