The Joshua Yoder Blog

 Holy Crap! Chad and myself just returned home from seeing our good friends from Clifton 5 theater in Huntingdon and we got to watch the movie A Working Man that stars one of my personal favorite action stars Jason Statham. I have been a fan of Statham since I first saw him in the Transporter movie so I was certainly excited to see this movie and I was not disappointed. A Working Man is based off a book that was written by Chuck Dixon and it was called Levon's Trade which was written back in 2014. Statham plays Levon Cade, a single father and a former Royal Marine Commando who is now works as a leader of a construction team. He is close to the Garcia family who runs the company.  As Cade struggles to get adjusted to normal life, things get even tougher as Jenny, the daughter of Garcia family gets kidnapped by members of the Russian Mafia who are involved in human trafficking and they call upon Levon to rescue their daughter and bring home. This movie RULES! Right from the open...

 Today is a special for me, it is the opening day of Major League Baseball! I am so excited to have some more baseball. Of course I have been trying to keep up with a lot of high school baseball for my friends at Hometown Sports and also some college baseball as well. But what I love the most about MLB baseball is it brings back a ton of fun memories for me as a child. I remember playing a lot of wuffleball with my family in the backyard. I remember getting to sit in front of the TV with my Pap. Some of my favorite video games to play were baseball games, you know like Backyard Baseball, MVP Baseball, Triple Play Baseball, personally I really loved playing the College Baseball games. Of course, as mentioned before, I had written about the time I finally made my High School Baseball team and getting to be apart of the team. The idea of also being able to help coach a baseball team or even become a Head Coach was also a fun thing I thought about doing because I wanted to be able to h...

 One a difference a year makes! Continuing the recent blog post themes that I have been doing so far this year of trying to be more positive in my life, I wanted to look back on something that I once thought was never going to be possible and was to become a writer and launched my first ever book. And it was a poems book called Thoughts Of A Sheltered Mind! It still is crazy to me that I actually did accomplished this! I mean, I am an official author now and still brings a tear to my eyes because again, I never thought that this would ever be possible for someone like me and yet, here we are.  Looking back on the process of it was quite a trip down memory lane to say the least. I got to give a lot of credit to my mentor Brian Carson for putting the idea in my head that I can put a book together and launch it on Amazon. I had already written a bunch of different poems by this point and continue to write some to this very day, so I figured why not give it a shot. I also apprecia...

 Well NFL football and College football maybe over, but soon there will be UFL football. The second season of the Spring football league since the merging of XFL and USFL will become this coming weekend. The United Football League owned by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and company will look to build upon their first season. There are still the originally eight teams who started off from a season ago, St. Louis Battlehawks, Memphis Showboats, Houston Roughnecks, San Antonio Brahmas, Michigan Panthers, DC Defenders, Arlington Renegades and the defending champs Birmingham Stallions. Speaking of the Stallions, they are coming off a season where they had won three straight championships. Two in the USFL and won the first UFL title defeating the Brahmas 25-0. Birmingham will be looking to make it four in a row this year. Of course, there already has been an interesting development happening within the league as DC Defenders' Head Coach Reggie Barlow left the team to become the New ...

 Well, it is now official, the Penn State Nittany Lions have won the NCAA Wrestling National title for the fourth straight year and this is the twelve National championship under Head Coach Cael Sanderson. It was crazy to think how dominate Penn State was throughout the tournament. The Nittany Lions had 10 All-Americans going into it. In fact, they clinched the title during the Saturday morning consolation rounds. Penn State had wrestlers who finished sixth or better and even broke their team scoring record from last year which was 172.5 points to this year with the Nittany Lions scoring a team total of 177 points 😮. Three wrestlers from Penn State made it to the finals of their respective weight classes with two of them winning. The first being Carter Starocci who won his fifth individual National title and the other being Mitchell Mesenbrink. This incredible run that Penn State wrestling on right now is still something I can not wrap my brain around on. I mean holy crap are thes...

 Another night in the books of college sports as Men's Basketball finish up their first round games and Wrestling getting ready for their championship matches Saturday night. First and for most, Go Irish! ☘ as the Last Irish defeated their first round opponent SFA 106-54 and will prepare to go to battle against Michigan in the second round as the Women's first round will finish up Saturday. Meanwhile, only a few upsets during the remaining first round games with #7 Marquette was taken down by #10 New Mexico, #12 Colorado State defeated #5 Memphis and #9 Baylor dropped #8 Mississippi State. Personally, I really enjoyed watching the game between Vanderbilt and St. Mary's with the Gaels making a strong second half to avoid an upset. The second round is now set and I wonder who will all make it to the Sweet 16 round. With most of the top seeds still remaining, but I also am interested to see who will be the Cinderella team and make a deep run in the tournament. Wrestling has th...

