The Joshua Yoder Blog

 Christmas is finally here everybody! But prior to that, me and my twin decided to enjoy Christmas eve and deliver some Christmas cards and spend time with some love ones. After getting some supper at home, Chadman and I put together some cards and headed out to see some friends before making it to our Aunt Vic and Uncle Butch's house for a little Christmas Eve party. First on the list was stopping at our long time friends house and came a card to the Silks family where we got to discuss a few things about the year 2025. As always, it was fun getting to talk with them again, of course, I will be seeing them shortly in the near future. Next we got to make a quick stop at the Sacred Heart church in town where we delivered a card and I got to see my old coach Ray Hoppel along with Maddie, her husband Chris and the rest of their family. Thoughts and prayers to everyone at Sacred Heart! Finally! We arrive at Vic and Butch's house and we were immediately welcomed by their grandson Ma...

 WOW! It just felt so nice to just get away from a lot of stress of life and just go and enjoy myself. The other night, my twin brother Chad and I decided to head down to Kish park where they were having their annual event, Shining Light through the Darkness walk through. For those of you who do not know, this event is brought to you by Shining Light which is a non-profit, mission outreach, all volunteer organization who's goal is to spread the Light of Jesus Christ and the meaning of the Christmas season through many displays of amazing lights and other decorations. I have been going to this event since I was a little kid. What I love the most about going to walk around and check out the beautiful designs though out the park. I've always appreciated the amount of time and effort that these volunteers make each and every year. Seeing all of this beautiful artwork being displayed all over the park always brings a smile to my face. Not going to lie, 2025 has been rough, a lot of ...

 This movie was a huge part of my childhood and it helped make me into a complete nerd and proud of it lol. Being a fan of the Digimon series back in the late 90s was such an incredible experience for me, got to watch the anime, played the video games, played the card game. So when I heard that Digimon was coming out with a movie, of course I jumped on it immediately. Needless to say, I was not disappointed with it. It is really insane to me how time really flies especially nowadays and realizing that this movie is now 25 years old. Digimon the Movie came out in October of 2000 and featured four different stories and had characters from both season 1 and season 2. The first story was called Angela Anaconda Short which follows Angela and her friends who go to a theater to watch the new Digimon. The next short story is called Eight Year Ago and it features Tai and his little sister Kari prior to the events of the first Digimon season where they actually discover a digi-egg that had a...

 Today's blog post is about a Hall of Fame football player and Hall of Fame human being in Sam Mills who sadly passed away 20 years ago. Sam's story is incredible and I wish we hear more stories like him. He is the literally meaning of an underdog story. Mills stood 5 feet 9 inches and weight a little over 200 pounds which was what led him to being undrafted in the NFL despite the simple fact that many pro scouts loved his college tapes. Fortunately for Mills, he was picked up by the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars of the USFL and certainly left an impression in the three years the league was around. Being a big fan of defense in football, Mills was the anchor of Stars' famous Doghouse Defense which was a key factor in the Stars winning the USFL title in both 1984 and 1985. Mills then followed his coach from the Stars (Jim Mora) into the NFL after the USFL folded and became a member of the New Orleans Saints from 1986 to 1994 where he as again a focus point in another amazing ...

 With NFL football season in full swing, I thought about writing another football story. But this one was very special to me because it involves someone who is struggling with a disability but still out there being an inspiration. His name is Steve Gleason and he suffers from ALS. 25 years ago, Gleason became a safety in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints and played in the NFL for eight seasons before retiring. The highlight of Gleason's career came in 2006 where he blocked a punt which led to a touchdown for the Saints. What made that moment so special was it was the first game that the Saints were able to play in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina had devastated the city 21 months prior. His football career alone is inspirational because he made it in the NFL after going undrafted. In 83 games played, Gleason had 71 total tackles and two fumble recoveries. Sadly, a few years after Gleason had retired from the game of football, he soon discovered that he had ALS and eventually be...

 Just the other day, I was just chilling out at home and flipping through the channels and I saw that the classic, Wizard of Oz movie was being played so, I decided to watch it again for God only knows how many times lol. The movie itself never gets old, but what many people may not know, is that this movie was based on a novel of the same name. In fact, the book itself is now 125 years old 😮.  That is right, this book came out in 1900 and it was written by L. Frank Baum and was illustrated by W.W. Denslow.  It truly is incredible with how successful this story is for being as old as it is. The story follows Kansas farm girl Dorothy who ends up in the Land of Oz after she and her dog Toto were swept away with their home by a tornado. Dorothy soon realizes that she can not leave the land of Oz until she defeats the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wizard of Oz was so successful that a couple years later, there was a musical adaptation of the story in 1902. After the success ...

 For those who read my blog (Thank you for your support) know that I am a big fan of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Fleming is a big writing influence for me and to see someone who created something so beautiful in stories that become amazing movies. With that being said, the month of December this year marks the 60 anniversary of the debut of the James Bond classic, Thunderball which came out back in 1965. This movie is an adaption of the Fleming novel that came out back in 1961. The film stars the late great Sean Connery who plays 007 for the fourth time in his career.  Thunderball follows Bond as he goes up against Spectre operative Emilio Largo who holds the world hostage for 100 million dollars in diamonds and if his demands are not met, he will launch two nuclear bombs to an undisclosed location which was later revealed to be Miami. Bond searches through the Bahamas where he soon meets Domino the sister of the 00 agent Derval who was killed in the film. It is al...