Today is Editorial Director Bill Hudgins’ 13th anniversary at Hammock Publishing, and appropriately enough for this veteran copy cutter, it falls on a Friday. Heユs already answered a set of Hammock Day questions last year, so we came up with a different list for this time, appropriate to the anniversary.

1. December 15 is your 13th Hammock Day. How does that make you feel? Amazed. It truly doesn’t seem like that long, although my newspaper and PR days that preceded Hammock. seem far, far in the past. And its being the 13th anniversary doesnユt bother me ミ for all you wordies, the fear of 13 is called Triskaidekaphobia.

2. Since we are on the subject, do you like horror movies? I havenユt seen any of the Friday 13th movies or others in that genre, except for part of the battle between Freddy and Jason, which was on TV last summer. I really liked the old horror standards, like The Wolfman and Dracula, which scared me silly as a child. Young Frankenstein is practically sacred to me. Oddly, I find some Disney cartoon classics more upsetting than gory stuff like メAlien.モ I have a strong negative reaction to the theme of children losing one or more parent and/or being separated from parents. I could barely sit through “Finding Nemo.”

3. Scariest moment of your life? In college, while on a trip to Yosemite, a friend who had been working there convinced me to jump off a 20-or-so-foot cliff into a mountain stream. He went first and was fine. I jumped, looked down, and could see clear to the bottom. It looked like there was 6 inches of water, and that I had failed to jump far enough to clear an outcropping of rock. Turned out the stream was at least 15 feet deep, but so clear that it was like glass, and I did jump far enough. I will never do that kind of thing again unless I must to survive.

4. What has been the biggest change for you since last Hammockday? Workwise, it’s been adding “Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League” to our production cycle on top of “Ride PWC Magazine.” I didn’t think it could be done. During the last two weeks of the cycle, I still don’t believe it. Getting to go to the Marine events such as the Evening Parade in DC and the Expo trade shows has been an amazing experience for me, a non-veteran. Personally, itユs the weight I’ve gained during this same period.

5. What are some things people don’t know about you? I used to belong to a union, and walked a picket line. For a time in college and afterward, I worked in college libraries and thought about becoming a librarian. I hate Brussels Sprouts, but have eaten a wide variety of odd foods, including eel, bear and haggis. I’ve seen a UFO, and once lived in a dorm that had a poltergeist. When I was a child, my grandfather who worked on a railroad in Virginia let me “drive” a diesel train—i.e., hold the throttle. I had a twin brother named Bob. I have never played Nintendo, XBox, PSP, or any other TV video game.

6. If you didnユt work at Hammock Publishing, what would you be doing? Freelance writing, probably. Maybe back to a newspaper, or get a degree in library science and do that. Or run a bar. I have a name stolen from an old New Yorker cartoon: “The Strength to Go On Bar and Grill.”

7. What jobs would you really hate having? I would loathe having to work in a big bureaucracy in any industry. I’ve worked in a college bureaucracy, and that was bad. If you think academia is somehow purer than other fields, it ain’t. Working at a big newspaper was also something of a bureaucracy, although I was at the low end of the pipleline. I would also not do well at all in sales.

8. What is your dream vacation destination? I am not much of a beach personムitユs never as good as Jimmy Buffett makes it sound. The West Coast is a place I never get tired of visiting, although I got tired of living there years ago. Like J-Rob, I’d like to see the Greek Islands again, especially Mykonos. My wife and I hope to go to Russia again next year. I am starting to brush up on my Russian already.

9. What is the one thing you wonユt leave home without? My wallet. I can do without most anything else, but even when just walking in the neighborhood, I carry it.

10. If you could do something over at Hammock, what would it be? There are a number of hindsight errors I would avoid, but if I hadn’t messed up in the first place, I wouldnユt know how to handle them, I guess. The one omission I’d correct is that I never took off a few weeks to learn how to drive a big rig when we published a trucking magazine.

One year ago today, Megan Goodchild walked into the Hammock Publishing offices to stories of great Christmas parties, movie reviews, and the truth about how our dogs actually run the place. We stopped her today on her way to the annual Hammock Publishing Christmas soiree to get her thoughts on the past 365 days.

1. December 7 is your Hammock Day. How long have you been with Hammock Publishing? One glorious year.

2. What do you remember most about your first day here? That it took me more than an hour and a half to get here and just as long to get home. Luckily I was able to adjust my schedule so that it only takes me 45 minutes to an hour each way now, if there are no wrecks. (Or oil spills, like last night!!)

3. What is your favorite Christmas carol? You know, I’m not too big on Christmas songs (I think working in retail for eight years ruined all seasonal experiences for me.) But if I have to choose, the two I am least sick of hearing are Carol of the Bells and Greensleeves (the latter isn’t technically a Christmas song, I guess, but I tend to hear it more around this time of year.)

4. If you didn’t work at Hammock Publishing, what would you be doing? Crying in the welfare line. No? Well, I would probably still be in the communications department of my previous corporate job, watching all the talented, long-time employees around me get fired because some new CEO decided he didn’t like it that they had a good relationship with the CEO before him. And I would still be looking for a more fulfilling, less hostile job than that place.

5. What is your favorite, can’t-miss television show? I don’t really watch too much TV, but I do love CSI (the Las Vegas one) and House. That guy is so crotchety, but it’s brilliant.

6. Where did you grow up? Go to college? I grew up in Des Plaines, a suburb just a few minutes outside of Chicago. I moved to Murfreesboro to go to college at Middle Tennessee State University, where I majored in mass communications and Spanish. I liked it well enough here that I’ve lasted almost 10 years!!

7. What is your dream vacation destination? My last semester in college was spent studying in and around Madrid, Spain, and I would love to go back. People always tell me I should vacation someplace that I’ve never been before, but I loved the culture and my experiences there so much that I would go back in a heartbeat. I miss it every day; I can still remember what the air smelled like and how I felt walking down the streets.

8. What has been your most memorable day at Hammock Publishing so far? I guess so far it’s been my first day because I had no idea what to expect, but people keep telling me that the Christmas party will be an experience I’ll never forget. I’m excited, but a little nervous, too!!

9. What is the one thing you won’t leave home without? My cellphone. I know it sounds lame, but I am such a worrywart and I feel like if I don’t have it with me, something bad will happen. Murphy’s Law, I guess.

10. If you could switch places with any other Hammock employee for a day, who would it be and why? Carrie Wakeford, Kerri Davis or Lynne Boyer. It was always my secret dream to become a professional graphic designer, but I never really knew how to go about getting good training and therefore never seriously pursued it (I did some design at my previous job, but nowhere near the level of what these folks do). I’m definitely not one with natural talent in the arts, so my money was probably better spent studying what I did. It probably would have taken a looong time for me to get any good.

Are you born an entrepreneur, or do you become one? That’s the question debated in the cover story of the Dec./Jan. issue of MyBusiness, the magazine Hammock publishes for the National Federation of Independent Business. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management recently found a strong connection between entrepreneurialism and genetics. But the small-business owners in this story say genes aren’t the strongest indicators of business success. Hard work, a willingness to take risks and a whole lot of passion for what you do ultimately influence whether you make it.
Regardless of your genetic makeup, once you’re in business for yourself, life can be stressful. That’s why our inspiring story about how to cope with some of life’s most difficult moments speaks to anyone. Faced with financial, emotional and physical set backs, the business owners we profiled dug deep and found the courage to keep themselves–and their businesses–going.
Check out these stories and more in the latest issue, including a staff favorite on how one Florida teenager earns a (sizable) living teaching others to play video games.