 Well ladies and gentlemen, it has finally begun again. March has brought us all some excitement in the form of basketball and wrestling. Needless to say, there will be a lot of sports I will be watching all for a little while, and I love it 😍. With the first rounds of both Men and Women's basketball heating up today as well as tomorrow, there will be plenty of brackets going to be destroyed by the end of all of it. So far, a lot of the top seeds in basketball have been successful, but there have also been a couple of upsets along the way. Some of those include Kansas, Missouri as well as Clemson all are heading out the door early and I am sure that there are brackets being thrown away as we speak. The first round of the Men's Bracket will be finishing up later tonight. On the Women's side of things, they will be going through their first rounds games from Friday through Saturday. One such team I will be keeping an eye on will be the Notre Dame Fighting Irish who are the t...

 Some of you might be a little bit surprised by this, but I am a big fan of a musical group known as Limp Bizkit which was formed back in 1994 and were big in the underground before getting hitting the big time in 1997 went they launched their debut album Three Dollar Bill, Ya'll. One of the things I love about this band was the fact that DJ Lethal was a part of it. I remember realizing that this was the same DJ who played with another group I enjoy listening to in the House of Pain. Speaking of which, that was another reason why I love Limp Bizkit because the mixture of hip-hop elements with the rock and roll, nu-metal as they called it. It just felt like to me as a kid growing on both rap like House of Pain, Cypress Hill as well as rock like ACDC, Metallica, etc. So to see them combined was incredible. Plus this was also during the era of the skateboarding, rollerblading, scootering, BMX. Basically the X games which was becoming more and more popular around the late 1990s. I myse...

 This was one of my favorite factions in pro wrestling going today and I have been following these guys for a long time now. The first time I got to witness the Kingdom was in Ring Of Honor which at the time was one of my favorite pro wrestling companies to watch. I just loved the simple approach to wrestling during this time period. Sure they had characters just like any other promotions, but I just liked how they made it about keeping it in the ring. It felt like an actual sport, plus they had a working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling at the time. But back to the Kingdom, they were formed in 2014 as Adam Cole, Michael Bennett and Maria Kanellis had found themselves under the tutelage of Matt Hardy aka their spiritual leader. Hardy though didn't stay long with the group before leaving the promotion but Matt Taven had joined the group and they were off to the races. One of the reasons why I loved watching the Kingdom was just the chemistry between the four of them. Adam C...

 Why is it so dark in here? Am I still holding onto the fear? Or is my mind playing tricks on me? Is everything I see and feel completely insincere? Why does this keep happening to me? What did I do wrong? People probably think I am crazy, they come into my life before simply moving along. Maybe I don't deserve people for they could never understand me. Heck I don't even understand me half the time, who knows what it could be. No matter how much of my flesh I take, no matter how many times I pray. The voices in my head simply refuse to just go away. I'm not crazy, I know I'm crazy. Maybe I need some rest for my mind is still a bit hazy.  What does all of this even mean? I'm trying my best to stay positive and keep mind my mind and heart clean. But trapped inside is a nasty fiend. Just leave me alone, I don't want to be a bother. Am I good enough for any of you, including you Heavenly Father? Pain and suffering is all that I have ever known, it is hard to get awa...

 The other day I got to meet some old friends Clint and Sarah Smarty. It was really great to see them because I had known Sarah for a long time. Let myself, both Sarah and Clint enjoy being creative and during our conversation they brought to my attention that they were working on a website trying to use their passion for creativity to help others so I decided to check it out and write about it. S-Mart Shop Smart Treasures is a custom design site where they provide an creative outlook for their customers whether it be for their business, causes or just for personal use, these guys will help you in creating the best products. Each item is created in house with using high quality DTG (Direct To Garment) Printing which bakes the ink into the product to impregnate it to create a long lasting low fade rate high quality product. They also allow customers to upload their own pictures to be printed onto any of their merchandise.  They not only offer the more basic choices, but also mo...

 Talk about a video game that set a standard. This classic of a game really brought Batman back into the mainstream of gaming in my humble opinion. And the best part, it still is as good as it was when it first came out. Batman Arkham Asylum made its way to store shelves on August 25, 2009 and it was for the PS3 and PS4 along with Xbox 360 and Xbox One and so forth. Arkham Asylum stars the Great Crusader himself after he arrests his arch rival the Joker was bringing him back to Arkham. However, not everything is what it seems as when they arrived, they are welcomed by Commissioner Gordon and Warden Quincy Sharp. Only to have Joker break loose and take control over the Asylum and Batman must stop him. This may not surprise anyone, but this game RULES!!!!! For starters it is always fun getting to play as Batman. But this action/adventure is viewed in the third-person perspective and honestly the camera works amazingly. One of the features of the game that I never get tired of is the ...

