Pixel Scroll 3/17/21 Seriously, Dude! Don’t Scroll It!

(1) THE SEAWEED OF CRIME. BBC America has begun airing “Fury from the Deep”, another lost Doctor Who story arc reconstructed as an animated miniseries.

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria find themselves on the east coast of England where a gas refinery is experiencing problems, and a sinister heartbeat is throbbing through the pipes.

The Wrap described the project in February: “Lost ‘Doctor Who’ Season ‘Fury From the Deep’ Gets Premiere Date at BBC America”.

The six animated episodes were produced by BBC Studios last year using audio tracks from the original installments starring Patrick Troughton as The Doctor. (The original 1968 versions are among the classic “Doctor Who” episodes that are famously missing from the BBC archives.) The updated animated versions, which aired in the U.K. back in September, will get their U.S. debut on BBC America on Sunday, March 21.

(2) MORE PREVIOUSLY-UNHEARD WHO. Now no longer muted!

(3) ALSO SAVED FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR. It’s the Wonder Woman 1984 gag reel! You didn’t know WW84 was a comedy. And a musical. And a mime show.

(4) ROLL AGAIN. Gen Con, the massive gaming convention, has pushed back its date and announced they now will be putting on a hybrid online/in-person event. “Gen Con Postpones 2021 Convention to September”.

Today, we’re announcing that we are postponing Gen Con 2021 as originally planned for August 5-8 in Indianapolis and announcing plans for a hybrid slate of concurrent in-person and online experiences, including the rescheduled Indy convention, this September 16-19, 2021. We believe this is the best approach both to meet the many challenges of the moment and to explore possibilities for the future.

Gen Con co-owner Peter Adkison added comments on The Official Gen Con Blog:

…After the success of Gen Con Online last year, we know that the magic feeling of Gen Con can translate to a virtual format. It’s not a substitute for the in-person experience, but rather an extension of it. Just as many of us have learned how to run our RPG games over video chat or play board games on one of the incredible virtual tabletop platforms that have been developed, we’re learning how to adapt the convention experience to flexible conditions.

Gaming is changing, and so are we. This will be a Gen Con unlike any other, and the way we emerge from this period of tragedy will carry us into a new future for Gen Con and the hobby we share and love….

(5) WELL, EXCUSE US! Christopher Mark Rose takes a high overview of “Writing About Robots” at From the Earth to the Stars, the Asimov’s SF blog.

There will be a long, difficult appraisal of speculative fiction when artificial intelligences begin to read it critically. I think about this a lot.

Firstly, I find the expression “artificial intelligence” pejorative, and I’m sure that later, electronic voices will join me in objecting to it. What exactly is “artificial” about it?…

… Our writings are like scars we humans make on one another, or recordings of our own scars, encoded, obliquely or not-so, for the future to guess at. But robots are our future, and in the end we can hide nothing from them. It’s too late to stuff all those robot-hunter comic books under the bunkbed, it’s too late to burn all the copies of “I Have No Mouth.” It’s too late now, to rewrite Asimov’s Three Laws.

(6) STILL IN RESIDENCE. The series will be back: “Resident Alien Renewed for Season 2”MSN has the story.

In a major victory for morally conflicted extraterrestrials posing as human doctors everywhere, Syfy has renewed Resident Alien for a second season. The pickup comes just days after TVLine bestowed upon the series’ titular star, Alan Tudyk, its coveted Performer of the Week title. Coincidence? You be the judge!

(7) HOP ON POP. Cora Buhlert has written an article for Galactic Journey about a controversial theatre production which happened in 1966 right literally on her doorstep: “[March 8, 1966] Revolutionary Art for Revolutionary Times: Friedrich Schiller’s The Robbers and the Battle over West German Theatre”. She says, “55 years later, it’s difficult to figure out just why this production was so controversial, because it was an otherwise faithful production of a classic play, starring two of the best actors of their generation who would go on to major stardom. However, people hated it because they disliked the (very cool) pop art background and the costumes.”

 … In most productions of The Robbers, the actors wear 18th century garb, which Karl complements with the slouch hat of the romantic highwayman. In Bremen, however, Karl (portrayed by Vadim Glowna whose mother-in-law Ada Tschechowa was one of the victims of the Lufthansa flight 005 crash in January) dresses in a Superman inspired costume, which looks striking, though it doesn’t provide much camouflage in the deep dark woods of Bohemia. Franz is dressed up like a monkey with a tail, a hunchback and huge fake ears, probably because Franz is supposed to be ugly and the talented 25-year-old Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who portrays him on stage, is rather handsome. Amalia (Edith Clever), meanwhile, emphasises her virginal purity by wandering about in a white nightgown. Again, you would not think that this is particularly shocking, but the furious boos and walk-outs from parts of the audience suggest otherwise….

