Confessions of a newbie techie

Considering what I do for a living, I am so technologically-impaired. Not that I haven’t tried. I’ve taken Photoshop classes (forgot everything I learned). I have a nice camera (can’t work it, too damn complicated). I own a Wacom tablet (used once in the year 2003, now rotting in the basement –– do people still use them?). I really do try and make an effort, asking advice from my most techie friend, Ryan Vergara of Everywhere We Shoot, about any kind of electronic device I need to buy, but most times I just end up not really using it properly. His fiancée Garovs Garovillo, as well as Rex Advincula of Inksurge, have tried time and time again to teach me to do things properly on my laptop, but I just can never be taught.

For example, each season after we shoot our collection lookbook, I need to send Everywhere We Shoot the names and the order of the hats for the layout. While one would normally use Photoshop or Pages to make a JPG or PDF presentation, I rename the icon of each photo on my desktop, make the icons big enough to see the photo and reach the names, then screencap it.

I swear it drives Ryan and Garovs insane every season.

Just last week while working on our next lookbook, Garovs taught me how to use Pages and save it as a PDF file. I did learn; however, it took me forever –– or a day and a half to be exact. Ryan was so frustrated that the next day he sent me a text saying “Sige na nga, i-screencap mo nalang! Ako na bahala!”

Then last Friday, I became the owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

I’ve never owned any such thing. The closest thing would have to be those thick Ericsson phones from 2002 that had a stylus –– not very close at all. I’ve never had an iPad or any kind of tablet. I’ve always been an old school pen and paper girl; it’s just so much simpler for me to draw or write than open a file and attempt to work a track pad. But having had constant phone envy from Cecile van Straten, who has always shared rave reviews of her Galaxy Note phone and has been constantly telling me, “You know, you have to get Instagram. No one is on Twitter anymore,” I was excited.

I can’t say I wasn’t overwhelmed at first. During my tutorials with Guia Abad of Samsung, I had to keep asking her things again and again. I even asked her, “Nako, kaya ko ba ‘to?“ But after about four hours of playing with my new toys, I started loving it and wondered how I had lived without Android service or the S Note application my whole life.

Drawing on the Galaxy Note, then posting it straight to Instagram. You should see Veejay Floresca’s S Note drawings, with color and shading and all!

The next day I e-mailed Garovs a PDF of sketches of her wedding dress and dresses for her entourage, all drawn with the S Note app on my tablet. Instead of commenting on the dress, she replied, “OMG! Totoo ba ‘to? PDF? Ikaw ba yan? OMG! Mich Dulce x Technology! Ahhahahaha.” The next day, I e-mailed Ryan another PDF of all the revisions I had for this season’s lookbook, again made on the S Note –– they were a far cry from the usual hand-drawn mock-ups he usually had to pick up at my house.

I was totally reveling in my sudden hi-tech-ness. Browsing the web while screen capturing my research to transfer on my S Note? Sure. An S notebook where I can record the measurements of all my corset clients, and the flexibility to email them and get them to sign right away? Why not? A million photo editing applications to play with, and the means to Instagram every small thing in my life? Obviously. Adobe Photoshop Touch? Er, give me another week.

Last Tuesday, I got this text from Garovs:

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Mich Dulce. The EWS FC has decided, we will not be releasing your spring/summer 2013 lookbook unless we get a 10.1 Samsung Galaxy Note in return. Naiinggit na kami masyado hahahahhahahahahahaha.”

Everywhere We Shoot has technology envy of me?! Who would have ever thought?

Oh, how my mighty techie friends have fallen. I feel so cool right now.