The Joshua Yoder Blog

 It has been a long time coming, but this past weekend I finally got to finish a replay of one of my personal favorite video games ever, Jade Empire. For those of you who do not know, Jade Empire was created by Bioware and was published by Microsoft Game Studios back in 2005 on the original XBOX. The game was inspired by Chinese mythology and it follows a spirit monk who is the last of his kind. The main character along with his allies, are on a quest to rescue his Master from evil forces as well as save the Water Dragon. One of my favorite features in the game is the moral system that has been put in place throughout the game where you get to make choices whether it be for good (Open Palm) or for evil (Closed Fist). Each choice you make during the game will heavily impact where the story will go where you will either become a hero to the people or become the very evil you sought out to destroy. At the begin of the game, you get to choose between a male or female protagonist before...

 Everybody get up its time to slam now, we got the real jam going down, welcome to the Space Jam, here 's your chance do your dance with the Space Jam. Oh man I absolutely love it when this song comes on especially during my childhood. Much like the Power Rangers movie that I had written about last year, this movie was just as fun. It is called Space Jam! Space Jam follows the adventures of Michael Jordan who was retired from basketball and was now playing baseball before literally being dragged into the world of Looney Tunes who request his help as they are at risk being turned to slaves by Mr. Swackhammer and his Nerdlucks who run an amusement park called Moron Mountain. At first, the Looney Tunes think they have the upper hand because the Nerdlucks are small in height, so they challenged them to a basketball game. However, the Nerdlucks ended up stealing the talent from NBA players, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Shawn Bradley and Muggsy Bogues and become giant m...

 This past weekend, myself along with my twin brother Chad decided to go down and check out the third annual Agape Festival over at the Agape Farm in Shirleysburg. For those who may not know, the Agape Festival is a four day event that began on Thursday June 25 and ended on Sunday June 28. The Agape Festival is looking to build on what was once Creation and help those build strong relationships with Jesus Christ as well as building strong fellowship with one another. Much like the previous two years, Agape Fest brought in a ton of local Christian artists as well as speakers to help spread the word of God and provide plenty of entertainment. There were plenty of fun events happening as well like wagon rides, barrel train rides, a cornhole tournament, volleyball, gaga ball, hiking and much more. Chad and I decided to go down during the Friday event due to our good buddy Hayden Snook was going to be performing. As we arrived, we were greeted by some friendly people who helped us find ...

 One of the reasons why I became a fan of the Command and Conquer series, is because it not just had one amazing gaming series, but it had two and in today's blog post, I want to talk about the original Command and Conquer: Red Alert game which is thirty years old. Unlike the mainline series of Command and Conquer, Red Alert is an alternate historical timeline video game based on time travel. The plot for this real-time strategy game follows Albert Einstein where in 1946, travels through time, all the way back to 1924 and meets with a young Adolf Hitler who has been released from prison. The two have a brief conversation before shaking hands which ended up killing Hitler, preventing him from adding power and changing the timeline in hopes for a better future. Unfortunately, World War II still happens, but it is between the Allies and the Soviet Union. The Allies and the Soviets are the two rival factions that the player can choose from and each having their own ending depending on ...

 This past Saturday evening, myself along with my twin brother Chad decided to head down to little McVeytown for a fun night of food and music. This event has been something Chad and I have been looking forward to. Living in a small town as McVeytown, there isn't much to do, so to see that there was going to be an event like this, certainly got us excited. Kind of a nice and breezy day to as we headed down town. As we arrived, we got to see a number of people already there as well as plenty of food options. One of those food selections was getting to have some cookies and cream pancakes from Brooke Knable's Pretty Little Pancakes. Which were fantastic by the way! Of course, I had to have some pizza as well lol.  While we were there, we bumped into some of our other friends like the Sunderlands, Alan Clark from the McVeytown Museum, our cousin Ashley along with her husband Matt who were there to create a time capsule. We even got to see and hangout with Ms. Deb Himes, who curre...

 Recently, the New York Knicks have ended their streak of not winning the NBA championship until the 2026 season where they would ultimately defeat the San Antonio Spurs to win their first title since 1973. Congrats to the Knicks! Now with that being said, seeing this reminded me that this year marks 40 years since the Boston Celtics won their 16th NBA title back in 1986 where they defeated the Houston Rockets in six games. To many fans of basketball, this team is consider the greatest team of all time. Although I was not alive to see them play at the time, getting to hear stories from my father, along with many others who were there watching them at the time, including some documentaries I have watched about the team, I can honestly see why people believe it. I am list of talent on the roster as well as the coaches and of course, the late great Red Auerbach. The Head Coach at the time was KC Jones, who was apart of the original Celtic dynasty in the 1960s. Then you had all-time gr...