(8) JOINTS OUT OF TIME. Atlas Obscura maps out “16 Real Places That Look Like They’re From the Future”. I loved seeing the Atlanta Marriott Marquis on the list – I had a lot to say about the design of that place in my 1986 Worldcon report (see File 770 #62.) Even more worthy of praise for its otherworldly appearance is the —

(9) FAN Q&A. Cora Buhlert has added several more entries to her Fanzine Spotlight series which encourages Hugo voters to pay more attention to the fan categories. Here’s an excerpt from “Fanzine Spotlight: Women Write About Comics”.

Tell us about your site or zine.

WWAC (pronounced “Wuh-Whack, according to the poll results) is an Eisner Award-winning online journal that offers diverse insight into the world of comic book culture and the comic book industry at large by amplifying the voices of women and people of marginalized genders. We’re committed to giving our readers diverse, interesting, critical, and fun content on comic books, the comic industry, books, comic book culture, and a look into differing geeky lifestyles.

(10) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.

  • March 17, 2006 — On this day in 2006 in the United States Doctor Who aired “Rose”, the first episode of the new Doctor Who. It starred Christopher Ecclestone as The Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. “Rose” was the first Doctor Who episode to air since the Doctor Who television film in 1996. The story was written by Russell T Davies. Most critics and Whovians generally liked the new series. 

(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]

  • Born March 17, 1906 Brigitte Helm. German actress, Metropolis. In her first appearance as an actress she played two roles, Maria and her double, the Maschinenmensch, plus several uncredited roles as well.  She’s got some other genre credits including L’Atlantide (The Mistress of Atlantis) and Alraune (Unholy Love). Her later films would be strictly in keeping with the policies of the Nazis with all films being fiercely anti-capitalist and in particular attacking Jewish financial speculators. (Died 1996.) (CE) 
  • Born March 17, 1917 – Charles L. Fontenay.  A score of novels, twoscore shorter stories.  Outside our field, editor of the Nashville Tennessean; biography of Estes Kefauver.  (Died 2007) [JH]
  • Born March 17, 1933 – Ken Barr.  A hundred twenty covers, a hundred thirty interiors.  Here is the Dec 58 Nebula.  Here is Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship.  Here is Lord of Thunder.  Here is his poster for The Terminal Man.  (Died 2016) [JH]
  • Born March 17, 1933 – Laurence M. Janifer.  A score of novels, fourscore shorter stories, various pseudonyms, co-authors e.g. Randall Garrett, Terry Carr.  Anthology Masters’ Choice with 18 choosing e.g. Asimov, Bradbury, Davidson, Kornbluth, Lafferty, Moore.  Pianist.  (Died 2002) [JH]
  • Born March 17, 1947 James K. Morrow, 74. I’m very fond of the Godhead trilogy in which God is Dead and very, very present. Shambling Towards Hiroshima is a lot of satisfying satirical fun as is The Madonna and the Starship which is also is a wonderful homage to pulp writers. (CE)
  • Born March 17, 1948 William Gibson, 73. I’ve read the Sprawl trilogy more times than I can remember and likewise the Bridge trilogy and The Difference Engine. The works I struggled with are Pattern RecognitionSpook Country and Zero History. I’ve tried all of them, none were as appealing. (CE) 
  • Born March 17, 1949 Patrick Duffy, 72. Surely you’ve seen him on Man from Atlantis? No?  Oh, you missed a strange, short-lived show. His other genre credits are a delightfully mixed bag of such things as voicing a Goat on Alice in Wonderland, appearing on The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne as Duke Angelo Rimini  in the “Rockets of the Dead” episode and voicing  Steve Trevor in the incredibly excellent “The Savage Time” three-parter on Justice League. (CE)
  • Born March 17, 1951 Kurt Russell, 70. I know I saw Escape from New York on a rainy summer night in a now century-old Art Deco theatre which wasn’t the one I later saw Blade Runner in. I think it’s much better than Escape from L.A. was. Of course there’s Big Trouble in Little China, my favorite film with him in it. And let’s not forget Tombstone. Not genre, you say. Maybe not, but it’s damn good and he’s fantastic in it. (CE)
  • Born March 17, 1951 – Lian Tanner, age 70.  Eight novels.  Two Aurealis Awards.  She has been dynamited while SCUBA diving and arrested while busking.  “I get some of my best ideas while walking on the beach, which is just three houses away at the end of my street….  I recently worked out that I have read more than 10,000 books.”  [JH]
  • Born March 17, 1958 Christian Clemenson, 63. Though I’m reasonably sure his first genre appearance was on the Beauty and The Beast series, his first memorable appearance on the BtVS episode “Bad Girls” as a obscenely obese demon named Balthazar. Lots of practical effects were used. His other significant genre role was on The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. as fish-way-out-of-the-water Eastern lawyer Socrates Poole. And yes I loved that series! (CE) 
  • Born March 17, 1970 – Patrice Nganang, Ph.D., age 51.  Temps de chien won the Marguerite Yourcenar prize and Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noir, tr. Dog Days; eight other novels; essays.  Taught German at Vassar, now Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at State Univ. NY, Stony Brook.  “What compels me to write is the feeling that the complexity of an African life has not been told yet” (he is Cameroonian); see this 2009 interview.  [JH]
  • Born March 17, 1971 – Sherri Smith, age 50.  Two novels for us; five others and Who Were the Tuskegee Airmen?  Nine years at Bongo Comics, six Simpsons titles.  Flygirl (outside our field) an Am. Lib’y Ass’n Best Book for Young Adults and Calif. Book Awards Gold Medalist.  Teaches at Hamline Univ. and Goddard.  [JH]

