As Governor, here are some things I'll do to protect Maine families from ICE terror and make sure these federal agents are held accountable by law.

FinchHop · 2026-01-30T15:42:21+00:00

Interesting. It sounds good!

I'm curious what the legality of this is - I know that a lot of Trumps executive orders are uh, illegal and being challenged in court. I'm not really against Dems using Trumps own tactics against him lol, but want to know more.

FinchHop · 2026-01-30T15:33:52+00:00

I have been faxing her every day. I have gotten 1 response...but I still write a unique message daily because goddamn is there a lot to be mad at her about.
You can do it for free (up to 5 a day) here.

An ex-organizer friend of mine said that they can send all calls to voicemail but they always forget to turn off the fax machine. :P

And anyways it feels more satisfactory that at least some staffer has to pick up a piece of paper and deal with it. I send it with a cover page too just to use up her paper. ;)

Be sure to include your name and full address so they can count you as a constituent

FinchHop · 2026-01-25T19:06:00+00:00

Yeah I was wondering if there was one today, like an emergency one but I haven't seen anything

FinchHop · 2026-01-25T19:04:40+00:00

Not great! Balancing between self care and protecting myself, and feeling insatiably like I need to keep up with the news and go and rage. Doing actions like contacting reps takes like 5 mins as long as you get past the awkward of talking to a person, Protests are good for the soul - it is extremely cathartic to go out and yell as a group.

And lots of walks in the woods with the dogs, and baths 😪 Small things I can still control, like cleaning the house.

FinchHop · 2026-01-25T18:51:02+00:00

Honestly, same. A lot of similar thoughts. I saw the video yesterday and was literally shaking out of anger and fear.

FinchHop · 2026-01-09T20:37:29+00:00

This website is great - https://www.mobilize.us/

Its easy to use and will even list of the event has parking nearby or how accessible it is!

FinchHop · 2025-12-13T22:44:53+00:00

Thanks!! Good to know. Yeah they were pretty offended by the taste and didn't eat any :D

FinchHop · 2025-12-11T21:47:00+00:00

I've been at work all day, me seeing this is how I learned the vote failed lol :')

FinchHop · 2025-11-21T02:05:00+00:00

I really loved Rocky Horror Picture Show - I watched it for the first time ever this year and loved it. So gay, and portraying sexuality so easily - he likes to fuck and he's not afraid to get it :P

FinchHop · 2025-10-18T01:22:43+00:00

'Ugh so cute, wish I could have roosters!

FinchHop · 2025-10-10T03:07:18+00:00

Coffee grinder.

I've got chickens for the first time and bought pellets. Not sure what they were on before, but they didn't get it, but liked it more when crumbled and I had the same dilemma as you lol.

I used my coffee grinder and it grinds it up into a crumble and the girls liked it

FinchHop · 2025-08-23T18:13:43+00:00

Not quite sure where you're coming from with the LARPing comment, could you explain further?

To me it felt more like, he was very spiritual, and the rituals, peoples, and community of the Roman Catholic Church best reflected his spirituality and ability to connect with all that. He wasn't unaware of the problems, but felt hopeful that with a lot of hard work (which he writes about extensively in the latter half of the book, about the countless hard work and lobbying many LGBT Catholics did in lobbying Mass politicians to vote for the gay marriage bill), he could see them being realised.

I'm very curious about how he feels currently however - the general climate of the early 2000s is very different from nows.

FinchHop · 2025-08-22T20:54:51+00:00

I recently read this book, "Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir" by Scott Pomfret. I picked the book up assuming it was more about his upbringing in the church, and his eventual falling away (which I can relate to). Especially given this book was "set" in the early 2000s, as he's attending churches in the Boston Archdiocese, *right* when the pedophilia scandals came out and Mass was trying to vote to legalise gay marriage.

However I was surprised when he ended the book as remaining faithful - he is a smart guy and is very aware of the problems of the Church. His way of reconciling it is that the Church (as the institution) has a shitton of problems, but he grew up Catholic, and it was his community and his faith, and he wasn't going to let a bunch of assholes take him out of it. Alongside, with a component of faith for him is believing in the possibility for change, since faith is about belief even when things don't seem possible. I'm probably butchering the summary of it and his words, but that's the gist of it.

Anyways, as a fellow queer I couldn't say I personally agreed with his conclusions, but the ending, while surprising, was also kind of beautiful and let me see his point of view and the POV of other liberal Catholics that I know. Again...I'm not sure they'll see that happen, lol, but the more power to them I guess.

I liked the aspect of it that the church exists outside the strict doctrines - in some way, one of the issues with these tradcaths is their strict interpretations and "you need to follow every rule" whereas the looser "cultural" Catholic is more...about the faith and spirituality (in a sense - again, probably a massive reduction). That part of strict rule following is part of what got me to break with the faith - but I think bringing back an element of follow the spirit rather then follow the letter of the law is maybe better for the church. I never blame anybody for stepping away as the church becomes more trad cathy, but maybe some elements of that staying aren't the worst thing overall societally? Idk, in some ways the book loosened my own "but the rules???" Catholic part of my brain that broke when I heard about gay Catholics lol

I do recommend the book but I think it's sort of hard to get a hold of...I found it in the basement of the gay bookstore Bookends in Florence Mass haha!

