The Joshua Yoder Blog

 Recently, I had found out that a family friend of ours named Nick Dickson had a stroke and people have been doing what they can to support him and his family. Nick is a local mechanic who has been serving this community for many, many years and has always been a generous, hard worker and honorable person at the Dickson's Garage along with his father Ken. He and his father are also local racing legends around here in Mifflin County having raced for a couple generations now. Nick and his family have always been honest with me and my family and has helped take care of our vehicles for many years. They are amazing,  hardworking people who now need our help. And according to the go fund me page that was set up by Andrea Baker and Valeri Thornburgh. The doctors had told his family that it will take months at minimum for him to be able to recover and will not be able to work for the foreseeable future. Please support anyway you can for the Dickson family in their time of need.  My though

It is the band's eleventh studio album released by Solid State Records on March 5th 2021. Most of the songs that are featured in this album are acoustic versions of previous songs that the band had recorded but also added a brand new song called Praise the Void. Although I really enjoy hearing the sounds of heavy metal, I do love listening to acoustic versions of songs. It's a nice change of pace, going from mosh pit to just sitting down and relaxing. It almost feels as though I'm sitting by the camp fire with some friends and just singing some tunes. Also brings me back to when I was younger and watching the famous Unplugged show. One of the things I loved about the Songs of Death and Resurrection album was the cover. On the cover was an Angel playing on a demon's skull like a cello showcasing the band's strong faith.  This album has a collection of 12 songs on it. My personal favorites on the album were Dead Flowers along with The Heart of a Graveyard. Lead singer

 Well Fighting Irish fans! Today is that special day where we all come together and put on the green in support of the Notre Dame football team in their annual Green Jersey game. Now the history of the green jerseys is a bit disputed as some say it started back in 1921. But so far the most confirmed date was in 1926 in a game against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Which the Fighting Irish came out on top 28-0 over Penn State. Head coach Frank Leahy then made the switch green jerseys full-time in 1943 which was his third season as head coach and also where the Irish won the National title. Notre Dame kept the green jerseys until 1959. Although they brought them out for some games during the early 60s. Then Ara Parseghian arrived in South Bend in 1964 and permanently made the colors blue and gold. It wasn't until 1977 under head coach Dan Devine brought back the green jerseys against arch rival USC Trojans. Notre Dame won that game 49-19 as the Irish were on their way to another Natio

 Have some questions for all of you. Am I crazy? Is it weird to question things? Or am I just overthinking all of these? I ask this because there is so much out there in the world and beyond that I often wonder if there is more than what we have been told all these years. It has been a feeling of mine for quite sometime now and have been really starting to branch out and ask questions. To be frank, I don't think my questions could be answered by people. Honestly, I am not even sure if people would like to know the answer. Maybe I am going a bit crazy, but I can't help but feel as though that none of us know nearly as much as we think we do. I mean, one person can say something and I can agree with them with some things, but then somebody else can come along and say something completely different yet, there is some truth to it as well. I mean think about it, from back to days of Egypt with the Pyramids, other planets among the stars in space. Have we even scratched the surface o

 It is crazy to think that it has been 40 years since the debut of Transformers. All the way back in 1984 the world would never be the same as the war between the Autobots and Decepticons had came to Earth to continue their fight. Transformers got their start in May of 84 as a monthly comic book series that lasted until 1991 having a total of 80 comic books of Generation One. I first learned about Transformers because of my big brother Cody as he watched the series as a kid. The first series I use to watch along with my twin was Transformers Beast Wars. As mentioned earlier in the blog, the Autobots and Decepticons had came to the planet Earth due to their war had destroyed their home planet of Cybertron. Leader of the Autobots is Optimus Prime who is arguably one of the greatest characters of all time. Optimus certainly has one of the coolest voices of all time thanks to the efforts of Peter Cullen. On the flip side, the Decepticons are led by Megatron who was voiced by Frank Welker i

  In my humble opinion, music is one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given us in our lifetimes and it should always be cherished and appreciated. Music can help us through some many different emotions and situations during our spiritual journey we all like to call life. I for one enjoy all different kinds of music, from rock, metal, hip-hop, country, christian music, jazz, opera, blues, etc. There is so much music out there, it just makes me smile. It is as simple as going from to Slipknot to Alan Jackson, Britney Spears to Slaine, House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Alice n Chains, Ill Bill, Tupac, Ice Cube, Dwight Yoakam, Brooks and Dunn, Prince and so on. Music can transport us to another world that brings out what we all dreams whether it be adventure, being with ones we love and of course romance 😉. It can even get us through our darkest moments in our lives like the loss of love ones, depression, be lonely, suicidal thoughts, etc. There are some days I just want to put on some

