Jobs: Max Bodyagin, writer, blogger, podcaster, and media consultant

Hello! My name is Max Bodyagin, I'm a writer. In addition, I also a blogger, podcaster, and media consultant.

What projects can boast of?

For many years I have a blog iDiot Daily about movies, books and interesting socio-cultural trends. Periodically records podcast "Radio" Hack Jam "(mirrors on rpod and podFM). But the main project for the past few years I became the novel "machine dreams». It can be found at the official website of the bookBy listing the author directly a small coin for reading :-)

Was a writer can hardly be something to earn?

Not in Russia :-) Yes, writing novels in the current environment - rather, it is an expensive hobby. So you have to earn, advising businessmen and politicians in PR and GR issues, information campaigns in the mass media, blogosphere and social networks, etc. I led several media, was an assistant in some State Duma deputies, was engaged in the entire spectrum of media work - by editing a glossy magazine to the forming of the concept of regional party building, the official newspaper of the morning before radio show. So I resume elegant as the Bashkir village serene spring day.

Usually I am pretty much divergent projects, in addition, from time to time to get involved in election campaign, as a rule, against the "party of power" and its candidates and, as a rule, in the... ... negative kghm conditions. But the purpose of my life, of course, ever leave this morally ambiguous ways of earning and fully concentrate on the work. May remove a large good movie. Now I use the summer lull to feverish work on a new novel. As well as preparing the course for personal growth "Book as a Way to himself», devoted to the narrative techniques of self-therapy and clarify life goals. This is a practical course in creative writing for those who have always wanted to write a book, but did not dare.

This work has an impact on the organization of work space?

Yeah. It is not :-) seven or eight years ago I formulated for myself the rule: "my office there, where my smartphone." I recently picked up a garbage vague dog breed "Russian poor", and it is a significant impact on my work schedule. Because when you walk the dog, you're more than anything else can not do. Accordingly, I have appeared a couple of precious hours of blissful solitude in the park, when I can think carefully about everything you need. The results, I thought either the built-in recorder to dictate his Blackberry, or stored in the internal notes of the smartphone. When I get home, my mind already prepared a new scenario moves, the theme for blog posts and new stages of work projects. Sometimes I even write to podcasts while walking with a dog as another time for this class not found.

The writer probably specific way of life?

I have quite a bit of strange sleep. In general, if I'm not out of town, then my day is made up as follows: I get up at four or five in the morning and work on the text of the novel hours to eight or nine, and then go to the park with Chizhik. Upon returning, I feed him and cats (they have two), breakfast, checking social networks, news headlines, make some notes and go to bed. I wake up around noon and check the working moleskin, in my Blackberry and record everything that is noted in the email flags. Sometimes I smoke a hookah, sometimes - not. Then work until eight in the evening, engaged in those projects that bring me money.

As a rule, I had some three or four floating meeting during the day, the rest manage to solve the virtual resources (mainly, it is facebook and electromail, rarely - Skype). In the evening I again walk with the dog, already in the company of his girlfriend. Now the doctor for some time pushed me from training due to injury, but in normal mode, I have three times a week doing what is called reality based martial arts from nine to eleven evening. Then I meditate a bit. Although... I do not meditate on schedule, and when falls free moment. At night, I drink a couple of beers and watch some TV series or movie, a review which will appear the next day in my blog. I go to sleep I usually in the morning. And once again I rise in the morning at five, and so on... I do not have a weekend or holidays, because my life is arranged the way I want.

It may seem that I'm pretty sybaritic lifestyle. But it is exactly there. I work long hours and very quickly, and the rest a very peculiar way, switching between different activities, so have time to quite a lot. I consciously try to capture those moments, when the mind begins to blunt and to distract from work problems, play the blues or draw with ink or watercolor. I can do a bit of exercise, something to cook or meditate.

What hardware are using?

Now my working arsenal consists of the following battle-tested devices: 13-inch MacBook Pro (late 2011, OS X 10.8.4), Voice Recorder Olympus DS-30, red moleskine plain to work, black moleskine squared notes on being in the book, Blackberry Torch 9800 smartphone and iPad 2nd generation.

On the table, my girl standing noname computer with Windows XP on board, I use it only for podcasts installation. I really like the first version of Adobe Audition, which stands there, it's - the only program on the OS Windows, I use the last few years. Sami podcasts I write, usually on tape or on an unnamed Chinese microphone for 120 rubles, which gets on well with Adobe Audition :-)

For recording, use a black pen Pentel Document Pen and blue uni-ball micro deluxe waterproof. The ink of these pens are not "are freezing" in the winter, do not fade and are not washed away by water.

You - a fan of Apple?

