Family traditions

     One tradition me and my family have is on christmas. In the morning when we wake up, we all go into the living room and open presents! after were done playing with all of our new toys and reading our new books (which is usually some time in the afternoon) we go over to my grandma's house in the adjacent neighborhood and have a second christmas with our cousins and aunts and uncles. After we're done opening presents there, we all have dinner together and play around for the rest of the night. This is one of my family traditions that we can all enjoy each year!

"Journal Of The Cleft" story

The gentle breeze that blew across my face felt good in the humid heat of north Florida. I instinctively grinned at hearing the good news, but dried out my mouth when I did. I pedaled my small orange mountain bike as fast as I could without straining my lungs. I got the bike for my ninth birthday. at the time it actually fit me, but now I had to hunch over while riding it. I steered over into the shade underneath the live oaks, magnolias, and palm trees that lined the road throughout my neighborhood. The shade immediately felt at least ten degrees cooler than in the sun. The average temperature here in summer ranges from eighty on a cool day to ninety-five on a hot day, even in winter the temperature was probably only seventy to eighty. Even though it was unbearable to be outside for more than an hour, it rained often and the rain was cool. You could still see dark water stains in pits of the asphalt road remaining from the last big rain. Today was wednesday which means the garbage people came to pick up plant scraps from people doing yard work. Huge piles of tree branches and saw palmetto clippings lined the left side of the road while only a few on the right. Occasionally there would be palm tree clippings in the piles which we would take and use as makeshift machetes. I carefully remove my hands from the show handlebars of my bike and raised them up to my head. After a few weeks of practice I finally mastered the art of riding without hands. I quickly skirted around the sharp turn separating the two hemispheres of the neighborhood. As my bike speeds up it starts to wobble and I carefully slow down and maneuver it around the next corner. After the corner there is a fork in the road. Although it's a loop I opt to turn right as my destination is in upper right of the circle. I slow my bike even more so I can find the house. I scan the first few houses and instantly tule them out as they have cars in their driveway. A few houses later I spot two next to each other that have vacant drives. I spot a narrow sand path littered with weeds and a barbed fence in the background. "Ah here we are" I whisper to my self, quickly glancing around to make sure nobody was listening. I mount my bike and quickly pedal throughout the pit ridden driveway. The small native weeds and vines brush and scrape against my ankles, but I hardly feel it as I'm used to trekking through the local pine forests. A rusty barbed fence lines the left of the path, blocking access to a unused dirt road just beyond it. I see my destination just past some low scrub, a lime green one story house with a sheet metal roof and a wooden picket fence. The end of the path lets out to another dirt road with a giant mud puddle in the dead center. I ditch my bike at the end of the path and walk around the mud puddle and into the empty lot next to the house. From the lot I can see to the end of the road, a giant three story tall bright purple house sat at one side of a small dirt cul-de-sac. It was mostly blocked with trees but the bright plum color shown through them. I rattle the rusty coupling on the wooden gate until it comes loose. The gate swings open and I step into the small overgrown lawn. I half walk-half jump up the steps on the small house and pry open the creaky screen door. As always, the house in emanating with the smell of fresh cookies. I rap my knuckles on the front door and stick my hands in my pockets. I hear footsteps coming towards the door. The door quickly flips open.

"Distortion" story

For more years than I can count I have been here. I have become accustomed to this world of darkness and confusion. Although it hasn't all been bad. My time here has taught me to comprehend the universe around me in a new way.

around the world in 6.4 seconds

     Yep, I'm in big trouble. The helicopters started coming in closer to the old warehouse. "come on, follow me!" the professor yells at me from behind a large crate. I sprinted over to the crate, he swiftly grabbed my wrist and pulled me down a shaft behind the crate, still firmly clasping the bronze device in his hand. I guess I should start at the beginning, I'l make this quick.

      After a few weeks of summer, I started getting extremely bored. The various trails and roads started to get tempting so one day I started walking. I made it a routine to walk down the old trails and roads. After a few weeks of walking I found an old abandoned warehouse. I went inside and found Professor Darius. The professor had been living in the warehouse and was working on a strange invention. A time machine. He refused to tell me what it actually did. I started visiting him in the warehouse and we became friends. I didn't tell anyone about it until 6 days ago. I was talking to my friend Jacob and told him about the professor, I told him not to tell but apparently he did because right now the warehouse was being surrounded by black helicopters. So here we are trying to escape and as it turns out the professor had this planned for a while because he has a secret exit.

     ]At the end of the latter a long dark stone hallway stretches for hundreds of feet, maybe even miles. As we sprint down the hallway I start to question the professor about the machine. To my surprise, he answers. "This is no ordinary time machine my boy!" he says excitedly. "Theres such thing as a normal time machine?" I say in a snarky tone. "This time machine does not simply take you back and forth through time, It slows down and speeds up time!" The professor is obviously very happy about the completion of of his device despite being chased by the government. "So you could like stop time and go home and get something and come back and nobody would even notice?!" "precisely!" the professor shouts. "well then why don't you use it right now so we can get out of here!" I say, starting to feel anger towards the professor. "Well, I haven't exactly tested it out yet" the professor gasps. "how about we try it now!" I say as I reach over. I swiftly lunge at the palm-sized device's activation button. I hear the button click and then everything goes quite.

     Me and the professor stand in the hallway in confusion. "It appears that it  didn't work" the professor says drearily. "Don't look now professor" I say pointing at the ground. The pebbles that we kicked up as we were running are suspended in the air. "By jove!" The professor shouts. he picks up one of the pebbles, lifts it up to head height and lets go. The small rock floats in the air. "Ok, lets try the other feature" the professor says blandly. Before I can say another word, the professor turns a small knob on the device.