(12) DRAWN THAT WAY. “Women and Monsters: PW Talks with Aminder Dhaliwal” at Publishers Weekly.

Lately, cartoonist and animator Aminder Dhaliwal has been drawing monsters. “It might have been a result of drawing women for so long,” she says, referring to her acclaimed debut graphic novel, Woman World, “but I started drawing more grotesque things. It slowly segued into the idea of sexualizing monsters.” Dhaliwal drew a cartoon of a cyclops woman with a single breast and posted it on Instagram to delighted responses. This became the seed of her latest funny, socially-aware, fantasy graphic novel, Cyclopedia Exotica, to be published by Drawn & Quarterly in April.

Cyclopedia Exotica takes place in a world where one-eyed cyclopes-folks live alongside two-eyed people and are treated as a minority group. The book opens as an encyclopedia of cyclops history, biology, and culture before a cyclops interrupts the columns of facts to say, “Blegh! What a dull way to learn about a minority.” From that point, the cyclopes take over the story….

(13) FREE READ. Cora Buhlert’s “Cold Equations” rebuttal story “The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign,” posted on her blog in 2020, is now also available as a free e-book with a neat cover in the format of your choice here.

(14) COMPANION’S PERSPECTIVE. In “Doctor Who Mandip Gill: ‘One day the Doctor will be a woman of colour’”, Radio Times has highlights from a BBC Radio 4 interview.

…Syal asks directly if Gill thinks an actress of colour will ever play the Doctor, to which she says, “Yeah, I do. I think there’s a long way to go but there’s definitely room for change. And actually I think at the BBC and at Doctor Who they are very open and forward-thinking, so yes.”

Of course Jo Martin became the first woman of colour to play an incarnation of the Doctor last year, appearing in two episodes of the show’s 12th series, but Doctor Who has never had a BAME star play the Doctor as the show’s lead. Yet.

Syal also asks Gill if she is aware that she inspires young girls in her role as Yaz, to which she says, “I am very, very aware there are little people who are watching.”

Gill, who appears alongside actress Josette Simon on the show, also reflects on how excited she was to be cast in Doctor Who in the first place. “I couldn’t believe my luck. I’d filmed Casualty the January before and that was in the same building,” she says.

‘We were at the top of the hallway and when I finished Casualty, they walked us to the canteen and they were like, ‘Don’t go in that door, that’s for the Doctor Who people!’. There and then I thought I’d never be in Doctor Who… Cut to six, seven months later and you know what? I’m like ‘Don’t go up there… that’s for Casualty!’”

(15) PEEPS GOURMAND. A Food & Drink reviewer reports“I tried every flavor of Peeps I could find, and only 2 were better than the original”.

…It once took about 80 people to make a limited amount during Easter and 27 hours to create one tray.

I was skeptical that this process was ever worth it but was also excited to be proven otherwise.

As a writer for Insider, Just Born sent me 16 flavors of Peeps to taste test so I’d be able to try all of the current offerings. 

