Silly Seagull is silly.

More after the break.

I expressed interest in doing the same (I read Cracked Magazine a bunch in my early teens), and was surprised to learn that it is very easy to sign up and pitch articles.

What Cracked.com is looking for when it comes to articles is fact based comedy. For example, Philip had a recent article called 7 Incredible Ways Sports Improved (And Even Saved) Lives.

He lists seven ways sports improved or saved the life of a person, and includes links to the articles he used as a source.

Fun stuff.

Always up for a creative challenge (and getting paid for it doesn’t hurt), I signed up and was added to the ever-growing stable of Cracked.com writers.  I have a couple ideas for stories, and I hope I can get something submitted soon.

We have Philip on LansingNext tomorrow to chat about writing for Cracked.com, so make sure to give it a listen (9AM, download the free podcast at 10AM).

The funny thing here is that when I turned the story in, perhaps early Fall, I was single–but, by the time it ran, I had a new girlfriend. I kind of had a gut feeling that would happen, which was why I agreed to write the story (and make fun of myself quite a bit).

I enjoyed writing this story a lot because I was allowed to go first person and showcase some of my humor a bit more–although my editor did cut my favorite joke, which was about me wearing my Chewie Is My Co-Pilot t-shirt while trying to pick up geeky girls.

Or something.

The shirt was designed by R Stevens, creator of one of my favorite webcomics, Diesel Sweeties.

I did manage to wear my Threadless, A Simple Plan shirt for the photo shoot however.

I kind of regret not wearing my Chewie shirt, but since the photos were being taken at Pinball Pete’s Arcade in East Lansing, the Space Invader referencing shirt won out (another option I considered was my Yooper Steez shirt, designed by all-around-awesome Lansing dude, Justin “Bugsy” Sailor).

I caught some (friendly) flack from those who knew I had a new girlfriend, yet was writing about being single.  The girlfriend in question was fine with it, as I told her about the story way before it ran.

But the story isn’t so much about my being single, but more how I went about meeting people, expanding my circle of friends and places to go on dates around Lansing.

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Speaking of Lansing Capital Gains, I was brought on to be a weekly contributor recently.  Starting on February 17th, I’ll be writing four development stories a week.  These are very, very short–only 200 words at the most–so it equals out to less than a feature article (1,000 words) a week.

There will be a bit of a learning curve for me, as I have to find leads and such, but I’m getting a lot of help from my editor and fellow contributors.

I consider myself the furthest thing from a journalist, but I am very happy to have this opportunity to see if I can handle the rigors of a regular writing gig. So far, so good.

And if you live in Lansing and have any leads for me, drop me a line.