Strictly speaking, I'm not a fan of any device or platform. I have tried a lot: Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux (Suse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Joli OS), I have had a variety of mobile devices, from Palm Tungsten and the Psion, ending with the iPhone 4S. It just so happens that, as a lamer, I keep coming back to Mac OS X. His first iBook G4 I bought in 2006 is that it was, and only a year ago broke up with him.

What software do you use?

On the Mac, I use the native browser Safari, Pages, and Numbers as office programs, Xee to view photos, Pixelmator and Snapseed photo editing, Ecoute for listening to music, VLC for viewing films. I am also happy to remount video using iMovie. But the main program for me is the Scrivener - ingenious software processor for writers. I have not even bothered to read the infidel language book on how to use it most effectively. I am also a personal diary in DayOne and a diary from which are born later blog posts and podcasts in MacJournal.

I keep backups of important information in Dropbox'e and some documents in box'e which I use already five or six years. However, after the closure of Google Reader and some other scandalous events in the network, my confidence in the cloud services poumenshilos, now I'm trying to duplicate the important things in the external hard drive.

I have two email accounts - personal tied to staffing Mail.app, work - to Sparrow, who I am very fond of. I process more than a hundred emails a day. In addition, the mail keeps backups of important texts and photos. Mail in the personal account I process at once, and turn Sparrow in the morning and evening. There, by the way, were falling notifications VKontakte, which I use exclusively as another mailbox :-)

For not very important notes, remembering the fun articles and all the optional I use Springpad. To record the ideas that form the basis of books and scripts - Evernote and Simplenote. Moreover, Simplenote - the most favorite of all the services, having a bunch of apps for all platforms (on the Mac - it Notational Velocity). And since I Evernote, rather, do not work, and the fight for a long time, just succumbed to the herd instinct. To create the right mood (pictures, quotes) is Tumblr, which serves as a sort of public internet notepad.

I used actively used Adium, which were connected to ICQ, Jabber, Skype, etc. But lately all correspondence of this kind itself moved to Facebook, so I'm more than a year did not use any messengers. No need. If you give free rein to messengers and VK, the whole life will turn into a solid answer to a stupid question "chodelaish?".

How do you use your gadgets?

Everything related to the PIM - schedules, tasks, notes, and contacts fast - with password stored in my Blackberry Torch, which is synchronized with the same account can include GMail, which podtseplen Calendar and Mail on the Mac. I love my BlackBerry. His standard tools are so convenient that I can not think of using something else. There also comes and personal mail. Thanks to the Blackberry, I can, for example, in the bus check the narration written by TV journalist before going to his meeting to make changes and send it to write and distribute a press release on the same infopovodu, and already going into the studio to give comments an editor. Chop the article in the 5,000 characters on the keyboard BlackBerry I can almost as easily as on the Mac. In addition, 16 gigs of memory card and bluetooth headphones, turn my BlackBerry in a great music player :-) Moreover, the clients for twitter and facebook so comfortable there that I had to turn them off in order to reduce addiction. Of course, entertainment which is more suitable iPhone, but to work - Blackberry. I also use the Blackberry for the photo archives. Hats and immediately refer the photo by mail to the Mac or aypad where edit images in Snapseed and then shove on daddy box'a or refer to Flickr. Maybe someday I'll change the smartphone, but is not ready to even figure out what it is.

You mentioned moleskin. Why do you need the paper?

Why moleskin? Because it gave me a whole bunch of them :-) Moleskine for me - the second most important tool. I draw a mind-map'y for each project, the relationship between the people involved and the tasks that It allows me a glance in just a minute to remember the condition of the one or the other project. Furthermore, I am inclined to visual thinking and often do hand-drawn notes, so as not to forget anything.

So I summarize. Tactical tasks - Blackberry in conjunction with e-mail; strategic planning - moleskin; large texts, journals, information storage - MakBook; podcasts - recorder and Adobe Audition. On the iPad I read RSS-subscription, comics and news of social networks, listen to your favorite jazz radio. Plus there are backups of documents, if they need someone to show at the meeting. On the Kindle - books. Important Accessories - BT-keyboard and Apple noname BT headphones.

Is there a dream configuration?

Configuration dream for me - something ephemeral. Perhaps I would have bought a Blackberry Q10. I might have bought additional RAM and a large monitor, but keep forgetting. Alas, my current lifestyle yet does not answer the simple question "what for?". I'm already the best laptop, best phone, the best tablet, best notebook and best elektrokniga. The question is not to chase the elusive happiness, and to use 110% available technical arsenal and use it to constantly create something new: sounds, texts, Pictures. I'm about a quarter of his previous novel written on different mobile devices, and it has not become worse :-)

The life of a writer is like a person's life, which catches the hands goldfish in the dark. Caught - and yet it does not matter, not caught - especially not so important. A device simply allow to dry clothes and hair in between dives in the frightening darkness :-)