First on the list:

Chocolate-pudding flavored Peeps

Review: This choice was fine, but the chocolate taste seemed diluted and reminded me of protein powder. I didn’t mind it, but I didn’t love it either.

(16) JUST BLEW INTO TOWN. Some sff celebs slipped in under cover of a Beijing dust storm.

 (17) MORE ANTIKYTHERA NEWS. In “The Antikythera Cosmos” on Vimeo, Martin Freeth shows how researchers at University College (London) have come up with new ideas about the front of the Antikythera mechanism, showing that we completely misunderstood how the front of the mechanism works.

(18) STRIVING FOR MUNDANITY. Joel Haver says “If Fantasy Characters Made Movies About Our World” then this is what the casting call would look like.

[Thanks to JJ, Nancy Sauer, Mike Kennedy, N., Hampus Eckerman, Michael Toman, Martin Morse Wooster, Cat Eldridge, John King Tarpinian, John Hertz, Cora Buhlert, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peer.]

62 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 3/17/21 Seriously, Dude! Don’t Scroll It!

  1. (10) Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since “Rose”

    (12) I loved “Brisco County” too.

  2. Regarding Brigitte Helm, she had a 10 year contract with the German Film Studio UFA that ended in 1935, not very long into the Nazi era. When the contract expired, she married a Swiss businessman and moved to Switzerland to raise a family. Goebbels had only gradually begun the Nazification of the German film industry by that time, but that was enough for Helm to decide she didn’t want any part of it. Hitler himself tried to persuade her to continue, but her mind was made up. Her last film, an adaption of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband” was in 1935, except for an appearance in a documentary in the 1970’s.

  3. “Maybe the real Pixel Scroll title was the Gods we Stalked along the way.”

  4. (17) My father would have been fascinated. I think he’d probably want to build his own (which he probably could have done: he had the tools and the mechanical-engineering background. “Hey, it’s the file drawer”, as I opened a drawer under the 36-inch lathe, full of files, from rat-tail small to large.)

  5. (8) The Canadian Museum of Human Rights must have been built after the 1994 Worldcon because I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that building!

    (11) So James Morrow is a year younger than I am, huh. I was once mistaken for him on an airplane. It was a flight home from a Worldcon. The couple seated next to me whispered back and forth and then very politely asked me if I was James Morrow.

  6. (11) Kurt Russell was in “The Challenge” an episode of Lost in Space where he and Michael Ansara challenged John and Will Robinson to a series of contests. He was also in the Dexter Riley movies for Disney (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him Now You Don’t, and The Strongest Man in the World.) I always forget he was the original Jack O’Neil in the Stargate movie.

    The Pixel Wore Scrollerskates

  7. 11) IIRC, Charles Fontenay was just an editor at the Tennessean, not The Editor.

  8. @Rob Thornton, I have it on good authority that the pixels are due on Maple Scroll.

  9. 4) Bold of them to assume large gatherings are going to be feasible in September.

    13) That’s delightful and I love it. (I have long wanted to write and been unable to figure out how to structure a story about the resulting coroner’s inquest, so good job actually writing your poke at this terrible story!)

    15) Peeps has flavors now? I did not know that.

  10. 7) I should probably mention that Bruno Ganz, the actor who played the villainous brother, would go on to star in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire and eventually play Hitler in Downfall, the movie from which of all those “Ranting Hitler with wrong subtitles” clips on YouTube are taken. Bruno Ganz also was the bearer of the Iffland ring and therefore officially the best living German language actor. This production was one of his very first roles.

  11. March 17th is also the birthday of Paul Kantner, whose 1970 album, Blows Against the Empire, was the first musical work to be nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation category.

  12. Andrew (not Werdna) says Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since “Rose”

    On the other hand, it seems a lot longer than that. The new Who seems like it seems like it been around forever at this point.

  13. (1) Would this be Hugo eligible? I guess the project to animate lost episodes could be eligible as a related work. But would the animated story itself be considered to contain enough new material to qualify for this year?

  14. Stuart Hall says Would this be Hugo eligible? I guess the project to animate lost episodes could be eligible as a related work. But would the animated story itself be considered to contain enough new material to qualify for this year?

    Other than the dialogue, it’s a new production. That should be sufficient to be considered for qualification for a Hugo.

  15. 11) William Gibson – I re-read Pattern Recognition every couple of years. There’s something about it I find compelling enough that I can never quite get it out of my head. The only other novel which has had that effect on me in the past decade or so is Bruce Sterling’s Zeitgeist. They’re not my favorite books, but I just can’t quit them.