 Hey everybody! Since 1999, the St. Vincent Depaul Society has been supporting those in need and will be holding an auction over at the Lewistown Community Center at REC park on April 5th.  The non-profit organization which is associated with the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic has been helping people who are in need of food, gas for out of town medical appointments, utilities, and other needs. In addition they also help with providing to those who are leaving the shelter, getting their first appointment or just have a furniture need. This event will be an Indoor Market charity sale at the Community Center Saturday, April 5th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. For those who do not know where the Lewistown Community Center is, it is at 108 Montgomery Ave, Lewistown, Pa. The St. Vincent DePaul Society has three houses that the contents were given to them. Each item at the sale will be used to help all of those in need. Items that will be sold at the event will feature collectibles, jewelry, glas...

 This was a very underrated series in my humble opinion and it is crazy to think that it came out the same year as when me and my twin brother Chad came into existence in the year 1990.  Britannica's Tales From Around The World was a direct to video educational series that was aimed to teach young children a familiar fairy tale from around the world, followed by two lesser known fairy tales that are very similar theme. The show stars the late great Pat Morita (RIP) who would explain the significance of each of the three stories before zooming towards the country which the tale was traditionally told. There were six different videos that featured three different stories. Some of those videos includes tales like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and Hansel and Gretel just to name a few. I remember watching these videos on VHS at my Nan and Pap's house as a kid. Me and Chad would watch the crap out of those tapes. I personally enjoy watching the one about Rumpelstiltskin. What I l...

 This was such a beautifully made movie and honestly is one of the major reasons as to why I love the country of Japan. The Last Samurai! The Last Samurai came out in 2003 which makes me feel old lol. But at the same time it doesn't feel like it has been that long ago and it still holds up today. The film stars Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe as Nathan Algren and Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto. The movie follows Algen who has become an alcoholic due to being traumatized by the atrocities from the American Indian Wars. But is soon asked by Colonial Bagley to help a newly created Imperial Japanese Army who are trying to suppress the Samurai rebellion. Although Algren hates Bagley, he is in need of cash and so takes the offer and moves out to Japan. However things quickly turn ugly for Nathan as he soon realizes that the soldiers are not ready and are quickly defeated by Katsumoto and his men. They then capture Algren and take him to their village where he soon begins to have sympathy towards t...

 In my humble opinion, one of the most underrated comic book characters of all time is Jason Todd. Better known as the Red Hood. Jason Todd made his debut into comics back in March of 1983 as Robin during Batman #635. Todd was a replacement to the original Robin (Dick Grayson) who had moved on and became Nightwing.  Todd became the new Robin after Batman discovered him trying to steal the tires off of the Batmoblie.  Now, I know that I just said that Jason Todd was an underrated character, but when he first debut, he wasn't exactly popular among the fans as Jason was known for being aggressive and reckless. Basically he was the total opposite of Dick Grayson. It got so bad that during the storyline "A Death In The Family" fans voted on a telephone poll that Jason would die at the hands of the Joker. We wouldn't see Jason again until 2005 during the "Under The Red Hood" story arc. In this story a mysterious figure named the Red Hood began tearing up the stree...

 Hard to believe sometimes but this amazing system came out 25 years ago and it certainly was a big part of my childhood. The Playstation 2 arrived on shelves on March 4, 2000, it was a sixth generation console that competed against other systems like the Nintendo Game Cube, the Sega Dreamcast and the original Xbox. I remember watching the hype and eventually launch of the PS2 on Gamespot TV. Man did it have a lot of hype on it especially since the original Playstation was so successful and boy did it live up to the hype. The lifespan of the PS2 went from March 2000 to January 2013 and sold over 160 million units Worldwide. 😮 One of the things I loved about the PS2 was the simple fact that it's backwards compatibility. You didn't have to get rid of your favorite PS1 games, so if you wanted to, you could just put in a classic and enjoy it while getting to play the newer PS2 games. Of course, much like the older systems, the PS2 had things called a Memory Card, which those could...

 Recently I went back to watching James Bond movies and the choice of the night, You Only Live Twice. This 1967 spy thriller is the fifth of the James Bond movie franchise that was created by Eon Productions and stars once again the late, great Sean Connery as the 007 agent himself. The movie was based off of an Ian Fleming book of the same name. In fact, this book was the eleventh novel and twelve book in the James Bond series and it came out in March of 1964. Sadly, this would be the last book ever written by Fleming as he would pass away in August of the same year (REST IN PEACE🙏🙏🙏 Fleming!) The film follows James Bond as he is assigned to the land of the rising sun after American and Russian astronauts go missing with each nation blaming each other amidst the Cold War.  So Bond goes to Japan where he meets up with Tanaka and Aki where they discovered that the hijackings are caused by the archrival of Bond Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his organization SPECTRE. Bond along wit...