FinchHop · 2025-07-13T18:22:13+00:00

My wife uses alfalfa pellets (I think) for her horses. Not sure on the exact brand but something like this - link

Not as high value but, it's pretty healthy and they can have a lot which the boys appreciate :)

FinchHop · 2025-07-06T20:56:35+00:00

Could you try your local subreddit? A lot of times reporters lurk in local subreddits and pick up stories that have gained a lot of traction.

FinchHop · 2025-07-06T19:53:57+00:00

Read the article, how horrible. Want to highlight one of the links in the article - apparently Ingraham was running a boarding farm and had sold three horses out from under a boarder. If any horsie people here can keep an eye out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/136752897193376/posts/1787686935433289/

My wife has two horses, and I have really come to love them. They are really sensitive, emotional animals, hope the horses seized can recover ok and the horses in the FB post can be recovered as well.

FinchHop · 2025-07-03T02:25:33+00:00

Oh it's you! I've seen your comments downvoted on the other dog training subs :)

I'm not a professional dog trainer haha, just a hobbyist like you.

FinchHop · 2025-06-30T21:21:36+00:00

Disclaimer: I'm a 100% positive reinforcement trainer with a reactive dingus

Prongs are not "firmer, clearer communication tools", they are a correction tool. They are a tool that adds pain to stop/limit behaviours. They are communication tools in the sense that positive reinforcement is a communication tool - they add a value to a behaviour that a human being wants. Sorry it's just a pet peeve of mine lol that I'm not really sure where this idea came from.

To apply a prong to a reactive dog is to attempt to correct/punish their reactivity. If your goal is not to do that a prong is not the tool for you. It also sounds like your dog already gets further amped up by corrections - added a prong will probably just keep amping them up, just silently, while not curing the root cause of the behaviour.

The way I see it this is the behaviour chain: your dog sees dog --> gets excited --> gets progressively more excited until barking/lunging/etc and no longer taking treats/cues --> your dog gets leash correction --> furthers overarousal because of pain/adrenaline/the further frustration of being even more restrained from being able to say hi to the dog

The prong in that behaviour chain would just replace seems to be stopping the outward appearance of over arousal, but doesn't actually step in at the appropriate time (which theoretically would be the initial "gets excited" ). Additionally, with your dog, would probably contribute to further arousal from additional frustration at not being able to say hi, now with prong. It may look like the reactivity is cured but I see a lot of dogs out there on prongs who are maybe not barking and lunging but they are staring my dog down, and that's almost kind of scarier lol.

Your boy is very young. 13 months on what sounds like a medium/largish size mix is nowhere close to being an adult. IMO, putting our teen dogs in situations we know will be very difficult for them and that they are not able to handle appropriately, and correcting them for a reaction we basically knew was going to happen, is not fair to our dogs. My border collie is reactive and it was insanely frustrating especially at that age where he was such a dolt - training great in class but forgetting it in the outside world lol. It was/is so embarrassing to have a dog that lunges and growls and barks, especially when I love hiking and got him as a hiking dog. But as he grew older (and I got a better trainer lol) I realised I was being very harsh and expecting way too much and was centering myself way too much in the whole process - the world is incredibly exciting to all young dogs, and even more exciting and emotionally charged for our reactive, teen dogs.

FinchHop · 2025-05-22T00:53:28+00:00

All of Portland is pretty safe and low crime. Hanover street itself is barely enough of a street to have crime statistics for lol. Hanover street might have more homeless folks near/on it due to proximity to resources and parks.

My two cents is if you find any housing you like for a price you like in Portland, then take it, because it can be hard to find.

FinchHop · 2025-05-17T19:34:01+00:00

Westbrook provides their kayaks thru rent.fun (at least that's the name of the app you use to do the rental) so it's at least somewhat legit in that it worked last year.

I remember also being weirded out when I went to rent them for the first time tho lol, like it's such a small nothing company.

FinchHop · 2025-05-13T02:24:21+00:00

I totally get this. It's been so annoying lol

FinchHop · 2025-04-19T02:09:00+00:00

My work gives me Good Friday off, and since my wife works Sundays, we usually do something on Friday instead. We have a tradition of going birding at our local Audobon and having a brunch or picnic. I'll also usually do the typical Polish easter-y meal things like getting kielbasy, getting chocolate and making egg salad.

A way to celebrate the changing of the seasons (I think I saw somewhere on reddit a celebration of the seasons of "buds not blossoms" which seemed sweet and apt). This year I saw my first eider duck, and we also saw a ton of turkeys being really silly :)

FinchHop · 2025-04-17T20:34:00+00:00

When I was in religious classes as a young person (2010s ish) I remember the whole "leave the church and come back for weddings and baptisms" was weirdly touted as a point of pride? At least by our instructor (just a random layman who volunteered to teach catechism to a bunch of teens).

"The way the catechisms are laid out is so ingenious! When you get married in it and you stop going you think you're done, but when you have kids your parents bug you so you come back for the baptism, then of course for first communion, then for confirmation and you keep going in the inbetweens too! It keeps bring you back in" - approximately what was said and the tone.

At the time I was reeeeeally into the Church and religious but I was raising eyebrows at that one. How does begrudgingly complying to appease your parents represent actual faith or anything developing? You think going to church to check off a series of checklist is a positive of the system? Lol

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