Photo Gallery: In Absentia - Waiting

Of all the things that smartphones can do - help us cheat at pub trivia nights or avoid having to talk to strangers, for example - their greatest feature has to be the camera. Having a reasonably capable camera in your pocket at all times is useful when your friends and associates decide to do something blackmail-worthy or when, like me, you’re walking around at three in the morning and say, “That looks spooky.” Portability, and the fact that it does all the heavy lifting for you as far as settings are concerned, has allowed me to use my iPhone to capture images I never would have bothered with if I'd had to lug around a camera the size of Optimus Prime's lower 48. 

Breakfast in Victoria for $3.99

This isn't a review, it's a public service announcement.  The Fresko Cafe at 642 Yates Street, between Douglas & Broad, formerly the site of Great Cannon Pizza and several other unspeakably bad pizzerias, is offering a $3.99 ham, eggs, hashbrown & coffee breakfast special.  You read that right - $3.99 for a greasy spoon breakfast in the heart of the Garden City.

The Fresko is a small, low-budget affair but the food is perfectly serviceable and the menu extends beyond breakfast with hamburgers, omelettes ($5.99) and donairs, to name a few.  They're open until 3am on both Friday & Saturday night although you're not going to get late-night breakfast unless it's a slow night.

Check it out before it's gone.  Not that the special is a limited time offer but rather it's likely to soon be replaced by a condo, ladies-wear boutique or maybe a timeshare made out of fair-trade coffee beans.

In Pictures: The 2011 Mr. Olympia Expo

"I can't remember which makes you bigger.  I'll go ask Alice."

Visiting the floor of the Mr. Olympia Expo was like being part of an organized tour to another planet; one where all food comes in powder or pill form, the water is electric blue and actually makes you thirsty, and all the natives have bodies straight out of comic books or the magazines I hide under my mattress.

Click "Read On" to see my full photo set from the expo