  One of my favorite acts of music I truly enjoy listening to are the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band was formed back in the early 80s but much of their success during the 1990s. The first time I ever heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was when their cover song of Higher Ground was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie back in 1995 and I have been hooked ever since. One of the things I really enjoyed about the Peppers was their wide varies of different styles in all of their songs and albums. It could go from funk, rock, metal, rap rock. It keeps me grooving in some many ways and I think it is pretty amazing to see any band change up their style but at the same time, never change who they are and I really appreciate that with them. Their sound in my humble opinion is the ultimate California sound. Which makes sense since their are from Cali 😆. But what I mean by that is every song I have ever listen from them just makes me feel like I am driving in the summer time with the top down a

 God only knows how much I enjoy watching the great sport of boxing! God I love this sport so much. Mainly because of how simple the concept is. It is basically just two men in the ring going toe to toe for however many rounds they were schedule to compete against each other and see who comes out victorious. I first here of the great sport of boxing through one of my favorite movie characters, Rocky Balboa from the Rocky films. Needless to say I was hooked.  My earliest experiences of boxing was seeing the craziness that was Mike Tyson. Now, I did not see him during his heyday of the 1980s. I was watching him during the 90s where he was a wildman to say the least. But ultimately, my favorite moment in boxing was the trio of amazing fights from two of the greatest fighters ever! Arturo "Thunder" Gatti and one of my personal favorite boxers "Irish" Micky Ward. These trio fights between the two incredible boxers were and still are truly amazing. I in no way can ever pu

 One of the best if not the best comic book characters of all time is the dark knight himself. BATMAN! 😁 God I have been forcing myself to write this blog post for a very long time now and I have finally decided to write about the Cape Crusader. My first experience seeing Batman was during the early 90s with the Batman Animated Series and the rest they say is history. One of the reasons why I enjoy Batman so much is how dark of the story is. I mean Bruce Wayne got to witness the murder of both his parents when he was a child. I can never imagine going through something like that. But I always admire how Bruce uses this experience to help prevent other people to go through the same thing and fights crime. Another reason I really enjoy Batman, are the awesome gadgets that he uses throughout his crime fighting. You know, stuff like the batarang and of course the batmobile. Batman is always prepared for every single kind of situations. But what I love the most about Batman is his wide var

 In my humble opinion, one of the most influential bands of not only my generation, but of all time is Linkin Park. Although they were formed back in 1996 under a different name. Linkin Park did not release an album under their  new name until 2000 with their debut album called  Hybrid Theory, heck it has been over 20 years since its debut. And to they came out with a bang is putting it mildly. The album was certified gold within weeks of its launch and eventually found its way to 12x Platinum by 2020. It is no surprise because of all the amazing songs that were on that album. Songs like, One Step Closer, Crawling, In the End, Papercut, just to name a few. What of the things that I love about Linkin Park was their mixture of rap and rock sound. I grew up listening to rap groups and rock bands so hearing it mixed together was amazing. Personally though, the lyrics by Chester Bennington had a major impact on my life. Listening to lyrics and hearing the voice of Chester singing still hits

 Quite a weekend it was for myself as well my twin brother Chad as we decided to go down to McVeytown and have some fun during the Rothrock Fair. Now the event itself was small, unlike the previous years. But to be fair, no pun intended, McVeytown has been slowly trying to build up the community again. And also, there were still plenty of fun stuff happening despite the small size. First such example was there were plenty of amazing food being feature at the Fair. One of which is one of my personal favorites, the Funnel Cake. I also got to spend some time with plenty of people that I know and love and we all got to sit and chill and enjoy some great music from a local country music band called The Kenton Sitch Band, Which these guys were awesome! Here is a link to the band https://www.facebook.com/kentonsitchband But being at the Fair made me realize something. I really wish more people would go out and have like this more often. What I mean by that is people nowadays don't really

