The Joshua Yoder Blog

 I don't know if there are many people out there who have seen these movies, but I remember going into a McDonald's with my parents and my brothers and got ourselves Happy Meals. But then we noticed that there was a movie called the Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald Scared Silly. To the dismay of parents, me and my twin brother Chad would bug the crap out of them to buy this movie. Sorry mom and dad lol. But they did buy the movie and Chad and I checked it out and enjoyed it very much. Little did we know that this was just the first of six movies that ran from 1998 to 2003 featuring all of the beloved McDonald's characters as they go through different adventures.  As mentioned earlier, Scared Silly was the first movie to come out. Second was The Legend of Grimace Island, The Visitors from Outer Space, Birthday World, Have Time, Will Travel and finally, The Monster O' McDonaldland Loch. And each time a new one came out, we again would bug the crap out of our parents to

   I always enjoy trying to discover new bands to listen to,  but I really enjoy going back in time and listen to some of the classic albums that I never got to listen to back in the day. So I decided to go back and listen to the debut album for the band called ZAO entitled All Else Failed. I was only five years old when this album first came out originally. Of course they made a rerecording of this album later on in 2003 but I’d prefer to listen to it as it originally was recorded. The ironic part is no one from this album is playing in the band anymore. But nonetheless this album is amazing with ten songs on the record. Vocalist Shawn Jonas really hit the nail on the coffin with his vocals. You definitely can feel a strong connection to the message that Shawn was singing about. Being a believer myself, I really felt like I could relate to his words. You can definitely tell he meant every word of what the message was and that was trying to connect with God. During each song Shawn woul

 With Halloween getting closer, I thought I continue to write about some more Halloween stuff. Today, I wanted to to write about Hocus Pocus which was a film that originally aired back in 1993. July 16 to be exact which was literally the day after my third birthday. I remember watching years later as a kid and enjoying it especially during the Halloween season and this October was no different. But what I had found interesting about this movie was the fact that when this movie first came out, it was considered a bomb for Disney. To be fair, this movie came out the same weekend as Jurassic Park. It also came out the same day as the movie Free Willy. But has since then become a cult classic, mainly because of the annual airing on Disney during the Halloween season. The story begins in 1693 where the Sanderson sisters had kidnapped a young girl named Emily who was the younger sister of Thackery Binx and drained her life force in order to restore their youth. They then cursed Binx and turn

 It is hard to believe that this month marks the one year anniversary of the untimely death of Atsushi Sakurai 😢. Sakurai was the lead singer of one of my favorite bands from Japan, a goth rock band called Buck-Tick. The first time I had ever heard of this band was because of me and my twin watching an anime called Trinity Blood which aired back in 2005. The opening of the anime was one of their songs and the song was called Dress. It such an amazing song, I was hooked ever since. What is crazy though was I didn't realize how long this band had been around. In fact the band made their debut back in 1983, I wasn't even born yet. As of 2023, the band has released a total of 23 albums with nearly all reaching the top ten and twenty positions on the Oricon charts in Japan. So since the Trinity Blood album, I have been searching songs from this amazing band and found plenty of them. Of course I still really enjoy listening to the Dress, but also really like their song called Romanc

 It is pretty well known that Halloween is filled with stories of horror and terror that chill us all to our very bones. And honestly no one does it better than Mr. H.P. Lovecraft himself. Holy crap are his stories scary. I mean, just wow! But as I was reading about his life thanks to the website hplovecraft.com, I can totally understand why he was so dark and pessimistic. I mean bless him, he lost his father at a very young age, a lot of issues psychologically, his family struggled a lot with health, especially mental throughout his life. Losing his grandfather, then his mother which apparently did not have the best relationship with but nonetheless, was hurt by her death.  Reading about his life, I can relate to him in someways, for example I too have issues of being isolated from the outside world even though I don't have an issue with really anyone.  Of course I felt really bad for him as well because of the fact that he lost a lot of people in his life that he was close to wer