 It is time for me to move on from the idea of true love, for that passion for me has been long gone. A dream I once had hoped to be true, will never see the light of dawn. For it's very essence has been pulled out of my being. The hurt has been too much for me as my mind and my soul can not agree on what I am seeing. My confidence when it comes to women, is at an all time low. It soars into the darkness, like a raven or a crow. The idea of love has become a burden to my soul. And now, it is time for me to find a new goal. As much as I wish it could be something I could achieve. As much as I want to believe, it is time for me to stand up and leave. Yet why is my desires still there for me to contend? Why can it just come to an end? It is tough enough for me to make a friend. My heart is too broken for it to mend. My goal now is to move forward and overcome my mental state. I do not wish for my brain to be full of anger and hate. If I could find true love, it would be great. However...

 30 years ago, the Persona series made its debut into the video game world and as I looked back onto the series, I soon realized that one of the most popular games of the the Persona series, Persona 3 is now 20 years old. Persona 3 came in 2006 for the Playstation 2 in Japan in 2006 and then in 2007 for North America. It was developed by Atlus and it was the fourth installment of the Persona series. The player assumes the role of a high student who had transferred to Gekkoukan High School and meets the members of the S.E.E.S. (Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad) who investigate an anomaly known as the Dark Hour and do battle with monsters called Shadows using a physical manifestation of their psyche aka Personas. Joining the protagonist, are Yukari Takeba, the popular girl, Junpei Iori, the class clown and best friend, Akihiko Sanada, the captain of the boxing team, Mitsuru Kirijo, the class president, Fuuka Yamagishi, the shy girl, Algis, the female android, Ken Amada, an...

 After years of hard work, the Mifflin County Dream Center has finally been realized. Today marks the Grand Opening of the Dream Center which has been a very long time coming. The first time that I had ever heard of the Dream Center was when I worked for the local paper here in Mifflin County and was asked to meet with Chad Curry who was creating the Dream Center in Burnham.  I had knew of Chad for many years mainly because we both went to Lewistown Area High School together. Although he was a couple years ahead of me. The only thing I know about him was he was in the military and when I met him, he opened up a lot to me about his struggles and why bringing the Dream Center meant so much to him and honestly, I was excited to see it happen. Unfortunately, it took a bit longer for the Dream Center to be completed, but nonetheless, it is here. I am very excited about it because there will be a place for people who have struggled with addiction, hunger and financial struggles and ...

 This past weekend was an interesting one for me because I had a surprise guest deep inside my mind and it was a pretty blue jay. I find it interesting that a blue jay started to appear in my head when I was feeling extremely frustrated with myself and really everything. Even more interesting, I felt so calming and peaceful during that time and decided to investigate and learn more about the blue jay and why it has become a fixture in my mind. During my research I learned about the spiritual meaning behind seeing a blue jay and the results surprised me. For starters, the blue jay symbolizes truth, fearlessness and clear communication as these birds are known for being bold and loud calls. Many people believe that blue jays are messengers from beyond telling us to speak our minds, trust ourselves and care for those we hold dear. In fact, there are four things I discovered about seeing a blue jay and I would like to discuss about them. Number One. Finding my voice, according to this ...

The older I become, the more I have been looking back on some of my favorite things from my childhood and being more appreciative of them. And in today's blog post, I wanted to celebrate one of those favorite moments. In fact, today marks thirty years since its debut of one of my personal favorite shows to watch as a kid and it was called Kratt's Creatures. Kratt's Creatures debut in 1996 on the PBS channel and it only lasted for one season. It certainly was a heck of a season. The show was created by the Kratt Brothers along with Leo Eaton and it helped introduce us young kids at the time to learn about the wildlife and all kinds of amazing creatures all around the world. This was the first time that I was introduced to the Kratt Brothers Martin and Chris along with their friends Allison and Ttark and together their showcase different animals and different habitats. Since then I have been a major fan of the Kratt Brothers and have watched a number of their shows even to th...

 I recently watched a pretty cool documentary on Tubi the other day and it was about Stevie Ray Vaughn along with his older brother Jimmie and how they gotten involved with the blues genre as well as their careers. Now, I really love listening to the blues and I am a fan of Stevie Ray Vaughn and I wanted to learn more about Jimmie and his career along with getting to learn more about the blues in Texas. And I must say, this documentary was an incredible watch. It featured such great talent like Eric Clapton, Nile Rodgers, Billy Gibbons and many of the local musicians that knew Jimmie and Stevie and got to learn their stories and hear them tell stories about such great blues players like Muddy Waters, TBone Walker, Albert King, Jimmy Hendrix and many more. I thought it was cool to see how Jimmie and Stevie got their start and seeing the home movies of them playing in bands and how they developed their style. I also really enjoyed seeing the older bands they use to play with and now ...