  16. @Soon Lee:

    “Listen to them, the Pixels of the night. What Scrolls they make!

  17. re:(5) WELL, EXCUSE US! Christopher Mark Rose takes a high overview of “Writing About Robots” Firstly, I find the expression “artificial intelligence” pejorative, and I’m sure that later, electronic voices will join me in objecting to it. What exactly is “artificial” about it?…
    Well, it was inevitable, Political correctness about machines. Your smart-toaster will consider his designation a slur…..
    In Fred Saberhagen’s Berzerker’s Wars, Rose would be a Quisling/collaborator with the machines against the human race……

  18. Cora Buhlert: I enjoyed your piece on THE ROBBERS. I think we have had one production of Schiller in Washington in this century.

    What do you mean when you say Ganz was “bearer of the Iffand ring?”

    What is your opinion of Regietheater?

  19. Stuart Hall on March 18, 2021 at 5:05 am said:

    (1) Would this be Hugo eligible? I guess the project to animate lost episodes could be eligible as a related work. But would the animated story itself be considered to contain enough new material to qualify for this year?

    If it did then you’d probably best get nominating it right now, since the DVD of this version was released in September 2020.

  20. Dennis Howard:

    (8) The Canadian Museum of Human Rights must have been built after the 1994 Worldcon because I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that building!

    It was founded in 2008 but didn’t open its doors until 2014. You’d have noticed, it’s easily the tallest thing in the Forks area by a few stories. (Not that it’s hard to tower in the flatland, and we don’t have many high rises outside the heart of downtown). I can’t see it from my house, though I suspect I could try if I could stand on our roof (2 stories and an attic up but steep pitched), and definitely from the roof of the 3 story condo monstrosity across the street. (I’m a 25 minute walk away.)

    I’m amused the photographer tried to make it look stranger by including a piece of one of the skateboard parks in the foreground.

  21. (11) Patrick Duffy is perhaps best known for playing Bobby Ewing on Dallas, which is arguably genre – after all, the series finale had an actual demon in it.

  22. (5) Christopher Mark Rose’s recent “Sentient Being Blues” is a good robot story; i liked it.

  23. I am alive!

    This despite the first full-blown migraine in a few years, rather than a “ghost migraine,” in which I have the exhaustion and some mental confusion or disorientation of the aftermath of a migraine. And because it’s been so long that I had a real migraine that I don’t have any of the Good Drugs for it. With a full-blown migraine and no medication to relieve it, I really, sincerely, want to die.

    That was Wednesday. On Thursday morning, I was recovered enough to keep my appointment to get my first covid vaccine shot! Moderna. My sister has a job that means she gets regular emails from the city I live in, and on Wednesday morning, she actually looked at the information in the footer of one of those emails. She then texted me to tell me to call a number to schedule a vaccine appointment at the Senior Center.

    And yes, I really got an appointment for the very next day.

    In the afternoon, my migraine started.

    So now I don’t know whether to blame the migraine or the vaccine for the exhaustion I’ve been feeling since I got my shot.

    But I’m alive.

  24. Lis Carey: The vaccine will have made some contribution to that feeling, going by my experience.

    In fact, it’s been a week since I got the second shot and I have been feeling crappy and rundown yesterday and today — which makes me wonder if the vaccine has anything to do with that, because the site of the injection is still irritated.

  25. I got a recorded call this evening from the city, wanting to know if I’d like to be put on a list for the vaccine in my area. (Heck, yes!)
    It’s the first time they’ve actually done anything positive to reach people.

  26. Polling my friends who have been vaccinated:

    First dose – arm will be sore for several days (unlike a flu shot); may feel a little out-of-it, or light headache, or tired. Like the aftermath of a case of the flu. Will last for one to three days.

    Second dose – arm will be sore for several days. May have similar symptoms to first dose, or may have 2-3 days of actual flu-like symptoms. (Headache, fatigue, light fever). This is your immune system really ramping up; it’s a GOOD thing, however you might feel about it at the time.

    My friends, coworkers, and acquaintances who had diagnosed cases of COVID had second-dose reactions for their first dose, and first-dose reactions for their second. One friend who had “a bad cold” in April also had second-dose reactions to the first shot, and we therefore assume that cold was COVID. Another acquaintance who had second-dose reactions to the first shot never felt sick during the pandemic but had been exposed to COVID patients and may have had an asymptomatic case.

    So, it’s safe to expect that one of your shots (probably the first one unless you’ve been exposed to COVID) will make you feel a little run-down for a few days, and one of your shots (probably the second) may be the same as the first, or may make you feel like you have the flu for a few days.

