Welcome!
This is Giselle General and this is my personal blog, where I document thoughts and perspectives while living in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, as a Filipina-Canadian navigating various experiences!
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Memoir Writing Reflections #10: I Got a Contract
By: Giselle General Most of this year has been preoccupied by my second attempt running for city council, where I lost again. Now that it’s over, I can re-focus again on my other endeavours that have been in the works for several years now. I made a social media post when I signed the dotted…
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Original Poetry – Mang-A-Archive
By: Giselle General On June 28, 2025, I performed for an event in Edmonton by the University of the Philippines Alumni Association, to wrap up Philippine Heritage Month is a meaningful way. Panels, social and political discussions and artistic performances offered a rich program of insights and connection. The inspiration for the poem is my…
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Recovering Political Candidate: Steep Cost and Sacrifices
By: Giselle General I suppose it’s kind of strange that I’m continuing the name of these series as “Recovering Political Candidate” given that I am running again. There’s already two posts I made as part of this series: Then again, it feels like while I’m embarking on one, I’m still recovering from the previous one,…
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Book Review and Thank You Letter: Frostbike by Tom Babin
By: Giselle General A few weekends ago, I visited someone near my home to talk about different neighbourhood things and the upcoming election. That late morning visit was lovely and veered into a conversation about winter cycling, something my husband just started to do in 2024 when the snow hit. As a result, she enthusiastically…
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Who To Call for Help? You Don’t Know?! – Captive Transit User Series Part 17
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website.…
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Support Canadian With Your Patronage and Pocketbook: Repost from Alberta Filipino Journal
By: Giselle General I am a columnist for two newspapers in Alberta that serve the Filipino community. I feel particularly proud of this one because of the timely topic and integrating ideas beyond making shopping decisions. This was published in February 2025. You can get a free copy of the paper, published monthly, from many…
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In Pictures: Indoor Garden Maintenance in Winter
By: Giselle General On a previous post, I mentioned about our monthly routine to take care of all our indoor hydroponics gardening that we named “Plant Maintenance Day”, which we just completed today. I thought it would be cool to show a glimpse of the process to make sure that the plants are as healthy…
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The Transit Advocacy Group Is Here! The Captive Transit User Series Part 16
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website.…
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Love Language Reflections: The Annual New Year Budget Deliberation Day
By: Giselle General Most people plan elaborate parties, find a fun public event with fireworks and a festive way to count down to midnight, some even post a long heartfelt social media posts with photos taken throughout the year, others may claim that staying at home to have a restful night is the best way…
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Memoir Writing Reflections #9: The Paid Services are Done!
By: Giselle General During the Writers Guild of Alberta 2024 conference where I spoke in a panel about memoir writing, I mentioned that a big driving force in my decisions is fairness in compensation. The moderator of the panel seemed to appreciate how much I emphasized paying people properly for their efforts. In an area…
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Life in the (Slow) Swimming Lane: Conquering the Deep End of the Pool
By: Giselle General In December 2023, so about a year ago, I decided to finally work on something that eluded me since I was a kid. The ability to actually finally stay afloat and tread on the deep end of the swimming pool. I figured that there’s no better place to do this than the…
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Being the Human Transit Navigator: The Captive Transit User Series Part 15
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website.…
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Love Language Reflections: Happy Wife about ‘Househusband Friday’
By: Giselle General Lately, my corner of the internet is full of discussions about how couples share responsibilities in the home, how in many cases the division of tasks could get unequal, and passionate opinions on what to do when this is the case. I wanted to add my two bits into this discourse, not…
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Memoir Writing Reflections #8: Retreats and Panels
By: Giselle General Frankly, I’ve always felt a bit reluctant to “connect more with the writing community”. Perhaps it’s the introvert in me. Perhaps it stems from my younger self who didn’t really learn the proper life skills to build and maintain a lot of friendships. But over the past few months, I had a…
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The Construction Neighbours: The Captive Transit User Series Part 14
By: Giselle General This is part of an ongoing series of posts discussion issues I personally encounter while taking public transit in Edmonton. Links to other posts will be added on an ongoing basis: What is a Captive Transit User? I learned about the term for the first time from the City of Edmonton’s website.…
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Recovering Political Candidate: I spoke at a Campaign School
By: Giselle General I thought that being an election campaign failure – as in not winning the seat I was running for – would render my efforts meaningless. So it is to my surprise that I have been requested to speak to my experiences as an election candidate. I suppose there is truth to the…
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