Gullible's Travels (Photography)

[Valencia Donahue]

I travel a lot, I take lots of pictures, and I happen to like how interchangeable "gullible" and "Gulliver" are.

J-Town, Onizuka Plaza
Los Angeles looks beautiful at night.

Welcome to Little Saigon
Westminster or Garden Grove... I keep forgetting.
I'm well aware of how the Asian Republican Headquarters is where you can also find gourmet coffee and food to go.

The Golden Gate Disappears
During my mentioned San Francisco trip.

Zzyzx
I always see this each time my family and I take our regular road trip to Las Vegas.
This Dec 27th is when I'll be gone for my next Las Vegas trip.

Sunset of the Woodstorks
I snapped this at closing time at Gatorland in Florida during my winter trip.

[Dain Gavyns]

Gatorland! Rock on!


I thought I was the only person in the world who ever went to Gatorland during a trip to Florida.

Since, you know... there's Disney World and all that.

[Valencia Donahue]

Ronald Reagan in Jelly Bellies
They ARE Jelly Bellies!
I snapped this at the Presidential Library before he died. The library is in the next town from where I live and I actually waited in that huge (a mile or so long; 5+ hour wait) line to pay his coffin a visit.

White Love
From a bakery in Arcadia.

Trapped Miniature Crabs
I sometimes go on business meetings with my parents to many seafood restaurants. One time we ordered clams and I found a baby crab trapped inside. Another time I ordered clams, I found another one. I saved them both because the odds of finding a baby crab in your clams is rare. The nail-clipper is

Fortune Cookie
I was having lunch with my friend when I noticed my Oreo's frosting looked like a yin-yang...

Heart in Sauce
Sometimes I'm convinced that my food is sending me messages. No matter how much sauce I dumped over my lunch, the heart was still there.

A True Fortune
Coincidence.

[lazy]

Celeste?

Were these taken with a camera phone?

[Valencia Donahue]

No.

[Valencia Donahue]

This was when my little sister and I first began archery last year.

Me: [1] [2]
My Sister: [1] [2]

We were terrible. Contrary to popular belief, being able to land an arrow in the dead-center of a soft-drink cover isn’t enough to be considered “good”. If you’re unable to make a grouping the size of your grip or the size of your fist, you’re not that good of an archer. One year or somewhere near that length of time makes all the difference.

Me: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

My little sister won’t let me post her pictures, even though I at times consider her better than I am, but maybe that’s because she’s known as a “hustler” at the range. We’re going for tournament level ever since I won 1st in my division (with my sister winning 3rd) last October.

I’ve only managed to pull off a “Robin Hood” once… And it kind of messed up my arrow. My sister’s arrows are considerably lighter than mine, but she pulls heavier poundage. I really want carbon arrows some day, but I think those cost $20+ per arrow…

One of these days, our parents will let us learn how to use a gun or something… For the sake of practicality.

[Tiao Lei Shen]

I dont have much to add besides the fact that I've been looking at all of these, and find pretty much all of them quite amusing.

Keep putting these up and I'll keep on lookin'.

[Valencia Donahue]

(Gratitude.)

I took a bunch of pictures at Anime Expo 2006 when it was at Anaheim… Lots and lots of cosplay pictures especially. However, I guess I’ll just put up these few instead for now. I’ll maybe set a whole album to “public” if I plan on showing all the cosplay pictures.

( ? )

Above Them All

Rockin’ Pyramids

All Alone

Alone in the World <--- literally, taken seconds later

Chibi-Yasha STOMPZ

Chibi-Yasha WINZ

I’ve been going to AX pretty often now, but I might not be able to go to Long Beach this year… If I’m lucky, I may change my mom’s mind.

[John Smith]

Go Yasha! Beat that black-clothed dude's ass! [Don't forget to kick that face-hugger thingy away...]

I wish we had these kinds of things in Denmark... All we have are lousy fairs with lousy crap and lousy stuff for us to use our lousy money, lousy sparetime and lousy ... Life is cru-

DE-EMOING SELF.

Would be awesome if we had this kind of stuff in Denmark, oh well, in a couple of years I am sure we get this

Cool pictures! And I shall surprise you over the awesome msn and demand more! ... MORE!

[Valencia Donahue]

That black-clothed dude was someone cosplaying as Alien.

