Unexpected Personal Costs of Upgrading to the Latest MacOS

Moving to the latest MacOS means the end of older 32-bit apps. In the past I haven’t thought twice about jettisoning whatever apps haven’t been kept up-to-date and done the upgrade. This time I’ve been struck by a couple apps that would require a paid upgrade to keep using the apps. I’m in a little shocked that my LEGO robotics apps were caught unawares and not ready for the switch, noting that “something” should be available in November. Yikes. That’s on the vendor choosing to not put the resources into keeping pace with the changes that have been well-known for over a year.

Alas, I haven’t kept current with a couple of my media collection apps that I use to keep track of my media (books and movie/TV show DVD/Blu-ray collections). Actually, because it’s most important for me to make sure that I don’t buy the same movie more than once (which I’ve done), I’ve kept the media app current on my iOS devices because that’s where I do the most of my checking and use the camera to input new additions to the collection, but haven’t even opened the app on my Mac in I don’t know how long. Also, the vendor has gone to a strict yearly subscription model, so going current would cost me $39 per app for the next year. Not sure that I’m going to make the investment. I have a web-based app and iOS version that I’ve paid for… not sure that I need to pay for a MacOS version that I’ve barely used the past couple years.

Then there’s the venerable “Print Shop” that I’ve literally used for decades to make signs and banners since I started teaching 25-years ago. Yeah, they don’t have a version that would work on the new MacOS. What’s up with that? Fail. I’m currently looking for a similar app from a vendor that stays current with OS changes.

But the one that has got me is an application that was an amazing discovery when I decided to re-examine my faith in the early 2000s called Accordance. It took my large library of books and versions of the Bible and made it all accessible with a mouse-click. Previously I used a cheaper Bible-app, but it was way less comprehensive than Accordance. Alas, Accordance was not cheap. Nonetheless, I found myself making upgrades every year from 2004 to 2010. But “for some reason” I’ve been more reluctant to continue to make the upgrades… until now. I mean, the reason I stopped making the upgrades in 2010 was because daily bible-study fell off the list of things to do.

At the same time, this study has been a huge part of my life and I’m not entirely comfortable pretending like it wasn’t. I don’t know. How do I incorporate that part of my life with where I’m at right now? I love that my mom thinks that someone who doesn’t believe in God is someone who thinks they’re too smart for all that. The truth is that, for me, it isn’t about being “too smart” but lacking the conviction that I really could say that what I believed wasn’t mostly just a circular ancient cultural narrative that really wasn’t as connected with Reality as much as the ancients grappling with their difficult existence. But this question is deep enough that I’m really thinking of purchasing the most current upgrade to keep Accordance active on my Mac. Of course none of my atheist friends give a shit and none of the Christians I still communicate with are at this academic level for me to even broach the subject. It’s largely a vestigial part of my life, but someone who has never dealt with years of god-based-guilt has no idea what went through my confused adolescent mind as I grew up. I also think that this Bible-stuff is such a part of the American culture that it’s difficult to make sense of our culture without accounting for the contradictory background noise of aspiring to being a biblical-culture. But that’s a subject for another time. I’m just pondering the unexpected expense of bringing my old copy of Accordance up-to-date. At the same time, really LEGO, you want me to wait until November before updating my MacOS? Damn.