    But totally worth it, regardless.

    (I’m encouraged that there’s some indication that the vaccine will also help long-haul COVID patients. I know a few, and it’s rough for them.)

  27. @Mike Glyer–That I am exhausted today, with no migraine, and after a good night’s sleep, says it is definitely the vaccine.

  28. I completed a first pass at Hugo nominations and feel like my choices are a little skimpy in Best Related Work, Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, Best Series and Astounding Award so I’m looking for suggestions.

    When I went looking for a 2020 example of work from my fan artist nominee Maya Hahto, I learned they had designed the DisCon robot mascot.

    I’m nominating Greg Broadmore for fan artist largely for the fantastic ConZealand souvenir book cover but wondering if they belong in pro instead.

  29. @rcade

    If you have time to watch them, The Old Guard (on Netflix) and The Invisible Man (on HBO, where I watched it, but I think it’s also on other platforms) are good candidates for Long Form. I also watched The Vast of Night (on Amazon Prime, and held over re: eligibility to this year by a resolution passed at ConZealand) but I didn’t like it as much as The Invisible Man.

    Series: The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher; Embers of War, Gareth L. Powell: and The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang.

    Astounding: Micaiah Johnson, for The Space Between Worlds; and Alexis Henderson, for The Year of the Witching.

  30. @Bonnie McDaniel I’m reading The Space Between Worlds and it’s pretty good. If it can stick the landing it’s worth a nomination for the Astounding, maybe even for Best Novel.

  31. Chiming in on the vaccine reports…

    I ride along with my mother whenever she needs to venture out, as she needs someone to handle the job of getting her walker into and out of the car. When she got her first Pfizer dose, it was near the end of the site’s working day, and they ended up giving me a leftover dose.

    We got our second doses Thursday, and aside from the injection site feeling like a fairly tender bruise, I have noticed no side effects. But then, I generally feel pretty crappy overall, so any low-level symptoms are likely to get lost in the background noise.

  32. It makes me glad to read about Filers getting their COVID19 vaccines.

    (I admit to feeling FOMO even though it is entirely understandable that the vaccine rollout in New Zealand isn’t progressing with the same degree of urgency happening in the UK & USA: we don’t have any COVID19 cases in the community at the moment. Border staff working in Managed Isolation & Quarantine facilities are highest priority & their vaccinations are well underway. Next are other high risk people, frontline healthcare workers & the elderly. I’m in none of those high-risk groups & will have to wait until mid-2021 when the rest of New Zealand’s population gets their vaccine.)

  33. The BBC reported that the younger you are, the more likely you are to have worse reactions to the vaccine – which has me simultaneously very impatient and very concerned. Rather dreading it if I get a few days of feeling awful, but also, between already-not-going-out-much and shielding I haven’t left the house since November 2019 and at this point throwing myself out of the window just to get outside has become a recurring fantasy, so on that scale a few days of fluishness seems a pretty reasonable trade-off.

    My (a bit older) partner recently got the first shot (on account of getting eligibility through me – although, funny story, I don’t get to get eligibility through me, so I’ll be waiting on it getting to my age group, haha, isn’t it great) and had a very sore arm for a couple of days – like if you really overdid a workout – but otherwise no different from usual. They do, however, strongly recommend getting it on your non-dominant side because they did not and had many regrets.

    I have never been booted from Twitter despite the odd bout of being very sarcastic at people.

  34. I am happy to report that my side effects from the first vaccine shot are fading. I suspect I won’t notice anything tomorrow.

  35. @Meredith – my nephew works in a nursing home and got vaccinated. He’s only 20 and didn’t have any side effects. I read an article here that said you were more likely to have a worse problem with the first dose if you’d had asymptomatic Covid already and a worse problem with the second does if you hadn’t ever had Covid. I wonder if the young people having problems are people who had it without knowing.

  36. @Lorien Gray

    Possible! The Beeb’s article is here (the age thing seems to be a general statistic re: immune response rather than anything specific to COVID vaccines) and also covers other factors, although I don’t think it touches on the one you mention. I’ve never had too bad an experience with the standard flu vaccine so maybe it’ll be fine, but I also feel absolutely flattened any time I have a cold, so… who knows. I’m trying not to worry about it too much since I’ve got a long wait either way.

  37. I’m 36 hours in to having had my second shot, and the arm is definitely more sore than with the first one, but I haven’t had anything really serious. Maybe I’m a little bit more tired than normal, but hard to say for certain.

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