A common pattern I see in the farewell stories at ATPM is: young person with some free time got involved with ATPM, then advanced to the next stage in life and had to spend less time on volunteer works like ATPM. My case is not too different from that pattern. The only major difference is that I was not young when I got involved with ATPM.

It was some time in 2006 that I stumbled upon ATPM. It still amazes me how I did not know about ATPM all those years. I considered myself well-informed about the Mac scene. I followed many Mac news sites, like MacCentral and MacMinute. Granted ATPM is a monthly magazine and not a news site, but I usually follow links on the news sites to get more info. It was through some Google search that I came across ATPM.

For many years I helped run an Amiga users computer club and contributed greatly to the newsletter. After that stint I got involved with a local Mac user group’s newsletter. Not too long after that Mac newsletter slowly disappeared I discovered ATPM. Perfect timing.

I started out being just a copy editor. I am far from a perfectionist in other areas of life, but with writing I enjoy weeding out the errors. One day I took on the ATPM challenge, that everyone is welcome to write reviews. It was not an easy undertaking, but over the years I learned much more about the Mac platform as I wrote the reviews. With my debut review, I also started out as a cartoonist. I suspect at some point I was a copy editor, reviewer, and cartoonist. Life was sweet.

Change is constant. Work gets more demanding, my son grew up and so I needed to share the computer, but the biggest change happened when I decided to have a more physically active life. No more staying up late into the night.

I think it fits well if my last review for ATPM also has a separate cartoon that is related to the reviewed product, like my first review. Cartoon ideas are hard to come by, but in the case of Draw Something I had plenty, but then decided on the cartoon shown here. Nothing side-splitting funny, just a fond reference to our beloved free online Mac magazine.

If you enjoyed my writing and drawing at ATPM, you may want to visit me occasionally at my blog, Qaptain Qwerty. Nowadays it is mostly about my experience as a long-distance runner or budding swimmer, but I do sprinkle it with a cartoon or two, maybe even a Mac-related post every now and then.

Copyright © 2012 Linus Ly.