 One of the best villains in the Daredevil series and arguably the greatest villain that Daredevil has ever faced. Bullseye! The character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist John Romita Sr (RIP). Bullseye made his debut in March of 1976 in Daredevil issue #131 and has become one of the best and most dangerous opponents that Daredevil has ever come face to face with. In fact, Bullseye also has dealings with The Punisher as well. Though he has no super powers to speak of, that doesn't make him any less dangerous. Bullseye is an expert marksman who can use anything as a lethal projectile. Whether it is shuriken, a sai or just a simple playing card, Bullseye could end your life in a matter of seconds. Although he uses the name Benjamin Poindexter in the comic books as well the Daredevil series on Netflix as well as the up coming Born Again series. The truth of the matter is, no one really knows the true origin or real name of Bullseye. He is a complete unknown and even when ...

 Well, Chad and myself decided to take another trip down to Huntingdon where we made our return to the Clifton 5 theater to watch the Heart Eyes movie which stars Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding. This was a movie that Chad had been wanting to see for a while now but we never really had a chance to see it until now. Needless to say, my twin was more excited about seeing this movie than I was, the trailer didn't really grab my attention, but Chadman wanted to go so I figured, at least give it a shot. When we arrived to our seats with a drink and a snack, we realized that our theater room was totally empty which at first, we thought it was pretty cool to have the room to ourselves, but another part of me was like, man remember when going to the movies was a thing? I wish more people would go out more, I mean I get why people don't anymore, but I guess I just wish things were like how they use to be. Anyway, back to the movie however as Heart Eyes is a horror romantic comedy where co...

 Can't believe that this amazing video game is 25 years old. And it still looks incredible even in today's graphic standards. I am talking about the gothic western classic, Darkwatch. Darkwatch burst onto the scene in 2005 for the Playstation 2 as well as the Xbox and was developed by High Noon Studios. This game is a mix between horror, western and steampunk. The story follows Jericho Cross, an outlaw gunfighter in the late 19th century American Frontier who was turned into a vampire and was forced to joining an elite group of monster hunters who set out to fight the supernatural forces. AKA Darkwatch. Cross who is voiced by Christopher Corey Smith attempts to rob a train only to discover that he had mistakenly released the vampire lord and former leader of Darkwatch Lazarus Malkoth. There he becomes a vampire himself thanks to Lazarus and soon begins his quest to save himself and to become human again. Joining Cross on his quest are Cassidy Sharp voiced by Jennifer Hale, Tala...

 Last night I was a little bit bored and was flipping through Youtube and I sound that there was a full movie of Dead or Alive, so for the heck of it, I decided to watch. I mean, this wasn't the first time I had seen the movie but it had been a while since so I figured why not rewatch it and see if I think any different about it. The film was based off a fighting video game of the same name and was created by a company called Techmo. Which I really loved playing growing up as a kid.  Unfortunately, this movie didn't really do too well. In fact, it was a box-office bomb. DOA had a movie budget of 30 million dollars, only had achieved 7.7 million dollars at the box office. Yikes! 😱 As I watched the movie last night, I could see why the movie struggled. Don't get me wrong, this was more of a guilty pleasure kind of movie and to be fair video game movies historically don't have a great track record. I appreciate the fact that they tried to follow the plot of the gaming ser...

 Now it is no secret that I enjoy reading some comic books and recently written a few blog posts about Daredevil, Punisher and even the Hand. But in today's blog post I wanted to talk about another character that I really enjoy and his name is Nightwing. For those who are familiar with comic books, Nightwing originally went by another name, Robin. In fact, he was the original Robin also known as Dick Grayson. Grayson was once part of the Flying Graysons who were murdered due to a pair of gangsters who were trying to exhort money from the circus owner but the owner ultimately refused which led to them sabotaging and killing Grayson's parents. But then Dick Grayson would be reborn as he was then adopted by Bruce Wayne, better known as Batman and become his sidekick Robin. According to creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, they wanted to create a character that would bring in younger readers to like Batman. The character was inspired believe it or not by Robin Hood. As time went by h...

 Well, with me trying to become more positive about myself, I have been looking back into the past and find ways to let go of some of the negative emotions attached to it. One such issue was going back to my time at Lewistown Area High School which as mentioned before was a huge struggle for me.  But again, trying to be more positive, I wanted to look back at that time and remember some of the good moments during that period. One of which was playing for the Lewistown Panthers baseball team. Heading into my senior year of high school, I wasn't in the best state of mind. Honestly, I really did not want to be there anymore, I was just so sick of life, never thought I was going to be anything. All I ever was going to be was a huge disappointment. I can only give credit to God for being able to get through that year. But then baseball tryouts came along and I decided to go for it again. The previous years I've tried only to fail, which in fairness, wasn't much of a surprise bec...