 For the first time in a long time, I got to watch in my humble opinion, one of the funniest movies ever! And that the is movie Dodgeball. This movie originally came to theaters in 2004 which was 20 years ago holy crap lol. The movie was written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. The films stars Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor and Rip Torn. The film was about a group of misfits who are trying to win a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas to win 50,000 dollars in order to save their struggling gym from being taken by a corporate fitness chain Global Gym. Man was this movie funny! It was quite a long time since I had seen it and when I decided to watch it again on TV, it still holds up and was I ever just losing my mind laughing. This movie was all about the physical comedy. I can not keep a straight face when watching them getting hit in the face, or seeing them trying to dodge getting hit by a wrench and trying to avoid getting hit by traffic. I really enjoyed watching t

 As mentioned in an earlier blog post, I am a huge fan of the Undertaker. Mainly because of love the dark, gothic character. But the reason why I am talking about the Ministry of Darkness was because that this is the first time I remember seeing the Undertaker. This faction was scary for me as a kid watching wrestling, but at the same time though I thought it was amazing to watch as well. Which my mother was not happy about it lol. The faction itself was also both frighten and incredible. With such talent like Mideon, Viscera, Bradshaw, Faarooq who all have massive amounts of muscle and every single one of them could easily kill me for a shoot. I certainly want these guys beside me in a dark alley and not in front of me. Not to mention they also had the vampire trio themselves, the Brood as well. One of the controversies of the group was that the simple fact that they would sometimes perform rituals along with sacrifices. Yeah this group made a lot of people very uncomfortable on multi

 Now, it is no secret that I really love the game of Football. Even more so, I am more of a defensive kind of guy when it comes to the sport. And in my humble opinion, one of, if not the greatest defensive coach in the history of football and than James David Ryan aka "Buddy Ryan". After serving in the Army during the Korean War. Thank You for your service! Ryan joined into the college ranks as a defensive line coach during the early 60s. By the end of the decade, Buddy found himself in the NFL as a defensive line coach for the New York Jets. Which ultimately led to him winning his first Super Bowl thanks to the guarantee that was made by Broadway Joe Namath where they defeated the Colts. Ryan then moved on to the Minnesota Vikings for a few seasons getting to work with the Purple People Eaters. It was during these times with the Jets and Vikings is where Ryan would soon become what he is most famous for and that was the 46 defense. When Ryan arrived to Chicago to become the

 One of my personal favorite video games of all time and certainly one of the best displays of the Cape Crusader himself. And that game is Batman Arkham City. This game first came out on October 18. 2011 so 13 years ago and I played it on my Xbox 360. This game was a sequel to the Batman Arkham Asylum game which I will probably talk about a later time lol. Not nonetheless, this game makes me love to be a storytelling and I really would love to be able to become a writer that is good as Paul Dini who was one of the writers for the game and was famous for the Batman the Animated Series back in the early 90s. The story begins with Bruce Wayne was holding a press conference where he declared his opposition to the recently created Arkham City where many of the evil criminals throughout the Batman comics are being stored near Gotham City which brings possible threat to the citizens. But before he could go any further, a mercenary group called TYGER appeared and arrested Wayne and take him to

 What a way to end the night than with a little Halloween Parade! Chad and I decided to go and check out the festivities down in McVeytown and had ourselves a great time! For starters, you can tell that fall is coming because it was quite chilly down there and the wind certainly did not help, but nonetheless, it is a sure sign that fall is here and will be here for some time. Walking around town I got to see a lot of familiar faces and it is crazy to think that these same people that I grew up with, are now having kids of their own and having fun chasing after Halloween candy. It makes me smile because it reminded me when I was little and I couldn't wait to get after that candy so it is really cool that still happens nowadays. Speaking of cool moments, Me and Chad bumped into our friends the Sunderland family as they were outside their house with their grandkids waiting for the parade to start. One of their grandchildren, Claire turned 15 today, so Happy Birthday to you Claire. It