  Can you believe that it has been 25 years since one of my favorite songs came into existence in the form of Blue (Da Ba Dee) all the back in 1998. The song was created by the Italian music trio of Jeffrey Jey, Maurizio Lobina and Gabry Ponte. Collectively known as Eiffel 65. It was originally released in Italy back in 98 before coming to the US in 1999 as the lead single for their debut album Europop. This song was amazing! I have never heard of a sound like it before, it kind of made me feel like I was in a sci-fi movie.  To be honest with you guys, I had absolutely no idea what the lyrics are even about when it first came out. I just sing along with the song. But as I did my research and I discovered that the song was about someone who was feeling blue because he got no one to talk to. But also speaks about random stuff that is also colored blue, like his house, his windows, his car, you get the picture 😆. The music video was awesome! It was just like a a sci-fi movie. The story w

  One of the most unique groups I remember ever seeing in my life was the performance arts group called the Blue Man Group. Created back in the late 1980s by the trio of Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton in New York. They originally wore blue masks before moving onto the face paint.  After a few years of performing in the streets, the Blue Man Group got to play in the Astor Place Theatre in Manhattan in the early 90s. The group had their first studio recording in 1999 with Audio which was an instrumental album.  One of the cool things about the Blue Man Group was the look. The blue face paint, the black clothes. Of course I do admit, I was a little creep out about how they never spoke. But now that I am older, I think its pretty cool 😆. Another thing I learned about the Blue Man Group was the fact that they usually appeared in groups of three. However they usually employ seven to nine members full-time through different casting calls. It is crazy to me how the Blue Man Group i

  One of my favorite rock bands to listen to was a band called Evans Blue. To be honest, I am not really sure how many people even know who these guys are. The band was based from our neighbors from the north Canada back in 2005. The band got its name "Evans Blue" in reference from the dye of the same name that is injected into the bloodstream to measure blood volume. The band had produce five albums in their careers and different lineup changes as well. But either way, I enjoyed them all the same. List of albums: The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends Evans Blue Graveyard of Empires Letters From the Dead What I love the most about this band was the theme of their lyrics. A lot of them deal with pain and loss which I go through a lot of times and these guys helped me through all the tough times and I very grateful for that. Evans Blue got to perform with such bands like Staind, Alice in Chains, Breaking Benjamin, Flyl

 One of my personal favorite comedians of all time and honestly somebody who really opened my eyes to the craziness of the very world we live in. And his name was George Carlin. Hard to believe that he has been gone for nearly 20 years now. In fact, I was a junior in high school when he past away. And to be perfectly honest with all of you, I still personally believe that people like him are needed now more than ever. When I first saw Carlin, it was during the time that he was playing as Mr. Conductor during the Thomas the Tank Engine show called Shining Time Station. Which I really enjoyed. What I didn't really know about him as I grew older was how long of a career he had. I am I seen him on comedy specials and man was he ever funny and still is even to this very day. But as I watched a documentary about his career, it amazed me with how he thought. What I mean by that was everything he had said from his early days till the time he past away made a big impression on me. Now, I di

 Many of you that read this may be a little bit surprised by this because of my young age, but I really am into the band called The Doors. More specifically, the lead singer Jim Morrison. It is very hard to believe that someone who is as talented as Morrison was is no longer with us. In fact, it has been nearly 53 years since his death in Paris, France at the age of 27 which makes him a member of the 27 Club. Heck! it has nearly been 60 years since the Doors were formed back in 1965 when Morrison and Ray Manzarek created the group while attending UCLA. They launched their first album named The Doors in early 1967 which included their first hit Light My Fire. Fun fact, from what I researched, I discovered that the name of the band comes from a book by Aldous Huxley called The Doors of Perception. Personally I really enjoy listening to songs like Rider of the Storm, Break on Through and People are Strange. What draws me to Morrison was his poetry in his lyrics. And just the sound of his

  One of my favorite musical acts of all time and I still listen to this very day is the Irish hip-hop trio known as the House of Pain. House of Pain consists of lead rapper Everlast, emcee Danny Boy and the amazing DJ Lethal although Lethal was of Latvian descent. They were one of the best things going in music throughout the 1990s and I enjoyed every single of them. Though I was young during their run, I was introduced to them thanks in large part to being around my big brother Cody and his friends and I have enjoyed House of Pain ever since. One of best shots out there and it is still being played to this very day is the song Jump Around which was one their debut album House of Pain (Fine Malt Lyrics) back in 1992. I really love this song and it never gets old no matter how many times people play it. However, what I will say gets old is how people call House of Pain a one hit wonder. In my humble opinion, they have had some many amazing songs that it is criminal that people don'

