"I don't have a tv now but that's ok. The shows in my mind are almost always better"
--- The MAXX.

Linderman: There comes a time when a man must ask himself whether he wants a life of happiness or a life of meaning.
Alex: I'd like to have both.
Linderman: *chuckles* Can't be done. Two VERY different paths. I mean, to be truly happy, a man must live absolutely in the present. No thought of what's gone before and no thought of what lies ahead. But a life of meaning, a man is condemned to wallow in the past and obsess about the future.

*flip*

Alex: You told her I was a kind man. How kind is it to give love, only to take it away?
Eleanor: It's given to and taken away from all of us.
Alex: Why does that not comfort me?
Eleanor: Because you are a kind man.

*flip*

Alex: He didn't have to carry me and lie and make me think I was better than I was.
Adrian: He never lied.
Alex: Those fights weren't right. I never fought anybody in their prime. There was always some angle to keep the title longer than I shoulda had it. Do you understand?
Adrian: You've gotta understand, he loved you! That was his job, protecting you.
Alex: Protectin' don't help nothin'. It makes things worse. You wake up one day thinking you're a winner, but you're not. You're a loser.

*flip*

[last lines]
Doctor: And where do you live, Simon?
Alex (as Simon): I live in the weak and the wounded... Doc.

*off*

I wish, I wish...

Having counted a thousand waves, the boy summoned the thing that lives at the end of the ocean, down into the abyss where foaming waters plunge towards the invisible heart of the world. “Ah, silly lad”, hissed the dripping shade as it emerged. And they talked long and eagerly, for the sea demon is an old and lonely creature who fancies company above most things. The boy did not soon speak his wish (he was granted a wish, you see), because he became enthralled with the stories told by his newfound friend – and in that the astute demon did not rush the boy, for its own well concealed reasons.

It's easy to fight when everything's right,
And you're mad with the thrill and the glory;
It's easy to cheer when victory's near,
And wallow in fields that are gory.
It's a different song when everything's wrong,
When you're feeling infernally mortal;

(...)

And so in the strife of the battle of life
It's easy to fight when you're winning;
It's easy to slave, and starve and be brave,
When the dawn of success is beginning.
But the man who can meet despair and defeat
With a cheer, there's the man of God's choosing;
The man who can fight to Heaven's own height
Is the man who can fight when he's losing.

(Robert William Service)

*static* … you are tuned to SAM 85.7, where the news are inevitably fabricated since we have no contact whatsoever with the real world. It’s the only radio for you lunatics and daydreamers out there looking for a sympathetic voice in this brute, harsh world. Good evening to all! Moving on to the latest reports – some extremely heavy traffic is expected as the holiday approaches and the days grow short and quiet. The proper authorities have announced a plan to launch counter measures such as work, games and television, but a hint of panic gains the streets as specialists claim that the old methods will NOT suffice to stop the imminent chaos on its tracks. Here’s an outraged statement from a spokesperson of the Brain Council, “We have been dealing with this preposterous state of affairs for years without end! It cannot be expected that we be able to restore normality without any support from the other members of the Union, specially those who most directly benefit from the services we provide!”. The inflamed remark is clearly a bitter allusion to the mutinous condition of the administration in the Thoracic Precincts, whose overseers could not be found to comment on the situation. It is widely known that the enmity between those sections isn’t new, as history shows that there has ever been minimal mutual support between the Brain and the Heart – of which a former administrator once said, “Trying to govern the Heart isn’t difficult. It is pointless”. In response, many groups of workers in the Frontal Lobe are threatening to launch a strike, further weakening the fragile balance that has… *static*