Author: Brendon Komene

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What motivates you?

I could say this:

 

My son is definitely a source of motivation for me but I think deep down it’s really a combination of things – selfish things. Let me explain.

I think we all can draw motivation from friends, family and loved ones but when it really comes down to it the core of our motivation is often quite selfish. I believe I’m great. I believe that ever since I was a young boy I witnessed things happen around me and thought I was better than that, that I could learn from other people’s mistakes and be better than them – because of them. So I’m obligated to do something great in order to honour the people I learned from to which I am grateful.

But what gets me up early and keeps me awake late at night is the thought of differentiating myself from the dreamers, the what ifs and the procrastinators of the world. Because I’m better than that and that is what motivates me.

But yeah my son is hella motivating also 馃檪

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Synesthesia

syn路es路the路sia

also syn路aes路the路sia 聽(s沫n鈥材璼-th膿鈥瞶h蓹)

n.

1. A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a colour.
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I’m constantly inspired to design things from everyday experiences I believe as a designer it’s important to pay attention to your surroundings to find stimulation. The above image was my inspiration to build a Facebook Like Button for the shopping mall.
It came about partly because I saw this business card that is suppose to represent your Facebook profile and it made me imagine how you would connect the digital world to the real world and what types of experiences could be of value. From there it led me on a path of design, destruction, app development and hardware implementation all of which I had no idea about but that’s synesthesia. (Read more of my journey HERE)
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Sleeping Bag Giveaway

For the last few days I have been working on a project I can do to help the homeless and I came up with this Sleeping Bag giveaway.

The idea is to give out as many sleeping bags as possible to those that need them and every so often swap them out for clean ones while I take their current one to be washed. I just wanted to do something as quickly as possible.

So here’s my ‘thing’. Like all self funded projects I just need some money now but for the time being I’ll buy as many as I can whenever I can and just get out there.

Start somewhere, start now.

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The Portable Bed Project

Scrolling through my Facebook News feed last night I stumbled across the Anonymous X, a non-profit organisation started by a guy that sold his house to fund his cause to help the homeless and has built a team of volunteers. I thought YES! I need to connect with this guy.

Then while checking his content it lead me to another cause called The Portable Bed Project聽which in comparison is run by just one guy. Just one guy buying camping type beds and handing them out to people sleeping rough. That’s when I realised who I need to connect with.

This is Steve, he used to be homeless so he knows what it’s like to be on the streets during the winter months. I watched this one video and it made up my mind for me. He wanted to help and so he just ‘did it’. He took action and I’m all about that.

So first thing this morning I jumped on Facebook and sent him a message expressing my support and hopefully we can team up and make something happen together.

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#ShareMyShoes

I saw this in Moonee Ponds yesterday:


To help the less fortunate.

You can’t really tell by the picture but the box is huge which initially caught my attention.

Then I got to thinking, I’ve got so many pairs of shoes and have been planning on giving most of the away. But I’m not sure I want to do it this way, I want to look the person in the eyes that I’m helping.

Pretty cool initiative setup by The Smith Family though.

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Taking action is the most important step.

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Today I signed up to聽take part in a Community Visitor Program for the elderly. After yesterday’s experience of offering help to someone who didn’t want it I felt like I had wasted my day.

I was not going to let that happen again but I wasn’t sure what to do then I remembered ‘Dre’ (the homeless guy I went to help) say that he frequents the Melbourne City Mission so I pulled up the website, had a look for ways I could help and BAM I’m signed up and awaiting the stage of the process. I already feel 10x better by simply sending an email.

Taking action is the most important step. Someone who is stuck or struggling is typically聽someone who is more engaged in their thoughts than actually taking action.聽You can send an email, make a call or take a step and your momentum will pick up again.

So that’s what I did today and in the matter of a few minutes I felt revived and excited again.

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How to make YouTube responsive

A few months ago I started blogging and I’ve stumbled across a few minor issues using WordPress. The most recent being that embedding YouTube videos can be a pain because聽depending on what platform you view them on ie; mobile, tablet or desktop they don’t resize automatically and ruin the user experience.

I looked at a few YouTube plugins but the time lost searching through them to filter the free and paid versions did my head in. So I put some code together and BAM here is how to make your YouTube videos responsive:

You will need to wrap the responsive YouTube embed code with a <div> and specify a 50% to 60% padding bottom. Then specify the child elements (iframe, object embed) 100% width, 100% height, with absolute position. This will force the embed elements to expand fullwidth automatically. Awesome! Exactly what we need.

First you will need to add the following to your style sheet.

CSS

.video-container {
    position: relative;
    padding-bottom: 56.25%;
    padding-top: 30px; height: 0; overflow: hidden;
}
 
.video-container iframe,
.video-container object,
.video-container embed {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
}

Next, add some HTML around your embed code.

HTML

<div class="video-container">
         <iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dFVxGRekRSg" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>
</div>

If the responsive YouTube embed worked, your videos should be responsive, and ready to view on Tablets and Mobile devices.

If you have any questions then holla at me. Peace.

 

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Open letter … to myself

Hey bro,

Just聽a reminder that you have everything you need. You’re alive, you’re motivated, you’re obligated and your ability is limitless but sometimes I think you tend to forget it.

If you were able to go back and redo things and make them better, faster, stronger do you think you would be in the same situation you are now? Granted you may be in a better situation but ask yourself is your life crap? Yeah that’s what I thought.

It’s great to acknowledge your past but don’t live in it. Revisit the good things and let go of the bad knowing that these experiences are all life lessons that ultimately have brought you to understanding your life purpose of helping people. Some people may never know there’s.

Take pride in the fact that you were spoiled growing up, shit you’re still spoiled now but take even greater pride in knowing that you recognised this early and it motivated you to share those spoils with others. No one knows that you gave everything you had to everyone you knew – they only saw that you were the initial recipient so they thought you were unappreciative. No one knows you taught people to play sport, to play instruments, to be creative. They only saw how different you were so they thought you were a show off.

Some people know you as an athlete first, a tech nerd second. Others know you as a ladies man first, a dedicated partner second. All that matters is that you know who you are and you continue to carve your own path because most people will never have that luxury.

Most importantly remember that it’s not the tools (which you have in abundance) but it’s the creator that determines whether or not something is great. You can do amazing with a little just as much as you can do average with a lot.

Stay UP.

Me and my Dad