 Now, it is no secret that I am a NERD! I enjoy my video games, anime, etc. But what many people may not know is that some of these games from my childhood were not only fun, but educational as well. One of those kind of games I remember playing was the Cluefinders. The series made its debut back in 1998 with the Mystery of Mathra which was the first of 13 total videos games created for the series. From the first game on, we followed the amazing adventures of the group called the Cluefinders. Members were Joni Savage, Santiago Rivera, Owen Lam, Leslie Clark, LapTrap and later on their dog Socrates. These games to me, reminded me of Scooby Doo where it was like a mystery which also involved genres like fantasy and science fiction. Now, I am not have been the brightest kid in school, I would go as far and say I am pretty slow. But playing these games I definitely enjoyed learning. In fairness to these game, for the most part were based on what grade the player was in. Of course there wer

  One of my favorite rappers or really just artists to listen to is called Slaine. This man has been putting in work since the early 2000s, but it wasn't until I first started listening to a rap group called La Coka Nostra and when I discovered that he as well as many other members had solo records, I immediately jumped on and became a major fan. What I love about listening to Slaine is just how honest he is about everything that he raps about. I honestly feel like I can relate in some way with what he is saying. His writing is incredible, he is just blunt and straight to the point with how he feels in a lot of ways which I admire. Thanks to Slaine, I have also gotten to listening to other rappers like Ill Bill along with other underground musicians who to be perfectly honest, need to get more attention in my humble opinion. Slaine has released five albums throughout his career with the latest being back in 2021 with the Things We Can't Forgive. He has also released a few EPs a

 This post has been something that I have been wanting to do for a very long time now and I am finally getting to writing it and it is about my love for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. God only knows how much I love TMNT! I mean holy crap, much like the power rangers, the turtles were and still is a major part of my life especially during me and my twin brother Chad's childhood. I still apologize to my parents for the chaos me and my brothers had caused throwing our pizza bean bags at one another during the shows and beyond. 😆 My first experience watching the turtles was the original cartoon series that aired back in 1987 and that was all that she wrote. One of the things I enjoyed about the story was the fact that the turtles were brothers and me having brothers. Another reason I like it was the jokes they had during the show as well as seeing how all four turtles interacted with each other as well as the other characters was very entertaining. And I must say that the series ha

  You can not go wrong with such a legendary rock and roll band named ACDC and in my humble opinion, they still are just as amazing now as they were back in 1973. Now that I think about it, I can not believe that this band has been around for 50 years. But then again, ACDC rules! So I guess it shouldn't be so surprising. As I was researching about ACDC, I discovered that the band was formed back in the land down under in Sydney, Australia. I never knew that which is pretty cool. I also learned throughout my time reading about the band was that they had not one but two big time singers throughout their run. The first being Bon Scott who tragically passed away back in 1980 (RIP) then later joined by Brian Johnson and have been the frontman ever since. My first memory of ACDC was probably one of my favorite memories of my childhood. Especially because it was with my father.  I remember getting ready along with my twin brother Chad to had down to stay over at Nan and Pap's house as

 One of, if not the greatest creators in video gaming history. He certainly was one of the biggest reasons why I love video games especially Sega during my youth and his name is Yu Suzuki. I was watching an old episode of G4tv Icons when it was talking about the career of Suzuki from his time when he joined Sega to the current time which was around the mid 2000s. And it just simply amazes me how much of an influence Suzuki was to the success of Sega he was and how much I was able to relate to him in someways. Like for example, Suzuki is basically a renaissance man, he paints, makes games, just somebody who is full of creative. Which is something I truly inspire to be like because I myself really enjoy the arts whether it be painting, drawing, music and of course writing. I really hope to be like him someday. But that is enough about silly little me, let's get back to Yu Suzuki. One of the things I learned about him was he was a major factor for Sega's success during the arcade

  It has been a while since I had written about some of my favorite music that I love to listen to and since back in early 2023 it had come to my attention that Godsmack had released their final album called Lighting Up The Sky. It's crazy to think that one of the bands that was a very part of my life growing up had created their final album. Of course as we all know, nothing lasts forever. Now to be fair, the band did say that they will continue touring long after the fact so that is cool to hear. It is also crazy to think that Godsmack has been around since the mid 90s. And to see how far they have come is truly amazing. Their debut album "All Wound Up" came out in 1997. But it was their next album "Godsmack in 1998 really hooked me in. The song that first really got my attention was Voodoo. Not as much the song itself which still is amazing to listen to even to this very day. But the music video for the song, it was so amazing! Along with Voodoo, I really enjoy li