 Despite the recent history of the Oakland A's which has now come to an end with them leaving for Las Vegas. I thought I talk about some of the success of the A's during their time in Oakland. I like to consider myself big into history, whether it be sports, music, etc and recently I got to watch a pretty cool documentary about the Swinging A's that was produced by the MLB Network. It was about the team that went three straight in winning the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The documentary was narrated by MC Hammer as he was apart of the team during his youth. And I must say, seeing the story about this legendary team, it amazes me how much craziness was happening. Basically, the story line throughout the documentary was while the players were dominate on the field, off the field, things were incredibly intense with fights with each other and especially with their owner Chuck Finley who flat out just refused to pay his players despite the simple fact that they were com

   I just recently enjoyed listening to an old album from the Christian metal Skillet called Victorious. It was their tenth album which was released in the summer of 2019. What I like about the album was that it played with every emotion in me. From the first song to the last, it had me going as I was driving my way to work. A fun fact, the first song on the album Legendary was used as a theme song for the WWE’s flagship show Monday Night Raw. John Cooper’s vocals on every song was incredible. I felt like I was on a spiritual journey and that each song was like a chapter in a book. The song that was the namesake of the album Victorious, was a very beautiful song. I also really enjoyed listening to the song Terrify the Dark. It made me feel empowered and that no matter what obstacles I face, I can get through it. Another song I really loved listening to was Save Me. I could totally relate to it because of my constant battle with depression and anxiety. To be honest, it kinda brings a te

 You know, with most characters during the Halloween season. They are usually dark, menacing, vile, gory creatures looking to kill and destroy. Turning all of our dreams into our worst fears and nightmares. But what if I told you that not all monsters were so scary. In fact, you can say they are friendly, much like today's subject, Casper The Friendly Ghost. Casper was created by the duo of Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo all the way back in 1945. Casper along with his three uncles Stretch, Fatso and Stinkie. Well actually their relationship varies in different stories throughout their adventures. For example, in the early comics, Casper never called them his Uncles. In fact, a 1995 film (Casper) which starred Christina Ricci as well as the spin-off cartoon does say that they are his Uncles as well as the 1998 movie (Casper meets Wendy), which was a fun movie by the way. But the 1997 film (Casper Spirited Beginning) Casper says that they were not related, he just happened to meet them

 This is one of my personal favorite wrestling promotions and honestly along with Ring of Honor, really brought me back to loving pro wrestling again back in the 2000s and that is the Emerald green company from Japan, Pro Wrestling Noah. Now the first time that I had ever heard of Noah was thanks in large part of Ring of Honor in the mid 2000s due to both companies were having a working agreement. But I soon learned that this company much like ROH, was a young, recently formed company back in 2000 after several wrestlers led by Mitsuharu Misawa (RIP) left All Japan Pro Wrestling and formed Noah. The name Pro Wrestling Noah comes from the biblical story of Noah where humans and animals survived on the Ark during the flood and make a new beginning of the world. In fact, the original logo of Noah was an Ark holding a dove which had an olive branch. What I love about Pro Wrestling Noah was their hard hitting style. Everything felt so real and the matches were incredible. There wasn't t

 One of the most incredible franchises in pro sports history. And that is the Green Bay Packers. The current NFL season is the 105th year that the Packers have been in existence as they were created all the way back in 1919. Holy crap my Grandfather on my dad's side was born in 1919. The Packers were created by former Notre Dame player Earl "Curly" Lambeau and newspaper editor George Whitney Calhoun. I like learning a lot about the history of some of these NFL teams or just history in general because it is very important to me to see where things came from. You can learn a lot from history. For this blog I was watching a documentary series about the history of the Packers on youtube which I highly recommend you go and watch, even if you are not a Packer fan or a football fan in general. What I found amazing when I was watching the documentary series was how the duo of Lambeau and Calhoun worked together to create this team. Lambeau being the player/coach while Calhoun was

One of my favorite albums from one of my favorite bands Demon Hunter, is actually two separate albums called War and the other one was called Peace. Now one of the first things I enjoyed about both albums was simply just the contrast in styles between the two. The War album is more of a heavy metalcore sound while the Peace album is shifted towards a more melodic sound to it. Lets start with the War album shall we. There are 10 songs on the album with an 11th song that was added to the deluxe edition in Gunfight. Although I enjoyed the entire album, I must confess that there are three songs that stand out to me in this album. They are On my side, Grey Matter and The Negative. What I loved about On my side is simple, it makes me feel closer to God. Having faith through the Lord no amount of evil could bring harm to you. It reminded me of a verse from the Bible. As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I know he is with me. This song brings me hope.

