I rarely buy electronics because I dont follow tech trends and I don’t need to have the latest products if I don’t need to. When I buy one, it will last for years. I used my first netbook for over seven years before I bought my Macbook Pro. And it’s because somebody stole it, not because I wanted it. So when I finally have to buy new ones, I have to buy many things almost at the same time, because they’re broken at the same time as I’d been using them for a long time.

Nowadays, I’ve been wanting and eyeing some electronics to ease my life, this may sound like an excuse but I think they will be an investment for me and my work. Here they are that I wish I can have in 2019 or soon.

1. A Portofolio Website –>>UPDATE: achieved in January 2019!

Well it’s not necessarily an electronic product, but still related in a techie world and the one I will need ASAP, at least by end of October. In order to look more professional, I need a professional portofolio website that’s independent from my journal, travelling stories or random rants (like this blog) to showcase just my works and skills. This will help me a lot for many things, especially to build relations with long-term and future clients. It’s also a long-term investment in case I want to expand the website to sell my products, because depending only on international marketplaces (like Amazon, Etsy, etc) has risks of my shops getting suspended or shut down for any reasons anytime and will lose all the details and track records (like what happened to me two weeks ago). Also, they charge for every listing, transaction and promotion. So I think it’s better to self-hosting for my shops and if I’m gonna run online classes or something like that in the future.

But now I’m still deciding and calculating budget for that, WordPress is the cheapest but it’s so hard to modify and not many template options for portofolio needs. It will take longer time for me to design the layout to my wish compared to other site-builders like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly. But they’re much more expensive. But I think will be worth it. I will not extend my subscription for my craft blog this year because now I have to prioritize to my portofolio. I’ll subscribe again when my finance is not as tight. Especially now USD has been surging and many currencies including mine are affected negatively, so it becomes more expensive for me to subscribe to a website builder.

2. A 4GB-RAM Smartphone with A Good Camera –>> UPDATE: achieved in October 2018

The last time I bought a smartphone was in 2016, that’s because my iphone 4s was broken (that I had used for 3 years). Six months later, I lost my new iphone 5s, so I had to repair my iphone 4s again because I couldnt afford to buy a new one. Now I’ve been using an okay-level Samsung phone for over a year. I’ve never had a phone with good camera. I want a smartphone with good camera so that I can directly post photos to my blog without transferring and editing them to my laptop and without me bringing my big DSLR camera every time I travel. I used to be an Iphone believer, but no more this time. Not only because of the price, but also I prefer dual simcard phones. I really want a Samsung J7 Plus, because I will use it for a long time, but maybe Xiaomi phones are more suitable for my budget.

3. Two Camera Tripods –> UPDATE: Achieved in November 2018, but only bought one

I have a good tripod but my brother lost the plate to attach the camera to it, therefore I made a DIY-tripod plate which can do the job but not really safe, especially if I have to position the camera looking down. The tripod is a good one, but for now I dont need that quality because I only use it indoor. Unfortunately the cheap ones are not as tall, I need at least 140 cm expanded height. I dont care about the brand as long as it can hold a 2 kg camera and I need not only one but two–of similar brand–because to make my tutorial videos, I have to go back to back to the crafting table and sewing machine, it takes a lot of time to take the camera off and re-setting the tripod over and over again.

4. External HD –> UPDATE: Achieved in January 2019

I used to have two, then my bro took one of mine and the other one is broken. I dont like to keep many things in my laptop because it can slow down its processing time. I have a big capacity memory card, but it takes sooo long to transfer and open files (in a laptop, not when used for cellphone. Hence I use it for my phone instead) and because it’s a memory card, it’s easier to lose it. I want to buy the same one like the one I gave to my brother, it’s a WD My Passport 1TB External Hard Disk.

5. A New Macbook Pro 13′ Charger —> UPDATE: achieved in November 2018

I really love my MacBook, especially for designers, the color and screen are soo good. Also, believe it or not, my graphic designer friends said that if you come to a client with a MacBook, they are likely willing to pay a more expensive price. But Apple is not a good cable maker, my charger’s cable is dying. And the annoying thing about having Apple products is that every accessory is expensive, a new charger is enough to buy a new smartphone! Or at least I have to find somewhere to repair it more permanently.

5. Ipad Pro + Apple Pencil –> UPDATE: not achieved yet, but I bought a pen display monitor in November 2018. However, I still want and Ipad Pro ?

This is the craziest and most expensive thing in my list but I cant lie how I’m totally amazed by the greatness of these products especially for designers and illustrators that you can do your work easily from there (not all but most). I had an Ipad mini before but then I gave to my brother (again) when he’s leaving to Australia. Every time I passed an Apple store, I always took time to play with the display Ipad Pro and pencil, they’re like no other tablet I’ve tried!! Soo good, the screen is unbeatable and the feeling like working on paper. I have a Samsung Tablet that comes with a Stylus Pen and a Wacom Bamboo to be connected to my laptop. My Samsung tablet is too small for drawing there are many weaknesses that make it uncomfortable to draw, like the lagging, palm sensitivity, limited apps, etc. For Wacom, it’s been great too but mostly for working with paths on Adobe Illustrator/ photoshop, but not for handdrawing, also because it has to be connected to a laptop, meaning I can’t draw unless I turn on my laptop. This product is not for all graphic designers, a logo designer for example would not find it very useful.

Price don’t lie, the pencil is the best I’ve ever tried (well, I’ve never tried Wacom Cintiq. I think it’s like the dream tool for every creative people, but the price is crazy, you can buy a secondhand car for that price in Indonesia!). I want to be mad at the Ipad’s price, they’re so fricking expensive and not sold in bundle, you have to buy the Ipad and the pencil separatedly. Hiks!!

This one seems like the totally unrealistic point in this list, I dont think I will be able to have it even by the end of next year, especially because Apple product’s price hardly goes down, probably I will never be able to purchase such expensive thing in the next two years. The most expensive purchase I’ve spent in my 28 years is not more expensive than IDR 20 million, but that was before my rock bottom occurred. But well, that’s not long ago (though it feels like been forever), and if I ever was able to reach that life at that time, then I will have to be able to at least be there again someday. And I’m optimistic with my design career coz my skill is not only in fashion design, but also graphic design, I use them to back up each other. It will take time, but I’ve always managed to checklist most of my wish-list from time to time. ?

From the whole list, only the last point is I think more like an excuse for me to have a fancy thing, haha. Because actually I’m doing just fine so far with my Wacom which has helped me a lot. Ipad is only if I want to level up my work, but of course I have to wait and work until I think myself deserves a gift from me, not for now. Just like when I bought my DSLR camera, it took me three years to finally bought it. When it comes to fancy electronics, I think it’s like love, you can’t hurry.