 Thirty years ago this month of May, will mark the final year of the original American Gladiator TV series which started back in 1989 all the way to 1996. The series follows a cast of amateurs as they compete against each other which is usually consisted of two male and two female athletes as well as the show's own "Gladiators" through multiple challenges of strength and agility. Each season was basically a tournament where a male and female contenders would ultimately become an American Gladiator themselves. The contenders go through a variety of events throughout the show. Some of those events were Pyramid, Hang Tough, Joust, The Wall and so forth. My personal favorite event was Assault. I also very much enjoyed all of the cool names that each of the Gladiators. Such as, Laser, Malibu, Diamond, Ice, Thunder, Turbo, Storm, Lace, Nitro, Gold, Blaze and so many more. With that being said, rest in peace to Hawk, Siren, Atlas, Thunder, Gold who are no longer with us. 🙏🙏🙏....

 It always amazes me how much time flies in this world and today's subject is no different. One of the more positive influences in my life and that is a professional wrestler named Sting. 30 Years ago, was an interesting time in the life of a young Joshua and I was in the mix of watching pro wrestling during the 1990s and it was also a major turning point in the career of Sting. Of course it is much easier to look back today and see how much of this amazing character change was for Sting and really pro wrestling. By this point in my wrestling joy, was seeing Sting who at the time was a mostly blonde hair and was tag teaming with his buddy Lex Luger. And honestly, I do not think these two get enough credit of how great of a tag team they were. But also happening at this time of professional wrestling, was a storyline that ultimately tipped the scales in the favor of one WCW during the Monday Night War and it was the NWO. The NWO was a major driving force in professional wrestling an...

 So here we are folks! Year three, of the Joshua Yoder Blog has finally been completed. Hard to believe to be perfectly honest with all of you because this past year really did not go the way I was hoping it would. The third season certainly was a bit of a drop for me personally. Coming off of year two of the Joshua Yoder Blog, I was feeling pretty good, my blog had doubled the views it did the year before and my mind was totally blown. I was excited! I mean, for the first time in my life, I felt as though something was heading in the right direction. But then things went south real quick. For the record, I am simply trying to use my writing as well as my talk show to help build a career for myself. I am not trying to cause any drama or any kind of BS. I just like to write poetry, stories, etc. As mentioned earlier, things went a little south for me during the run. It started with my Facebook account getting HACKED. For the remainder of 2025 was me losing a source of displaying my ...

 With it being 30 years of Resident Evil, I thought I take a look back, all the way to the year of 1996 when a video game company Capcom introduced the world to this survival horror game on the original Playstation. Set in the fictional mountain region in the Midwest, players get to choose between either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, who are members of a elite task force known as S.T.A.R.S. and they must escape from a mansion that has been infested with zombie and other monsters. Many gamers nowadays would probably think this is funny, but at the time, the original Resident Evil was given high praise for its graphic, gameplay, sound and atmosphere. But hey, it was 1996, this was a big step for gaming at that point. At the time, it was the highest selling Playstation game of all time which ultimately it was Gran Turismo who became the all time selling game for the original Playstation with Final Fantasy 7 coming in second place. In fact, Resident Evil grossed 200,000,000 dollars...

 Why must I go through another night laying in tears. It has though everything I feared has surrounded me and those I hold dear. What good am I anyway? So many times I've asked God this question every time I pray. No answer seems to be given, all hope has gone astray. I am such a failure, can't you hear my cries. I'm so ashamed, that I can't even looked into my niece and nephew's eyes. God I pray they never have to feel the way I feel. Please protect them Lord and show them that, no matter what, love is real. I've tried my best to be the man and search for love and happiness, but each time these women just me as someone they just past on through. It was like they were telling me, we never loved you. With each passing day, I only get reminders of why I fail. The older I get, just only reminds me how much more my body is frail. Any kind of happiness has set sail. Let me close my eyes and escape reality. Just let me lay to rest and hear the sounds of raindrops put ...

 Holy Cow! I can not believe that this musical masterpiece is 40 years old this year. Last year, I wrote a blog post about the Phantom of the Opera which was a book written by Gaston Leroux over 100 years ago. But then, in 1986, the world was introduced to the musical adaptation of the great story thanks to the efforts of Andrew Lloyd Webber who created the music along with lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Stilgoe along with Lloyd Webber also did the libretto and follows the plot from the book where singer Christine Daae, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius aka the Phantom of the Opera who lives in a labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera house. The musical made its debut again back in 1986 at the West End theatre in London and from there onward left a legacy like no other. Winning numerous awards, gross billions of dollars worldwide, is the longest running opera show in history and has been seen by 100s of millions of people in multiple co...