     Suddenly I start to feel out of breath again, and then me and the professor start running down the hallway at ridiculously fast speeds. My vision is blurry and I can't think of anything for more that a couple of milliseconds. I see the ladder for a split second before me and the professor zip up it. The light causes me to go blind for a few seconds but I'm still moving. It feels like I'm not controlling my own actions. The professor apparently clicked the button because my brain starts filling with information and flipping in-between subjects. suddenly my mind goes blank and I feel dizzy. "That was amazing!" the professor says still swaying around dizzily. "Now we just have to get to Tochigi Japan" The professor states, satisfied with the device. "Whoa whoa whoa, what!" I yell at the professor. "Indeed, there is a company there that manufactures a piece that I need for my device.

thank you notes

Dear Ms. Jennifer,
Thank you for chaperoning me and the Nice Guys. I think that the nice guys made a very good team and it wouldn't have been as fun without you. You brought a positive attitude to the group and kept it until the very end. I appreciated that you looked out for me and always made sure that there was something I could eat. Thanks again for chaperoning us. Go nice guys!
sincerely,
Greyson

Dear Ms. Maureen,
Thank you for chaperoning me and the Nice Guys. You were very helpful and always willing to lend a hand. Thank you for buying me food after I had used my voucher and making sure that I got something healthy to eat. You kept us safe and not to mention out of trouble. I enjoyed having such great chaperones. Go nice guys!
Sincerely,
Greyson

Dear Mr. Steve,
Thank you for chaperoning me and the Nice Guys. You were very nice to me and and the rest of the nice guys. Although we didn't always see you, you were always behind us making sure we were all together.
My favorite thing was the zoo, what was your's? Go nice guys!

Thanks again for chaperoning us.

sincerely

Greyson

Dear Ms. Ginger
Thank you for teaching us the many different types and mediums of art. You are the best art teacher I have ever had and I hope that you will keep teaching us here at Tesla for a long time. You are a very creative person. every time you teach us I want to keep doing art for the whole day. You are a very good artist and I admire your work. No bones about it, some day your art will be very famous.
Thank you for being our art teacher.

sincerely

Greyson

Wolf Preservation

Wolf preservation is very important. As most animals, if wolves went extinct the ecosystem would be messed up. Most people see wolves as brutal, savage, carnivores that will kill you if you come in contact with one, but fortunately this is wrong. The truth is, Wolves are more important they get credit for. if they were to be hunted to extinction many species would be harmed, including humans.

Even if you personally dislike wolves, you won't want them to go extinct. If wolves no longer existed many species would slowly die off as well. For example: Wolves pick off and eat animals that are small, injured or sick, so if you take away this animal's predator there gene pools will slowly get worse and worse which will make them to also go extinct. There is also many plants that benefit from rotten meant and bones, and if these plants don't survive then many species of herbivores many go extinct as well. People generally underestimate wolves and there effect on the ecosystem, and thus think that they are unimportant.

Among other things, people hunt and bounty wolves because we think they are simply savage beasts that will attack anything, this is very very wrong. Wolves, like many other creatures are scared of humans and will only attack there natural prey. There has NEVER been a report of a healthy wolf attacking a human in North America. Our fear of wolves dates back to the 1800s when mythology about wolves was very common, this is also where stories like little red riding hood, the three little pigs, and the bot who cried wolf originated. Wolves are not blood-thirsty man eaters and should be treated with the same respect as any other animal.

Washington DC big writing, Draft #1, May 7, 2012

Over the four days that I stayed in Washington DC I think me, my group, and my chaperones did more than I normally do in a month. In one day alone we went to two to three memorials as well as three to four museums, on the last day we also went to a zoo. We could've stayed in DC for two weeks and we still wouldn't have run out of things to do. We even went on a ghost tour later one night. Washington DC is a very fun place to go if your looking for a lot of things to do, here are some of things to do:

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum is very fun if your looking for something obscure to do. If you have just spent a few days touring around seeing some of the things like the Capitol or the Lincoln Memorial then this is definitely a change of scenery. Although you wouldn't normally except much from the small building on the corner, it is quite outstanding. Last week When we went to the museum I was very impressed at how realistic the wax figures looked, if you took a picture by one of the figures and showed it to your friends they would believe you! Although it might not look like a large tourist trap, that doesn't mean its not fun, in fact it is quite the opposite. I would highly recommend that if you are in the area that you visit Madame Tussauds.

The Newseum is the museum of news and journalism. The Newseum hosts exhibits ranging from the history of news and journalism, to a piece of the berlin wall, to an archive of newspapers from different eras, to a piece of the world trade center. The Newseum is also highly interactive, for example there are interactive touchscreen panels showing todays newspapers from around the world. Although if you happen to go to the Newseum someday, and you are afraid of heights, you might not want to take the glass elevator to the fifth floor.

If you are an animal person like me than you definitely want to visit the National zoo. The zoo is a great place to see animals that you wouldn't normally see in zoos, like giant pandas or kiwi birds. If you want to see smaller mammals, they have a section for that, or amphibians they have a section for that too. When we went to the zoo i was very astonished at how convenient it was, if i wanted to see a orange toxic newt you could just go to the salamander section and find the label that says "orange toxic newt." the zoo was very fun, I would love to go there again.

All together going to DC was a very fun and not to mention educational trip. I had never gone on a school trip until then so this was very exciting and fun for me. There was an endless amount of stuff to do there which just makes me want to go back. If i ever went to DC again i would definitely spend more time in the zoo and also the natural history museum. I had never really gone to DC before but now I know that it is an awesome place to visit and  hope that i get too go back!