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The Perks of Being John's Assistant

2013-07-02 · documentary visit · Rosianna Halse Rojas · 3:33 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Comedy & performance · tags: guest or collab, community lore

Guest host Rosianna Halse Rojas, John's London-based assistant, tours her office and lists comically absurd duties, then sincerely calls it the best job she has had, made possible by online tools that did not exist when she started watching in 2006-07: 'we're living in the future'.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Rosianna introduces herself as John's assistant and secret London sister; tour of her London office

  • ★★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: Rosianna introduces herself as John's assistant and, 'as of way back when', John and Hank's secret London sister. — 00:00:01 · Rosianna Halse Rojas, John Green, Hank Green, secret sibling, London

    “I'm also John and Hank's secret london sister, as of way back when.”

  • ★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: Because she lives far away in London, people most often ask what she does as John's assistant; after Hank's Missoula and John's Indianapolis offices, she tours hers. — 00:00:07 · London, Missoula, Montana, Indianapolis

00:00:38 — Scheduling via Craigslist, Gmail and Skype: Pizza John shirts, warming John's car seat, commuting to Indianapolis, crossword lookups, Virgin Atlantic

  • ★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: She says a large part of her role is scheduling, which she is awesome at, using Craigslist, shared Gmail calendars and Skype credit. (playful) — 00:00:38
  • ★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: She jokingly lists duties: having John's Pizza John shirts sorted in rainbow order, his car seat warmed, commuting three days a week to Indianapolis, crossword lookups. (joke) — 00:00:45 · Pizza John, Indianapolis

00:01:30 — Security testing (Homeland, the NSA, passwords), washing John's tissues, ghostwriting love letters to Steven Gerrard as a West Ham fan

  • ★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: In mock 'security testing', like the NSA, she hacks John's accounts and changes his passwords every three hours, every 15 minutes at 'DFTBA con four'. (joke) — 00:01:30
  • ★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: Rosianna says she is a die-hard West Ham United fan; she admits Steven Gerrard is a very talented Liverpool player, even a little handsome, but feels she betrays her beloved Irons. (playful) — 00:02:12 · Rosianna Halse Rojas

00:02:31 — Spare-time projects: Henry and Alice's library, a Globe Theatre replica, John's Lauren Conrad collection

  • ★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: Her joke spare-time projects: a library for Henry and Alice from The Jolly Postman to The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and a Globe Theatre replica in John's garden. (joke) — 00:02:31 · Henry Green, Alice Green

00:02:58 — Jokes aside: the best job she's had; reading John's blog in 2006 and Brotherhood 2.0 in 2007; tools that make it possible; living in the future; sign-off

  • ★★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: Jokes aside, Rosianna says being John's assistant is honestly the best job she has ever had, and it is really cool working with the brothers. — 00:02:58 · John Green, Hank Green, Rosianna Halse Rojas
  • ★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: She recalls reading John's 'very static' blog in 2006 and being addicted to Brotherhood 2.0 in 2007. — 00:03:03 · John Green, Brotherhood 2.0
  • ★★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: The tools she uses for the job without thinking - Skype Out, shared calendars, OnStar emails - weren't really possible back then: 'we're living in the future'. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Rosianna Halse Rojas: So, she tells Hank, we're living in the future, and she's loving it. — 00:03:23

Humor (dominant)

  • John calls her during the day to look up dictionary words, not for his next book but to complete the crossword. — 00:01:16

    “He says it's not cheating if he asks me.”

  • Standard assistant stuff includes washing and blow-drying John's used tissues. — 00:02:03

    “so that he can reuse them in the name of sustainability.”

  • Among her normal duties she ghostwrites fan mail from John to Steven Gerrard. — 00:02:08

    “and by fan mail, I mean love letters.”

  • OnStar emails tell her when John should put more air in his tyres. — 00:03:20

    “Which he spells with an 'i' which is weird.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Rosianna Halse Rojas

Also: People: Alice Green · Andy Carroll · Benedict Cumberbatch · Henry Green · Lauren Conrad · Steven Gerrard · William Shakespeare

Projects: Brotherhood 2.0

Works: Homeland · Teen Wolf (2011 TV series) (“the adolescent wolf program”) · The Jolly Postman · The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Organizations: Craigslist · Liverpool FC · National Security Agency · OnStar · Skype · Virgin Atlantic · West Ham United F.C.

Terms: DFTBA (“DFTBA con four”) · Pizza John · secret sibling

Concepts: DEFCON (“DFTBA con four”)

Places: Atlantic Ocean · Indianapolis · London · Missoula, Montana · Shakespeare's Globe

Characters: Nancy McNally

Products: Gmail

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