Shawn Petriw's blog

At around midnight, Friday, November 6, 2009, a minivan caught fire while in the driveway at

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I received a neat e-mail today from Rob Watt of PACHA (People's Action Committee for Healthy Air):

Peter Bregman comments on Susan Boyle:

"She's been practicing singing since she was 12. In her case, overnight was 35 years."

I was fascinated to learn that Deputy Premiere Shirley Bond stood up in the Legislature to encourage all British Columbians to vote for our Izaak Smith:

"As the lone British Columbian left in the competition, let's show Izaak our local and provincial pride and vote today. Let's help him reach the Final Four and beyond. Let's vote and vote often."

Today is local election day, and I see there are a number of people upset with the endorsement the editorial board of the Citizen made, as well as the

Izaak Smith and his partner Kaitlyn Fitzgerald found themselves in the bottom 3 couples this week for the first time in this year's

This is a real shame. Before he became mayor of Dawson Creek, Calvin Kruk was the General Manager of the Kiwanis Performing Arts Centre, and did a tremendous amount of work for his community in that arena.

Izaak Smith and his partner Kaitlyn Fitzgerald received enough votes to move on to the next stage of So You Think You Can Dance Canada without having to dance for their lives.

I just watched Izaak dance on TV. Amazing, amazing job.

I've never seen him dance better. One of the judges said "I don't see you as a hip-hop dancer; I see you as a dancer."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Congratulations Izaak. Way to represent Prince George. We'll all be watching you during the finals.

Here's his performance:

I loved Daniel Gilbert's book Stumbling on Happiness, a book I think everyone should read.

But for the time-crunched, or lazy, here's a short list on how to be happy (from Dan's TED talk in 2004):

The Secret of Happiness

1. Accrue wealth, power and prestige.