Spoiled Puppies

This morning I fed the last of my puppies $45 Taste of the Wild dog food. I thought to myself "wow I'm complaining about how poor I am and can't afford much to eat besides spaghetti o's (because Ramen noodles were my main diet freshman year).
I'm used to my pets eating better than me though. My horses had a whole recipe concoction of vitamin supplements when I was showing them heavily. I know that with most loving pet owners this is the case. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average household spending on pet food alone was $183 in 2011. This was more than the amount spent on candy ($87), bread ($107), chicken ($124), cereal ($175), or reading materials ($115).
 
Pets have become a replacement for children with couples and single people alike. This is most apparent in an active city like Bozeman. If you ever hike the drinking horse trail across from the infamous M trail this will become apparent.

Now the trend of organic/raw ingredients has become a big trend with pet food as well. Most dog foods are trying to push these "better" dog foods on consumers. The Purina Beneful was one of the first that I encountered. I remember watching commercials about this food as a child. After people realized that you need to actually read ingredients put into the dog food, they realized they should of read the list from the bottom up. http://www.dogingtonpost.com/is-purinas-beneful-dog-food-killing-dogs/

Well I better get my furball son some all natural, no filler, nonperservative added dog food and stop by the gas station to grab a pack of donutettes that were probably made a month ago, that are still in great shape........ :/

Walmart is the corporate devil

Walmart may be trying to position itself as a sustainable company, but according to the food and water watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving peoples lives and protecting our environment, they are not doing a very good job of proving it.
Here's what they concluded:

1. Selling shoddy products- by selling these low cost items they are driving down the quality and durability of these product which in turn speeds up the process of the items to the landfill.
2. Reduction in waste is minuscle compared to waste generated
3. Lagging on Renewable Energy 
4. Increasing GHG emissions- their greenhouse gases have been steadily increasing. In 2012 the company said in its Global responsibility report that it 22 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.
5. Voraciously consuming land-2005-2015 they added more than 1,100 supercenters. Most of this land previously undeveloped. They have vacated more than 150 stores.
6. Financing anti-environment candidates
7. Consolidating and Industrialzing Food production
8. The distribution model favors not locally grown produce
9. Degrading organic
10. Spreading poverty- "When Walmart comes into a community, incomes decline and poverty increases. According to a study published in Social Science Quarterly, neighborhoods that gain Walmart stores"

My grandpa has always preached how terrible Walmart is. He has good reason to. The main reason he hates Walmart is because his local bike went out of business soon after Walmart started carrying the same brand of bikes his store sold at a lower cost.

This is exactly why Walmart is the corporate devil. They come into small communities and takeout the small businesses that can not compete with their low prices. Yes this may be Capitalism at its finest, but is it really ethical?

I know way too many people that claim to hate Walmart, yet they still get most of their household supplies there. They have no morals in my opinion. How can you support a business that could care less about anything than making the most it can without thinking of anyone else? 

Plus Walmart's suppliers in other countries like India, China, Bangladesh, and Mexico are not 'good wage' jobs even for third world standards. The people are overworked, underpaid, and forced to work in sub-human conditions.  The documentary "Walmart: High Cost of Low Price" explains how terribly not only these employees from other countries, but also employees in the United States are treated.

Basically, Walmart is the corporate devil. That is all.

Professional Rhinestone Cowgirl Outdoorswoman

As with all other professional occasions I have, I have to dress up like someone that I am not. I had to put on the pencil skirt, heels and dress shirt. This of course goes against my typical outfit of jeans, a t-shirt, and flip-flops/tennis shoes. 

After wondering around for two hours in the crowded mess of engineering opportunities, I got back to my flip-flops so my poor feet could relax. 

I walked down the Campus's mall and thought to myself what I interesting outfit I had on: bright green Patagonia wind breaker, black pencil skirt, and rhinestone cowgirl flip flops. Since I do not have a picture I will try to do a pictorial representation.   

All of these items tell most people different things about your lifestyle

• Patagonia Windbreaker- "I'm outdoorsy!"
• Bling Flip-Flops- "I'm only wearing these because I'm not in my cowgirl boots and don't I look fabulous"
• Pencil Skirt-"Where is my briefcase? I'm a true professional"

I know that everyone judges somewhat similar to what I said before. I just wish I could have heard what people thought as I was walking down the mall or maybe I really don't want to know.

It's so interesting that we even put personalities to different kinds of clothing. This is very beneficial to different companies to know exactly the personality they are going after. 

https://www.psychologies.co.uk/test-what-do-your-clothes-say-about-you 

Here's a fun link to see what your clothes say about you!

Pumpkin Everything!!!!

After a cold, wet hike up the drinking horse, I sit here watching some Netflix. My good friend suggested watching the comedian ILiza Shlesinger. About 10 minutes into the show she talks about how to all girls love fall and are required to love fall. This is hilarious because on my hike I was just talking about how much I love fall and that it's my favorite season. What a terribly stereotypical girl thing to say (I hate being a sterotypical girl but I don't care when it comes to fall, fall is the best). She goes on to talk about Pumpkin everything. 

Wow, before our hike we had to go get a pumpkin latte. Another terribly stereotypical girl thing to do. Pumpkin spice season started about a month ago. Every food establishment has to have some kind of pumpkin on their menu. Dennys takes full advantage of the women's (gay men and secretly straight men too) obsession with pumpkin with their pumpkin pancakes. McDonald's has always had pumpkin pies during the fall but only 38% (approximately 5500 stores) of McDonald's have their pumpkin spice lattes. That's okay we'll just wait for the shamrock shakes ;).  I can not even count how many hash tag pumpkin this or that have seen on Facebook or Snap chat.

http://www.popsugar.com/food/Pumpkin-Spice-Flavored-Products-2015-38165340?slide=27 here's a list of the worst and best pumpkin spice flavored products for 2015. The obsession with pumpkin seems to me to have just turned into a "thing" in the last five years. In fact, sales of pumpkin-infused foods and drinks are up 79 percent since 2011, according to Nielsen data.
Of course you never see pumpkin anything when it isn't fall. Maybe being a limited edition, seasonal trend keeps the pumpkin spice trick a strong way to boost sales year after year.
But what about the bacon trend? Bacon is everything too nowadays but it's not a seasonal trend. Maybe it's just because bacon is amazing and now we are not ashamed to be fatties and admit out obsessions with bacon.