Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse- Five, shows many interesting concepts and story ideas. The flow of ideas and events is smooth and comprehensible (though the protagonist is constantly traveling through time), and it's a well written novel in a whole. Some quotes from the story caught my attention;

    "It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever" (p.27).

    The Tralfamadorians are aliens who perceive in four dimensions, as in they can relive or visit any point of their life in the past or future, anytime they want. In this sense, death is meaningless to them, as they see existence as infinite. For example, they propose that mourning in the case of a death is silly, as a dead person is still very alive and existing in the past. This brings us to another, very prevalent quote in the story;

    "So it goes" (p.2).

    This quote is seen almost every two or three pages, and it is a saying that Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist, learns from meeting the aliens. It is used in the book after describing a tragic event (the Dresden bombing, a plane crash, etc), to empathize human mortality, and how little it means to the Tralfamadorians, who tell Billy about how life does not simply end with death. One more quote that caught my eye;

    "'GOD GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE, COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS I CAN, AND WISDOM ALWAYS TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE.' Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future" (p.60).

    This prayer serves as a motivational quote, though Billy is described as unenthusiastic about living. I think this quote embodies Billy's powerlessness in his situation, being told of his lack of free will and choice, and then waking up uncontrollably in different points in the timeline of his life. This theme of fatalism is explored heavily in Kurt Vonnegut's science fiction, and could be seen as the most important element of the novel.

L33T KR3W (pwnz u amirite)

   Computer and text slang have become ubiquitous and ever present in our society, due to our new technologies and their widespread popularity. Much of computer and text slang is derived from abbreviations, misspellings, and simplified words. The vocabulary of Internet and text users is a reflection of our modern lives, showcasing the fast and convenient attitude and behaviour of us who live with advanced technology. How? Let us examine the trends of our modern world; the popularity of instant messaging, social networking, and texting have gone up exponentially, showing how we've grown accustomed and embracing of our new inventions. These concepts of instant, quick ways to connect socially without delay adhere perfectly to our growing desires and "need" of convenience and "asap" service, so their popularity comes off as no surprise. Some may think of this type of vocabulary as a display of laziness and lack of education, but I think of it as similar to any sort of popular slang in the English language. Think of language as a large organization, or something as simple as a tree- the roots and core remain, but it is constantly growing and changing, forming new branches and expanding until the point of dying off. It is a waste of energy protesting this, as it is natural for language to "evolve" to suit whatever is popular at the time. Thus, like popular English slang in the past, most of this writing will gradually disappear and be forgotten.

kthnxbai