As for the other pictures, I shall warn you now that I have over a hundred pictures...

[Valencia Donahue]

Huge Sub-Folder for AX'06

One of my personal favorites would be the Anti-Ichigo among others. Every picture has a story, like that girl whose dream is to hug everyone at AX'06 and my brief participation at the "Man Faye Summoning"...

All Lucky 7’s

Someone actually got lucky during my trip to Las Vegas during my Winter ’06 trip.

Venetian Gondola Ride

I counted AT LEAST 10-14 weddings in a single day during my stay at the Venetian. They even had a special gondola for such occasions. Singing is apparently part of the job as a gondolier. Paolo (our gondolier) actually used to live in Italy and since we were a swell bunch, he sand 3 songs instead of 1-2. He also answered a couple questions I’ve been dying to know since forever:

“Do you really need a boating license in Nevada to control the boat?”

Nevada = DESERT <--- In other words, boating licenses are unlikely

To get a job as a gondolier at the Venetian, it’s a requirement to know how to sing and they hold auditions before teaching them how to steer a boat of any sort, especially a gondola. Then, they have to go through a test of sorts to keep their boat afloat and from sinking, crashing, etc. for a certain long length of time. Once that’s passed, they’ll get a certificate.

Tuki-Tuki

My city has a zoo. This critter was the most adorable one of the entire bunch~♥

Goddess [(1)] | [(2)]

There’s a Buddhist temple I visit every once in a while. Although I’m an Agnostic, that doesn’t stop me from paying my respects to the gods.

I keep forgetting this one’s name because she has many forms and incarnations across Asia, but she’s the lady with a thousand arms. She’s in a lot of stories, including the one about the Monkey King, but a brief tale I recall the most is as follows:

There was once this lady saint who was very loved by her people because of her generous nature. At one point, she descended into Hell to see if she could purify and give peace to the tortured souls there. Since Hell wasn’t exactly a good place and she ran out of food to feed them, she gave up an arm for their consumption. When she reemerged from Hell, she was one arm less and as she continued to travel and perform good deeds, many people felt that the least they could do was give her a fake arm to replace the one she gave up. Since she helped a lot of people, she got a thousand arms and because God knew she did a lot as a saint, she was endowed more powerful spiritual powers and all the arms she received became a part of her. That way, she’ll have many hands to help all the people she can and a weapon in each hand to protect herself from harm.

Something like that anyways.

If anyone knows who Nico Robin is from One Piece, she’s based off of her.

::kills PhotoBucket::

[Valencia Donahue]

Anime Expo ’07: Day 0 – 2

Pardon the crooked (due to trying to get a better shot from above), blurry (either I, the cosplayers, or someone else taking the pictures for me was moving), double (always take extras in case of “mistakes”), or random (I’m a shutterbug) pictures.

1 – While my family and I were driving, I waved that sign to every car I thought was going to AX’07. I actually found one.

5,6 – Not a view of the convention center, but bits and pieces of it, like the arena, and in the background, you may see the haunted ghost ship from WWII (the Queen Mary).

14 – A friend from Arcadia, CA.

25 – Voice Actors (left to right): Vic Mignoga (Edward Elric Fullmetal Alchemist, Ikkaku Madurame Bleach, etc.), Monica Rial (Kirisaki Kyoko Black Cat, Angelica Gunslinger Girl, etc.), Chris Patton (Greed Fullmetal Alchemist, Creed Diskenth Black Cat, etc.)

69, 70, 71 – Stumbled across a news crew while they were filming (GT; MTV?). I saw another one earlier from another channel (Anime Network).

73 – Every year, there’re usually a bunch of cosplayers from a particular anime or game. For instance, ’04 was Naruto galore, ’05 was a FFX-2 hoedown (more Yunas than you can shake a stick at), and ’06 was Bleach and DGrayMan mania (with zillions of FF7:AC Tifas mixed in for good measure). This year, I saw a TON of Death Note and KH2 cosplays (lots of L’s and Roxases). According to this person, the Naruto count is still high.

[Darren Blayne]

Just an observation.

The (bad) Dante from DMC cosplayer dueling the (bad) Virgil cosplayer. Virgil's sword. I own that exact same kind of hard plastic bokken.

Again. Just an observation. Great shots as always, your photographs always bring a smile or two to my face.

(Don't ask how I can have two smiles on one face.)

