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To say this year so far has been an interesting one is an understatement.

It has had many MANY ups and downs and although it is flying by at an alarming rate, at the same time there is still a lot more to come this year and I’m looking forward to a vast many changes that will be happening in my life, once I get over the current set of hurdles this race through life has presented me with.

So with that said, let the strange side of this blog commence, for as was once quoted in a movie…

Death is only the beginning

Nope, I’m not heading off to commit suicide or anything drastic like that, but many years ago the Smashing Pumpkins penned a song which was used on one of the Batman films (and later again in Watchmen) with two alternative titles, The End Is The Beginning Is The End, and The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning… with one lyrical version and one instrumental version.

Although I never really questioned the meaning of the titles, recent events in my life subjected me to a number of tarot readings in which the majority of the time included the Death card. Having looked at my past, present and potential future, I can see a connection and so thus this song has been bouncing around my head a lot over the past few months.

Meaining: Death. This is the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one. It does not mean the end of the old cycle, just perhaps a change of direction.

and so, the end of the old. . . .

So why not start with the end of the old?

First of all there was the rather surprising and abrupt, ‘no chance of talking about it, rescuing it or anything like that‘ end of the 20 year relationship I had with my ex partner and mother of my three children, but as well as that, after seven years of trading I have decided to start winding down my previous, but still current business Broadening Horizons. It’s been a tough decision, but there are many aspects of that business that could still benefit me in my future ventures and so, as per the aforementioned death card, the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one but it does not mean the end of the old cycle, just perhaps a change of direction….

which leads us to the beginning. . . .

With the end of my relationship, closing my old business and taking the decision to move out of the old offices and the old house I now have an opportunity to take on a completely new life.

With a number of projects already in development with the Horizon Studios team it is safe to say that once we are all fully sorted and running at 100% we have a lot of potential for our future.

One game that is due for release at the end of  May on the iPad will hopefully kick us off and introduce us to the mobile market, with future games to follow that are being developed and targeted towards the mobile market, the iPhone, iPad and Androids initially, however our developer is also looking towards crossing over onto Xbox 360 through his use of C# and XNA, so there is definitely a lot of potential.

To return to the end of old, start of new but not necessarily the end of the old, meaning of my tarot card (and obviously this post), through the many years of experience, the equipment and the contacts I’ve built up over time, I can not only put a lot of my previous knowledge to use in promoting the work of Horizon Studios, but I can also run some elements of the old business alongside the games development business and hopefully get the best of both worlds, but what’s better is that without the shackles of my previous life and a new house in which to live and work from, given where I could have been with the old business and the things that held me back and pushed me down through that one, I should have a far greater chance of success this time.

So here’s to the future and as is often said, life begins at 40.

Before I start, for all we’ve already had the first week of the year and so far it hasn’t been the best start of any year but at times I kind of feel like that’s par for the course in my life, but all said and done….

Happy New Year, hope 2011 is an awesome start to the new decade for everyone.

So, New Martin huh?

Yup, this May I’ll be turning 40 and before then I want to completely change my life and lifestyle around.

My current business didn’t quite go the way I wanted to and with the recent shift in market trend, especially affecting some of my original core markets, so I’ve decided to seriously downsize my old business and start focussing on new horizons, including Horizon Studios.

Further to that, the break up of my long term relationship made me seriously look at my past life, mistakes I’d made and where my new life could take me.

So I decided that it was time to give myself a complete fresh start as well, with a new wardrobe, a bit of exercise, getting back to some form of normality in terms of eating, sleeping and all the other stuff that people do day and night, but above all to just try to look after myself over the coming months and turn the body that I live in into something I’m happier with, instead of the way I have been these past years and just existing for the sake of others.

I know it’s fairly normal for a new year to list the usual “quit smoking, quit drinking, join a gym, eat healthy” etc. but in all honesty I think a lot of people do it for different reasons and they never really list it as a real priority or something they can really keep up.

With that said, I didn’t join a gym, I haven’t signed up to weight watchers or alcoholics anonymous or anything like that (not that I drink that much anyway), but instead I’ve been looking at various things that can be done without going to extremes. I’m not going to be taking a run around the block every morning or walking around in a tracksuit, but I have been looking at my lifestyle, the whole sitting at a desk, rarely getting up other than to make a coffee or visit the toilet etc. and figuring out what my body has done with all these years of neglect.

So, what am I doing instead?

Well, I’ve found a number of great micro workouts that can be slotted in through the course of the day, as well as some fairly standard workouts that a lot of people don’t really consider that much, so over the next 6 weeks I’m going to give all of those a bash and see if they actually do make a difference and if they do then I’m going to be carrying those on and looking at what else I can slot in.

Larry Kinane, a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of the one hundred pushups site, and as it’s something that can be done anywhere at any time without having to go out and invest in any equipment, I thought it would be a worthwhile place to start.

Hopefully in about six to eight weeks time I’ll be able to turn around and say “I managed to keep this thing going and it’s worked (or hasn’t worked)” but I’m extremely hopeful that by the time I hit the big Four-O that I’ll be in better shape than I have previously.

Watch this space……