Just a week or so ago, I found out that yet another magazine I liked would be ending its print run and be digital only. For some reason, these magazines are ending at about the same time every year. First off, in 2020, was Muscle & Fitness. I had been reading the magazine since the 90s, back when I started weightlifting. Okay, I never actually went to a gym/fitness center, even though I was interested, but I have now been working out for about half of my life. I still am going though the remnants of my collection, cross-referencing the exercises and tips before putting them away. I just realized this morning, while composing this post, that I have yet to regularly look up the website that they permanently moved to. I don't even know if it is still up. Last year, Entertainment Weekly finally ended its print run, after years of being a monthly magazine. I had already given up my subscription, one that I had had since 1992, due to the lack of interesting articles and features. The mag had just gotten to high-brow and not general entertainment any more. I still check up their website about once a day or more. It was one of the first sites I added to my favorites list when I got this computer. For some reason, the site had always featured a wider variety of material compared to the mag, even though there is still a little too many things that don't turn me on. Well, this past month, another magazine went online only, MacLife. It was one of the last tech mags from the US still on the stands. Unfortunately, it wasn't available locally, meaning I would only pick up an issue whenever I was out of town. This meant I would only get an issue four or five times a year. I was always thinking of subscribing, but I never got around to it. Now, I am glad I didn't. In fact, I probably picked up the penultimate issue this past February. As of this time, I have yet to check out their website, as it hadn't been set up at the time when I read the news item online. There was speculation that it would be behind a paywall, unlike the previous two magazines. Now, paying about ten dollars a few times a year was something I could handle. Even if the price has gone down from that, I wouldn't want to pay for an online subscription. First, I don't want a sum deducted from a credit card every month. I'm not that good at keeping ongoing payments straight. Second, I don't read every article. Maybe a little over half of them. I would skim the rest if they didn't seem pertinent to me, although that was beginning to change ever so slightly after I finally got an iPhone. Finally, I don't have the computer time to read even that much without having to forfeit something else. Today's post is over a half hour late because I was watching videos online. Something unexpectedly got uploaded this morning, and I wanted to see some of it. (It was a Smosh parody of a Family Guy reunion.) Watching it along with my regular Good Mythical Morning put me way behind schedule. For the print version of the mag, it would take me days to finish it, as I would usually just read a dozen or so pages at a time to make sure I gave all my interests equal time. Reading an online magazine would just waste computer time I could have been using for social media or games, even though I am playing more games on my phone now. I was playing and winning so much on my phones last night, I actually had to stop because they were heating up too much and draining the batteries too fast. I was watching streaming at the same time, so I could do more in the same amount of time. Oh, I would also need to do schoolwork, when I actually go back to taking classes this fall. As of this moment, the only magazines I get readily are my puzzle mags. Two quarterlies, that I am three whole issues behind on in finishing, and my Games World of Puzzles that I have been collecting since grade school, most of that time via subscription. There are others that I pick up when I find them, none locally, although I can't be sure if any of them are still in print or not it has been so long that I have seen some of them on the stands. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing I have less to read.
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