[Valencia Donahue]

AX’07: Day 2 – 4

6 through 12 – I have to say, of all the years I’ve been to AX, this has got to be one of the worse years because of its location in Long Beach. They finally got a place big enough to hold everyone during the main events (the Arena), but everything in between? EVERYONE hated how everything was everywhere (not all in one building), the heat begins to cook you as you cross the street, organization was disgusting as heck (don’t get me started on the specific main events), half of the “guests of honor” were extremely obscure because the year’s theme was music (what the hell is Oreskaband or whatever it’s called!?), millions of rules were made up on the spot (no more “Free Hugs” signs due to solicitation and “prostitution”, no more throwing free stuff in the dealers’ room because people will run over other people, and so on), and the Long Beach staff hated our guts throughout the entire event. I understand that they wouldn’t like to see ninjas in their fountains in fear of vandalism, but seriously. The guy who had a cow threw one heck of a fit. At least a nearby Sasuke helped me get some good photos before everyone had to scramble.

15, 16 – Eric P. Sherman (bald; boss of BangZoom Entertainment), Steve Blum (in black; voice actor for Spike Spiegel Cowboy Bebop, Makoto Shishio Rurouni Kenshin, etc.), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (blonde; voice actress for Julia Cowboy Bebop, Major Motoko Kusanagi Ghost in the Shell, etc.)

32, 33 – Friend of mine from archery

34 – Friends of mine from school

35, 36 – My little brother says it’s a roll of toilet paper. I personally think it looks like a poofy marshmallow…

Overall, I wish I took more pictures than I did last year (and last year I took over 200), but this year… Was blargh… At least the Masquerade was a RIOT in spite of the 300 quote being abused over and over again. Gotta love anime musicals~♪ And the “Ninjas vs. Pirates” halftime show.

[Valencia Donahue]

Mantis: [1] [2] [3]

Some time ago, I saw this fella at the archery range. Awesome.

I visited Ronald Reagan’s library to check out his grave again. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to ask him anything as important as I was hoping to ask, but maybe it was for the best that he didn’t answer.

Rest in peace, sir.

If I see you with something that “matches”, I’ll partake in some “artistic cropping”. These are from my high school years.

Daffodil Hungarian

Carl’s Red and Yellow

Rainbow Head

[J.T.]

dain said:

Gatorland! Rock on!


I thought I was the only person in the world who ever went to Gatorland during a trip to Florida.

Since, you know... there's Disney World and all that.

haha same here. i just went last summer for the first time in a long while. i remember i stole an alligator puppet from there when i was a kid. i still have it ^_^

[John Smith]

That's gotta be the oldest quote anyone ever used...

And I'm currently looking through the 2-4 pictures. Will edit when I've seen them... [Because I partly made this post to claim that I made the 1000th post in the artwork section.]

Edit: Yes post #1000 in the artwork section. And on to the goods. I like the Kakashi vs Zabuza pictures, and the one picture with Demonic Jin was also good [Jin being my fav Tekken dude] Great pictures all in all. [Some of them were a bit blurry, but otherwise fine.]

[Valencia Donahue]

It’s official. I like taking pictures of bugs. They flippin’ hold still longer than animals do and they’re not as likely to attack the camera or get camera shy. I still don’t like bugs jumping at my face all the same, but they’re more cooperative models. The following pictures feature arachnids, so if you’re arachnophobic, I recommend that you don’t look at ‘em.

Yellow-Brown Striped Spider

This spider said “Hi!” to me~♥
When I held up my camera to take a picture of it, it lifted its head up to look at me and lifted a leg as if to wave! It was pretty cute~ It was kinda big for a li’l spider too… It’s body was the size of my thumb…

Wild Tarantula
Another wondrous critter that was found at my archery range. It’s a girl, judging by its spinnerets. It also molted recently at the time because its body looked new and soft. It was roughly the size of my palm… Not like I picked it up or anything. It showed its fangs when we tried to move her somewhere safe…

Here’re some pictures I took on the day my city began to catch on fire. I wasn’t anywhere close enough to the action-y places like the previous years, but these pictures give y’all a decent idea how dark the sky gets. They were taken roughly around 2 PM. Hurrah for Governor Schwarzeneggar for taking action while our side of the state was burning to a crisp!

[1] [2] [3]

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