 It is hard to believe that this movie came out 50 years ago. And in my humble opinion, still holds up and I really enjoyed The Man with the Golden Gun. The movie was based off an Ian Fleming novel of the same name. In fact, the Man with the Golden Gun was actually released after Fleming had past away (RIP). Though the movie was a loose adaptation from the book. I still fairly enough it! The plot is that 007 himself received a golden bullet from an assassin named Scaramanga. Which is his way of saying, your next on my list so to speak. There is just one problem, outside of the fact that he has a third nipple, yes a third nipple, no one knows what this man looks like. And so Bond unofficially decides to track him down before it is too late. Joining Bond on his quest are Lieutenant Hip who is Bond's contact when he arrives at Hong Kong as well as Bangkok. Also coming along for the ride is Mary Goodnight who is the classic Bond Girl of the story. As the story progresses, Bond finally

 What a way to start the weekend then with a little college football! This past Friday I got to go on a rare trip to Juniata College and got to cover some football for my friend/mentor Kenny Varner and Hometown Sports. It is not too often I even go to Huntingdon let alone, Juniata College. But the few times that I have been there, it has always been a joy. I guess in a way it is probably because of the simple fact that I never went to college myself. So going to Juniata College is kind of a unique experience for me. Juniata College is a small private liberal arts college in Huntingdon, Pa. It was created back in the late 1800s. And the campus itself is very beautiful, if I didn't have to cover any sporting event, I would have loved to just walk around it. It probably be the closest I will ever get to being a college student lol. But back to football! This was the third time that I got to cover the football team for Hometown Sports and each time has been a incredible experience. I h

   One of the most popular and well-known albums that the Christian Metal band Demon Hunter had ever released came in the form of their third full-length album called The Triptych. Released back in October 2005. When released, The Triptych received generally positive reviews reaching the Top Ten in the Christian Album charts and number one in the Top Heatseekers chart in 2006. The Triptych featured 12 tracks on it include singles such as Undying and Not I and I enjoyed every second of this album. Right from the opening song which was an instrumental song called The Flame that Guides us Home which was a beautiful and melodic then led right into the song Not I that was more loud and aggressive. Certainly getting the blood flowing and the album does not slow down the rest of the way. One of my personal favorite songs on the album was Undying. What I loved about the song was that it made me feel like they were saying no matter the hardship that they face as a band as well as in their perso

As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I really enjoyed the Addams Family. And it just so happened that I recently saw the Addams Family the other day on TV and it was the 1991 film of the same name. Needless to say I really loved watching that movie. I mean the cast in my humble opinion did an amazing job bring the same creepy yet, entertaining vibes like the TV series did. The story goes that it has been 25 years since Uncle Fester had disappeared after he and Gomez had a fallen out.That wasn't the only problem that the Addams family was dealing with as their lawyer Tully Alford owed some money to con artist, Abigail Craven and two conspire together to steal their riches inside the family vault. And they had the perfect guy to do it as Abigail's adopted son Gordon resembles Uncle Fester and decided to use him to trick the Addams. The plan worked and the Addams were forced to leave their home and find a way to get back their mansion. Now, I will stop it there because I wo

 They're creepy and they're kooky. Mysterious and Spooky. They're all together ooky. The Addams Family! I love that song! It always makes me snap my fingers everytime that it is played lol. With it being the Halloween season here in the month of October, I thought I would talk about the Addams Family. The Addams Family was created by Charles Addams back in 1938. It basically follows the Addams Family who are an old money clan who are into the lets just say the unusual. Despite the simple fact that they clearly do not realize how much it makes other people feel uncomfortable. The series made its debut as a Comic Strip in The New Yorker which was a magazine that is still around today from 1938 till Charles' death in 1988. The first time I got to see the Addams Family was the television series that first aired in 1964 and lasted until 1966 with a total of 64 episodes. Another time I saw the Addams Family were the two movies that came out in the early 90s. In fact, they hav