リラックマについてスピーチ (Speech about Relax Bear)

I returned to Japanese class today after missing Friday's class due to a dentist appointment (btw, having medical/dental facilities literally a block from my office is seriously convenient) and found out that I missed the day everyone got to sign up for one-minute-speech dates. The only spot that was left was...this Wednesday. UM OK NO BIG DEAL I'll just pull this outta my butt and somehow memorize it by Wednesday.
If you have experience with Japanese and want to offer feedback, please do. I can't change anything (it's against course policy to have a native-speaker check one's work before handing it in), but I would appreciate the learning opportunity anyway. For my non-Japanese-using friends, I've provided nifty English translations.
私はアリソン・ラップです。リラックマについて話します。
My name is Alison Rapp. I'm (going to) talk about Rilakkuma (Relax Bear).

四年の夏前に、日本で留学生でした。あそこで、リラックマについてならいました。リラックマは日本でずいぶん人気があるくまです。
Four years ago during the summer, I was an international student in Japan.  There, I learned about Relax Bear.  Relax Bear is a very popular bear in Japan.
実は、リラックマはくまのスーツの中にくまです。おもしろくて、かわいいですね！リラックマはねて、食べて、休むのが好きです。
As a matter of fact, Relax Bear is a bear in a bear suit. Interesting and cute, right? Relax Bear sleeps, eats, and likes resting.
ある日、いけぶくろにさんぽしながら、ゲームセンターの外にリラックマが子供と写真をとるのを見ました！リラックマが大好きだから、”私も写真をとってもいいですか”と言っていました。今、リラックマと写真を持っているので、うれしくて、見せるのが好きです。
One day, while I was on a stroll in Ikebukuro, I saw Relax Bear taking pictures with children outside an arcade!  Because I love Relax Bear, I said, "Would it be OK if I took a picture, too?"  Now, because I have a picture with Relax Bear, I'm happy and like to show it off.
いつか、あなたも日本に行けて、リラックマと会えるといいですね。
Someday, I hope you can go to Japan and meet Relax Bear, too!

Edit: In response to my classmate thinking I shooped this photo, I just want to clarify that this is a real picture of me and Rilakkuma, and yes, I had black/brown hair from my senior year of high school until my second year of college. :)

My Ten-Minute Foray into the Ocarina of Time Minecraft Remake

It shouldn't come as a surprise (at least not to those of you who play or are familiar with Minecraft), but there's currently a thing called the "Hyrulecraft Project," and it's a full Ocarina of Time world made in Minecraft. It's currently in a live public alpha testing phase, and there are parts of the OoT world not yet completed (Dodongo's Cavern, for example, is closed off by a wall of glass), but I spent about ten minutes exploring what I could tonight (grad student = early bedtime), and I thought I'd share some screenshots.

 Kakariko Village

 This sign gets me every time. EVERY TIME.

 Goron City

Fairy Fountain (Death Mountain Crater)

Like I said, the world's not totally completed yet, and there are no NPCs, items, and so on, AND I spent only about ten minutes exploring it tonight, but it's definitely still worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the game (either one, I guess).  There's just something about walking around a Hyrule that looks like it's made out of Legos...

My Research Identity

For my COMM 5615: Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism course, we're supposed to write up a research identity for ourselves.  A research identity, for my non-academia friends, is basically a bit of text that explains who you are as a researcher. A kind of definition of yourself as you are in academia--what you study, why, and for whom.


Anyway, Ed (my advisor, the Chair of the Comm. Studies Dep't, and the professor for this course), is having us share drafts of our research identities in class on Tuesday, and I figured I'd post my draft for funsies/feedback/as an explanation to people who might not know where, exactly, I'm coming from in my work and what it is I'm working on.


Please keep in mind that this is my first draft ever.  I've never written one of these before, so my first go at it's not going to be perfect.  If you have feedback, I'm all ears.

I am a popular media critic with research interests in mainly Japanese popular media, video games, pornography, and new media such as social networking sites.  My theoretical framework is a combination of feminist studies, queer theory, game studies, and cultural studies as it applies to newer media; my work is concerned primarily with depictions of females/girls and women/queers in manga and video games, how these depictions are interpreted by readers and other participants, and the overall subcultures associated with the texts (e.g. “gamer culture”), as well as political and legal movements against pornography.  Because I am partly interested in reader interpretations and the lived experiences, beliefs, and actions of readers, in addition to textual analysis, I also seek to apply and/or include ethnographic and other kinds of audience analysis in my work.  My current projects are analyses of 1) The Legend of Zelda video game series, using archetypes of femininity as bases for understanding the development of female characters in the series over time, 2) yaoi and yuri, two genres of manga depicting m/m and f/f relationships, respectively, and the ways in which images of gay men/queers are appropriated by their mostly heterosexual female readers.  Through these and future projects, I hope to help add to the relatively nascent--but ever-growing--body of scholarship on these oft-neglected and/or misunderstood new media, specifically from a gender/sex/queer studies perspective, and 3) laws against pornography depicting minors in the “West” and Japan, and how the West’s social, political, and overall rhetorical pressure against Japan to strengthen its anti-child pornography laws is hypocritical, misguided and ineffective.  

EDIT: I added a couple bits about my work on child pornography laws--because, thanks to the overwhelmingly positive feedback on my presentation at the Japan Studies Association, I realized need to make it clear to people that I am not only a communication studies student and scholar, but also a student and scholar interested in issues of international relations, public policy, and law (specifically law regarding speech and expression).