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"I recently finished reading Everything Is Wrong With Me, a hilarious and sweet memoir written by bona fide internet celebrity Jason Mulgrew. My sides still hurt from laughing so hard. Since finishing the book, I&amp;amp;#8217;ve recommended it to just about everyone I know.Besides being ridiculously funny, the book is a great window into the secret life of boys; Everything Is Wrong With Me is about Jason&amp;amp;#8217;s childhood in Philadelphia. If he looks a tad familiar, it&amp;amp;#8217;s because Beth interviewed him not too long ago about makeup and hair styles guys like. Another fun fact: In 2005, People named Jason one of their 50 Hottest Bachelors. I had the hilarious pleasure of chatting with him about the book, his family and how he&amp;#x27;s doing with the ladies. Smitten: How did your family and friends react when you told them you were writing a book about them? Jason: I think the general reaction was something close to &amp;amp;#8220;meh.&amp;amp;#8221; For a number of reasons, mostly related to how no one in my life really listens to me. But also because both my family and friends had been regularly used as &amp;amp;#8220;characters&amp;amp;#8221; in my blog for a number of years before the book was released, so they were at least in part used to it. (At this point I&amp;amp;#8217;m contractually obligated to point out that there&amp;amp;#8217;s no overlap between the book and the blog: the blog covers how I suck now, whereas the book is a memoir of how I sucked as a kid. I would never ask people to pay for something they&amp;amp;#8217;ve already read for free.) (Well, at least not with this book. Maybe if I did a &amp;amp;#8220;Greatest Hits&amp;amp;#8221; or something down the road, but not now.) Smitten: What about when your family and friends read the book for themselves? Jason: This is going to sound like a joke, but I think it&amp;amp;#8217;s really the truth that if I gave either my mom or my dad a ten question quiz about the basic elements of the book - &amp;amp;#8220;What color is the cover?&amp;amp;#8221; &amp;amp;#8220;Within 100, how many pages are in the book?&amp;amp;#8221; or &amp;amp;#8220;Are you mentioned in the book?&amp;amp;#8221; etc - they would not pass. So I guess what I&amp;amp;#8217;m trying to say is that my family, though smart people, are not big readers. This isn&amp;amp;#8217;t necessarily their fault, though. I recently learned a little fun fact. The zip code in which I grew up in South Philly contains 48,000 residents. In this entire zip code, for these 48,000 residents, there is only one bookstore: Show n Tel Adult Center and Show Bar. So you have easier access to magazines like Big Naturals where I grew up than you do The New Yorker. Still, my mom got a super huge kick out of walking into the local Borders and seeing the book, with a picture of me as a kid on the cover, right there on the front table. Same goes for my little sister, who saw it an airport in North Carolina. It&amp;amp;#8217;s like, &amp;amp;#8220;So, you were really actually doing something besides your little internet diary, eh?&amp;amp;#8221; Again, no one listens to me. Smitten: It doesn&amp;#x27;t seem like you held back or censored yourself much, do you regret sharing anything? Jason: Not at all. I mean, it&amp;amp;#8217;s not like my book is some sort of scandal-laden tell-all, exposing deep family secrets of ritualistic devil worship or something. We, like many families, have our shares of stories, though perhaps those related to my family are a little stranger than most and revolve around stabbing, gambling, fireworks, and booze (but in a funny way, of course!). In the book, I mostly try to make light of some of the circumstances in which I grew up, particularly how my dad and I are very different people. For example, he&amp;amp;#8217;s been stabbed; I&amp;amp;#8217;m afraid of bugs. He&amp;amp;#8217;s a mechanic; I once had to exchange a &amp;amp;#8220;broken&amp;amp;#8221; rental car because I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t realize I was driving around with the parking brake on. I could keep going, but you get it. But my dad and I have a great relationship. He&amp;amp;#8217;s a normal guy, who was just crazy in his youth. And throughout his 20&amp;amp;#8217;s. And his 30&amp;amp;#8217;s. And most of his 40&amp;amp;#8217;s. But he&amp;amp;#8217;s totally low-key now. For the most part. Smitten: Have you ever used &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m a published author&amp;quot; as a pick up line? If so, did it work? Jason: C&amp;amp;#8217;mon&amp;amp;#8212;the book&amp;amp;#8217;s only been out for about four weeks! But yes, yes I have. And no, it hasn&amp;amp;#8217;t worked. I would guess that it&amp;amp;#8217;s because most women to whom I&amp;amp;#8217;m directing the &amp;amp;#8220;published author&amp;amp;#8221; line take one look at me and assume whatever I&amp;amp;#8217;ve published is related to something really lame or creepy, like &amp;amp;#8220;Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: A User&amp;amp;#8217;s Guide&amp;amp;#8221; or &amp;amp;#8220;The Magic and Mystery: A Celebration of Rocky Road Ice Cream&amp;amp;#8221; or &amp;amp;#8220;In It to Win It: eBay Bidding Strategies for Used Women&amp;amp;#8217;s Shoes.&amp;amp;#8221; Smitten: Has your love life or confidence with women changed at all since your book was published? Jason: You know, it&amp;amp;#8217;s funny&amp;amp;#8212;my friends and I were talking about this recently. I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think the book has changed my love life (yet, at least), but I&amp;amp;#8217;ll tell you one thing that has substantially increased my confidence with women: age. You see, when you&amp;amp;#8217;re younger and dumber, as a guy, you do things because you think you have to, because that&amp;amp;#8217;s how things are done. You wait the standard three days to call, you don&amp;amp;#8217;t approach the beautiful girl at the bar because you automatically assume she&amp;amp;#8217;s out of your league, you&amp;amp;#8217;d rather jump in a swimming pool filled with jellyfish than tell a woman that you have feelings for her, etc. But when you get older, you realize something: all those stupid mores and customs related to how a man should comport himself in the &amp;amp;#8220;game&amp;amp;#8221; of courtship are just that&amp;amp;#8212;stupid. Age affords you this blend of apathy and confidence&amp;amp;#8212;with a little bit of wisdom thrown in&amp;amp;#8212;that allows you to say, &amp;amp;#8220;Hey, I am attracted that girl over there, so I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to introduce myself. If it doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t work out, that&amp;amp;#8217;s fine. If it does, terrific. Either way, I lose nothing for trying.&amp;amp;#8221; It&amp;amp;#8217;s an off-shoot of arguably the best advice I&amp;amp;#8217;ve ever heard: &amp;amp;#8220;If you regret something, regret it because you did it, not because you didn&amp;amp;#8217;t do it.&amp;amp;#8221; Now, I can say that this advice does not apply to crime, infidelity, or anything that involves spending time with a wild animal that has the ability to easily kill you. But otherwise, it&amp;amp;#8217;s pretty solid advice, and I wish I started following it at 23, instead of 30. Smitten: Any tips for people who are interested in writing books based on their families? Jason: Hope your family doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t read. And if they do, have a good lawyer on call. Thanks Jason! Isn&amp;amp;#8217;t he hilarious? What do you think of his romantic insights? Do you like reading memoirs? Would you ever consider writing one? What would your memoir be about? Your family? Your first love? Would yours be funny like Jason&amp;#x27;s? Or would it be something serious? Art imitating life&amp;amp;#133; * Do or don&amp;amp;#8217;t: making a documentary about your parent&amp;amp;#8217;s unhappy marriage. * What would you make a film about? * What would you write a book about? More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter. Photo: Nicole Goddard"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2010/03/getting-intimate-with-jason-mu>