 Finally! It took me long enough lol, but I managed to beat a video game called Digimon Cyber Sleuth. I know that it isn't anything too special, but with that being said, I just excited because I have been feeling pretty depressed and frustrated lately and I am trying to be positive. Sorry for that little side note, but after winning the game, I realized that this game is over 10 years old now. Digimon Cyber Sleuth was released on PS4 back in 2015 by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Cyber Sleuth is a third person role playing game where you and your allies have the ability to command Digimon. Digital creatures with their own set of skills who do battle against Digimon. You get to choose between Palmon, Terriermon or Hagurumon as your starting partner at the beginning of the game. Me personally, I choose Hagurumon mainly because I love the whole robotic design of him. Honestly though, I have always been a fan of Patamon. There are over 200 different Digimon that are featured in the game ...

 Despite all of the rain, my twin brother Chad and I headed our way down to McVeytown and witness the debut of the McVeytown Goose at the Rothrock library. This special event was thanks to the Community Partnerships Wild Geese Flock. Together, public art project which recognizes our region's Goose Day traditions. The unveiling of the McVeytown Goose was pretty cool to see and we got to hangout with some of our friends at the Rothrock library. Seeing the finishing touches of the Goose which was created by artist Carley Mattern of Ryde was amazing. Shout Out to Carley, the goose looks awesome! In fact, the goose was given the name Trimble. For those who do not know, the name was inspired by Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock who is from McVeytown and was known as the Father of Forestry. The T which is the first of his middle, Trimble and that is why the goose is named that as a tribute to him. Presenting Trimble the McVeytown Goose was Anne Fisher-Henson who also helped with sponsoring for the g...

 One of my personal favorite sports to watch growing up as a youngster, was the great sport of boxing. And some of my favorite video games to play were boxing games. Today is one such game that I will be blogging about and honestly, it just might be the greatest boxing video game of all time in my humble opinion. It is called Fight Night Round 3! Fight Night Round 3 was the third installment of the Fight Night series which were created by Electronic Arts and their EA Sports division back in 2006. The game features 27 real life boxers, including two of my personal favorite fighters Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward who were also on the cover of the game on the sixth generation consoles. Other fighters Oscar De La Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, etc. The gameplay was fun and I love the different styles of boxing you can make your created boxer to have as well as different ways of blocking. The career mode was a lot of fun too! Getting to create myself or just make up a random characte...

 With my quest of trying to be more positive and getting away from negative thoughts, I thought I write about someone who has been quite an inspiration to me in my life. His name is Conan O'Brien. For those of you who may not know, Conan is an American television host, comedian and writer. He is best known for his late night talk shows that began all the way back to 1993 when he debut on NBC with Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The first time I got to see Conan was during the late 90s when he was the host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Being a young kid at that time, getting to see the show was always fun, especially since it was just me and my twin brother Chad and our older brother Cody. Of course this was also before I realized that Late Night was a nightly show lol. For a long time, I thought the show only happened on Friday night. Me and Chad would basically crawl from our room over to Cody's room and we just chill and watch Conan together. Personally, I always g...

 The Chuck Norris movies continue as once again, my twin and I got to jump on Tubi and today we saw one of my personal favorite Chuck Norris film, An Eye for An Eye which is 45 years old now as it came out in 1981. The film was directed by Steve Carver and it stars Chuck Norris (Of Course 😁) as Sean Kane who is out for revenge against a drug cartel who killed his partner after being betrayed by an informant.  After quitting the force, Kane seeks out his friend Linda Chan, played by Roselind Chao the girlfriend of his partner who was killed. She too seeks to bring down the gang only to be killed herself by the gang which leads Kane down a dark path of lies and betrayals. Once again, this is one of my favorite Chuck Norris movie. For one, the really enjoyed the cast that this movie has assembled. Along with Norris, they also had Richard Roundtree (RIP) who many people remember him as John Shaft of the Shaft movies. Matt Clark (RIP) who had been in movies like Josey Wales, Outla...

 One of my personal favorite movies ever is now turning 50 years old this year. One of my personal heroes and inspirations for daily life and that is the Italian Stallion himself, Rocky. In 1976, the world was introduced to Rocky Balboa, a down on his luck boxer trying to overcome the obstacles in his life. Sylvester Stallone stars as Rocky as well as the creator which basically launched Stallone into stardom. Story follows Balboa who is struggling in the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pa as a boxer and loan shark collector for the local mob. He soon gets the break he was hoping for when the World Heavyweight Champion Apollo Creed was looking for new opponent to face him since his previous challenger had to back out of the fight due to a broken hand. Creed decides to give Rocky a shot at the title. The fight itself turned into a frenzy as Rocky proves himself more than a challenge for the champion Creed. Although Creed would win the fight via decision, Rocky managed to go th...