Today is 06/20/2026

The Stand - complete edition, by Stephen King

(from internet transcript)

excerpt, Chapter 21

He [Stuart Redman] watched the six o’clock news very carefully every night









CNN

Opinion: The drama around Sam Altman is an urgent warning

Opinion by Jill Filipovic

Published 9:50 AM EST, Tue November 21, 2023

The Altman story is fascinating because Altman is the most powerful figure in AI technology, which in effect makes him one of the most powerful men in the world. But that should give us pause: Who is he, what power does he hold, what is he doing with it, who does he answer to, and are we comfortable with this much life-altering potential being held by a few unaccountable people?









The Stand - complete edition, by Stephen King

excerpt, Chapter 29

At just past noon on the twenty-fourth, Elder and two male nurses had come and taken away the television. The nurses had removed it while Elder stood by, holding his revolver (neatly wrapped in a Baggie) on Stu. But by then Stu hadn't wanted or needed the TV it was just putting out a lot of confused shit anyway. All he had to do was stand at his barred window and look out at the town on the river below. Like the man on the record said, You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.









by me, Kerry Burgess, posted by me: July 15, 2017 11:11 pm

The Leftovers - The Book of Nora - television series episode Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired Sunday 10:00 PM Jun 04, 2017 on HBO (Comcast On Demand 15 July 2017)

Answers are elusive in the series finale.



Nora Durst: I knew there was a chance it would kill me, but I made my peace with that. And I said goodbye to my brother and I climbed right in.

Kevin Garvey: And then you changed your mind.

Nora Durst: No. I didn't change my mind. I went through. I was in the parking lot, naked curled up like a baby. It was the same parking lot I'd just been in, except there were no trucks no people, no nothing. It was cold, so I started to walk. I walked by empty houses abandoned buildings. And I found a store, so I went in and there were clothes there-- clothes hanging on racks-- so I got dressed and I got back to walking. I walked long enough to convince myself that I was the only thing alive in that place. And then night came, and I saw lights, so I went to them. It was a house, and there was a man and a women there. They were kind and they told me the man told me that seven years earlier, he was in a supermarket and every single person disappeared except for him. And the women told me that she lost her husband, her three daughters, and all eight of her grandchildren. And that's when I understood. Over here, we lost some of them. But over there, they lost all of us.









Nora Durst: They were happy. And I understood that here in this place, they were the lucky ones. In a world full of orphans, they still had each other. And I was a ghost. I was a ghost who had no place there. And that, Kevin, is when I changed my mind. The physicists who sent me through told me the first person to use the machine was the guy who invented it. His name was Dr. Van Eeghen. I'm pretty sure they were making fun of me, but they said when I went over that I should look him up, so I did. That took a long time, too. But I found him and I asked him to make another machine because he already knew how. And he asked me if I had come all that way, why in God's name did I wanna go back? And I told him it's because I didn't belong there. So, he built it. And I came back through. I came back here.









by me, Kerry Burgess: 21 June 2015

She went before I did but I was already there.

I thought about that extensively. I think I wrote here before about how I tried to find again what I thought I wrote in my journal about it but could not find anything.

I had been there for months or longer. One day, I was passing through New York and I had the urge to drive through New York City. I was thinking that my mind was laboring with the notion I would be leaving there on that day going back to the real world and so I had taken out of my luggage my dress white US Navy uniform I was wearing that day months and months ago I found myself there in my new world. I had parked somewhere in the massive urban city and was walking along when I saw her there on the sidewalk, thinking she was a mannequin. I thought extensively of how only certain new vessels remained and I operated one US Navy ship to cross the Atlantic. We parted at a doorway after stating I would return to Charleston and I walked through a doorway before I even thought to say goodbye turning to find myself alone again.









The Leftovers (2014) s03e08

"The Book of Nora"

Nora Durst: And that's when I understood. Over here, we lost some of them. But over there, they lost all of us. So, I went and did what I came there to do. I went to find my kids. Planes don't really fly over there. They have enough resources, just not enough pilots. So, I found a boat that would take me. No boats go directly from Australia to New York, so it took me a long time to get there.









from my private journal, as me, Kerry Burgess, typed after being released from the USA Veterans Affairs psychiatric hospital enduring many months sitting in a grungy two-computer room in a homeless shelter on the waterfront in downtown Seattle:

by me, Kerry Burgess, excerpts from my private journals: 02/25/10 3:33 PM

but other times I think he was organic and then that leads me to thinking about how I wonder what is the real difference which then leads me to think about how that devalues life itself, or at least, those of use who have been duplicated. So the clone of me the clone shows up and he gives me instructions that he types out on a non-internet and non-wireless equipped computer and from those instructions I know where to find the teleportation device that will transport me into the virtual world that belongs to me, which I have been thinking for a while, contains no mirrors and there is nothing in there where I can see my reflection. So I go to that transportation device and I read through the instructions for activating it and a new aspect of the process, which I now think of from "The Terminator" is that I have to take off all my clothes before I am transported and then I am transported to my virtual world. The reason for the clothes is simply that, for me, there are factors constructed into the virtual world that creates a minor sense of hardship and indeed when I transport I am in the same location where the device is stored but there are no clothes there, or any people for that matter, and I have to walk outside in the freezing rain to find shelter. I am transported to the same location I remember but many of the buildings and structures that I would see at that location are gone in the virtual world. The road is still there but there are power lines or gas stations or many other structures that are useless in that virtual world. There are automobiles but only in new car lots and they don't require gasoline.









by me, Kerry Burgess, posted by me - H.V.O.M at 7:55 AM Monday, October 11, 2010

I was thinking extensively about that again last night.

The existence is okay for a while but then it becomes tormenting enough to look for a way back to the real world. There is always something important missing that eventually becomes unbearable.









by me, Kerry Burgess, posted by me: July 15, 2017 11:11 pm

The Leftovers - The Book of Nora - television series episode Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired Sunday 10:00 PM Jun 04, 2017 on HBO (Comcast On Demand 15 July 2017)

Answers are elusive in the series finale.









"The Book of Nora" - The Leftovers

Nora Durst: The physicists who sent me through told me the first person to use the machine was the guy who invented it. His name was Dr. Van Eeghen.



"The Book of Nora" - The Leftovers

Nora Durst: I'm pretty sure they were making fun of me, but they said when I went over that I should look him up, so I did. That took a long time, too. But I found him and I asked him to make another



- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 11:42 PM Pacific-timezone USA Saturday 06/20/2026