Our Utopian City

Cloud Bridge City

City Values

Community (Town Centre) – Our city has a town centre located in the middle of both areas (suburbs and downtown) which brings a sense of community. This is to show how the people are not divided and are equal; they are able to engage with one another while viewing both areas. Another key feature of the city which promotes community is the sky walk bridge used for transportation, which connects the people of both areas.  

Law/Order (Town Hall) – A town hall in the centre of our city represents fair and non-discriminatory law and order for all, in order to maintain peace and equality. This building lets citizens rightfully and freely express their opinions for those elected into power, and various political topics.  

Positive Relationships (Park) – By having a town park, it motivates citizens to go outside, and interact with both others, and the environment. A playground is placed for small children which encourages recreation and relationship building.  

Health (Hospital) – Having a hospital in our city is important because it helps with the citizens’ physical health. They provide an environment to treat minor to major diseases/illnesses, as well as a workspace to research unknown outbreaks/diseases that may occur in the future.  

Education (School) – A school is important as it teaches children important principles of life while educating them on topics which helps them shape their own values. This is especially important as schools act as the foundation/building blocks for nurturing future generations to be kind and respectful. 

Environment (Recycling Depot) – Having a recycling depot in our city motivates our citizens to recycle instead of contributing to landfills— gearing our city towards a more zero-waste environment. By having one in our city, we’re encouraging them to maintain a clean environment which benefits not only our community, but the overall wellbeing of our planet earth. 

Communication Reflection

To make our fictional city, we used City Creator. However, I used an app on my phone to add some extra details– as well as make the City legend.

We both felt that the website we used was lacking in customization options, so I did my best to try and add a bit more detail in order to bring our city to life. Other than the fact that ”City Creator” did not have many customization options, I feel that we did not come across any other problems.

We did our best to divide the work equally amongst ourselves, as we set tasks for each other at the beginning of our first work block. (While she worked on creating/designing the city on ”City Creator,” I started planning a layout for what would be the City Legend. And later on, we would split the value descriptions between the both of us.)

Fortunately, most of our project was done in our first class– meaning we didn’t have to contact each other outside of class.

I think we worked pretty well together. We were efficient when it came to finishing the city design, and I feel that the values we came up with were well thought out.

My partner is a very well-spoken individual, and I was happy to be able to work with her. I feel that she did especially well when we were writing about our values. While writing about our values, I admittedly got stumped when coming up with some ideas– which, luckily, my partner helped me out with. Her concepts and ideas were clear and straight to the point, and personally, I felt that she really carried the writing portion of our project.

I was very happy with the finished project.

If we had more websites/programs to work with, (as well as time) I think that we could have added more details to make the City even better than it is now.

(Note: I edited 2 versions of our city– one during the day, and one at night. While the latter will be shown on my partners blog, the daytime photo will be shown on mine.)

My model Town

Creating a Model Factory Town


Name of the town: AkinnaTown
Company Name: Fish and Co.
Resources available: Fish, crops; there’s also a train that carries supplies in and out of town
Elements of the town: Water
Population: 300
Explanation / Brief History: Originally built by a lake to catch fish to supply the surrounding towns, AkinnaTown has now grown in size, it now housing several factories and boarding houses.

Media Fluency Reflection

Using the software reflection

-How was the ease of access in building the town, despite this being a very super basic software?

It was fairly simple, so I’d say pretty easy in terms of being able to find and manage everything.

-Were you able to apply the skills you learned in the planning stages appropriately to a digital environment?

I think so.

-What were the sources you researched that made this an “authentic make-believe” town?

Honestly, I didn’t use a lot of sources. I googled some images and got some information, later comparing some of my ideas with already existing towns. I tried my best to make a town that was different than the ones I saw, so I hope it turned out okay.

-Is there other software online that could have done the job better? Explain.

Yes; I think so, anyways.

I’ve played SimCity 2000 before, and I think it might have been better for making a town. While it’s cool that you could move around buildings and make your own town on this website, SimCity lets you play it live. This makes it so your town can do things like make money, or grow crops.

About Me

My Bio

My name is Annika and I’m 13 years old.

I like reading, and my favourite subject is probably Language Arts. I like writing too, but I don’t do it as much as I’d like to; I sometimes have trouble organizing my thoughts, so I tend to stray away from the topic at hand more than I’d like to admit.

This year, I’m trying to work on my time management skills. I procrastinate a lot with homework, so most days I finish homework on the morning of the due date. (I’ve had this as a goal for three years, so that should tell you how much I actually procrastinate.)

I have trouble with Social Studies and Science, mostly because it involves memorization. My memory isn’t the best, so I have to review it a lot more times than I’d do with something like a math test.

My Favourite Website

Fanfiction.net is my favourite website. As you can tell from the name, it’s a website that has, you know, fanfictions.

While there are other websites which provide things to read, I find Fanfiction.net to be the site where more experienced writers go to post their works. Meaning, (from what I’ve seen and read) there are a lot less grammatical/spelling mistakes and more interesting storylines. It also seems to cover more genres than other sites; while the other websites have more works that centre around the protagonists love life, I much prefer genres like sci-fi and horror.

My Favourite video

This year I have a goal to make my writing more descriptive, and hopefully write a multichapter fanfiction. I’ve written fanfictions in the past, but all of them were one-shots, most of which being around 2000 words. Multichapter fanfictions are harder to write, due to the fact you need to create a personality or backstory for the protagonist. Whereas with one-shots, you don’t really have to build on the characters that much.

My Favourite Image

Earlier last year, I found something similar to this on Instagram. I don’t remember the full caption, but it was something about confidence and how you should feel proud while looking at yourself in the mirror. A lot of people don’t look at themselves like that because of their insecurities, and this picture tells people to look at themselves with pride.

By far one of my favourite pictures that I’ve come across.

My Favourite Quote

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

-Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

This quote is really overused on social media, but if it wasn’t so, I probably wouldn’t have found it.

A lot of people tend to cling onto memories, sometimes because they don’t want to face their present struggles. While reminiscing about the past, they might get upset, mostly because it seemed to be a happier time back then. They don’t understand that you can’t fully live in the present if you dwell on the past. Or that you should be able to look back and acknowledge that while it may have been a happier time, they shouldn’t be sad because it’s over; but be happy because it all happened.

That is how I interpret the quote, and I like the message it sends.

References

https://www.fanfiction.net/

https://www.youtube.com/