Billy should optimize his potential

Apparently Billy is unstuck in time, he travels back and forth from moments to moments. But why, why,why! Why doesn't he optimize his potential and change past events. I understand the belief of existentialism, but still why not just try something different and see where it goes?
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The "Sun"ny Side of Slaughter House 5

Knowledge from the Asian Perspective

Strapped down to the chair, with no source of happiness and no outlet for relaxation, I was forced to read my math textbook. Beads of sweat trickeled down my red and bloodshot cheeks as I tried my best to focus. Diffrential equations, logarithimic functions, integrals, and random gibberish was flying out of the pages. Bam! Pi was thrown in my face by Archimidies (yummmy cherry pie), I was tangent to the stick that my Mother was beating me with. Standing aside was my Mother, staring at me with a deep glare and grimace. In one hand she held the abacus in the other was a pair of chopsticks. For lunch rice was the only thing on the menu. For personal inspiration the story of Pythagorous was told to me for the millionth time. Well folks, if you do plan on calling the children's help line or calling social workers, I can assure you I do not live this life. I was living the "typical" Asian life. Contrary to common stereotypes, Asian parents don't really beat their kids or force them to do math. They're not all really into getting their kids writing the SATs or going to UPenn or Harvard or the Ivy leagues. Math contests aren't really a big deal, grades aren't really either. Asian parents really just stress this idea of knowledge. From personal experiences, Asian parents aren't really mythical or a rare breed of parents they're simply human. In reality they really stress that knowledge is the key to success. If you look at the job market, what really defines your skills is really just what you know and how you can apply them into your work. A Harvard PhD is a piece of paper that anyone could print off and just wave it around and be pretentious and all arrogant about, but the true meaning of that degree is the symbol that it signifies. With such a degree you have a great amount of knowledge(I'm not saying I want to go to Harvard but the same goes with any PhD from any school). So if you're wondering why I'm rambling about something so random to give you context, here's a quote from Kurt Vonnegut:

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."

Well I have to do my math homework right now(and no my parents aren't forcing me to do it, my math teacher is......)

Signing off:
The "Sun"ny Side of Slaughter House 5

Unstuck in time what are you kidding me?

As I was sitting in the far corner of my English classroom, I was catching on some sleep and dreaming about the strange and bizarre Traflamadorians from the novel Slaughter House 5. For some reason I seemed to somehow come across an akward moment. As I slept I sort of felt out of place in time and in space. Time didn't affect me at all, instead I seemed to be surfing through the space fabrics of time. I really didn't know what was happening, one moment I was sitting in a class at MIT studying the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the next moment I was seemed to be at the age of 35 changing diapers of a 5 year old while cooking breakfast for my wife. And the next moment it seemed to me I got slapped hit in the face and yelled at by my English teacher. Wait was this for real? Was I really unstuck in time? Was I travelling in time? Well the first thing I could tell you is 1. my ear drums were ringing 2. getting hit in the face 100000000000000000000000000years from now and getting hit now both hurt and 3. what was that for? couldn't you just tap me on the shoulder? So woah reality check am I crazy? Well after reading Slaughter House 5 I really think I could relate to Billy the Pilgrim. But is this guy really unstuck in time like I am? No I don't believe so. You could call me a optimist if you were nice, if you were not so nice you could call me a day dreamer and if you were a jerk you could say I couldn't go to MIT or just get married or have kids or achieve the impossible. So like me is Billy really unstuck in time? Wow I can't believe I keep on bringing up this I seem to put so much emphasis on the question....hmmm the irony. It's ironic how Vonnegut also puts emphasis on things by using repetition. It seems to me that when Billy does seem to get unstuck in time Vonnegut always puts some emphasis by somehow repeat in a indirect way of the fragile state of mind of Billy. In my opinion I think Billy is just torn away by war or just crazy. Or maybe Billy is just sort of looking back in time(excluding the whole entire nonsense of the Tralfamadorians, FYI I think Vonnegut is using that event as a gateway to express his views of existentialism). He could be just a war veteran that is suffering from depression and reliving the horrors of the war every moment. Anyways, I better be signing off before being hit again by my parents for spending too much time on the internet. Feeling pain signifies reality.
Signing off,
Sunny Side of Slaughter House 5