The Joshua Yoder Blog

 WOW! I know, someone like myself can not put into words how great of a wrestler the American Dream Dusty Rhodes who passed away 10 years ago, but here we go.  Sadly, I wasn't around during Dusty's hay day as I was born in 1990. The first time, I remember seeing Dusty was during the late 90s when I was switching back and forth between WWF (Now WWE) and WCW. I first saw Dusty as a commentator and I must say, he was extremely entertaining. His charisma was incredible and I always got a kick out of the things that Dusty was saying. The more I got into pro wrestling, the more I wanted to learn about the history of the business and buddy, Dusty was certainly one of those guys I researched. One of the things I learned about Dusty and his legendary career, was how long of a career he had. The American Dream has been apart of professional wrestling since the late 60s.  He was known as the American Dream because he represented the common man, he never had the typical wrestling phy...

 I just recently completed a recording for my talk show on YouTube with my long time friend Matt Silks who I first met my freshman year of High School. In fact, it has officially been twenty years since I have known him. Which is crazy to me because I don't really get to hang around with many people in this world. With that being said, both me and Matt have gone through a ton of different stuff in our lives. We both had to overcome a lot of darkness, different kinds of darkness, but darkness nonetheless. Trying not to spoil much of my episode as it will not air until the following Wednesday, but there was a lot of talk about our struggles in the past and to be perfectly honest with all of you, I wasn't expecting to really discuss as much as we did. Matt was extremely open to me and it made me open up to him and to many of you who will watch it. About my struggles with self-harming and why things ended up the way they did. But truthfully, it may have been unexpected, yet it felt...

 With the New Year slowly coming upon us, my twin and I went down to the Kountry Kitchen where Chad works and got to enjoy ourselves with the rest of his co-workers at the diner for a little party. I don't get to see some of Chad's friends to often, but when I do, it is always a good time and the other night was no different. Getting to see great people like Amanda and her husband Doug Boozel along with Paul and Lisa. Bri and Amanda were also there along with many others. Of course, my personal favorite moments was just getting to see my twin brother smile and be happy. Which doesn't happen much mainly because of our struggles mentally and being so social awkward. But nonetheless, I was excited to see him having a good time. The food was fantastic, plenty of games being played and lots of laughs. There was even a surprise battle where they started throwing marshmellows at one another. Talk about being a kid at heart lol. It was nights like this, that remind me that sometime...

 One of the most influential video games of all time is 45 years old and is still one of the most addictive games ever in the form of the little yellow dot himself, Pac-Man who made his debut in 1980. Pac-Man was designed by Toru Iwatani along with a small team for a company called Namco and it follows Pac-Man who must eat all of the dots all while avoiding four colored ghosts. This game broke all kinds of records during its historic run. For example, the Guinness Book of World Records has given Pac-Man eight records including Most Successful Coin-Operated video game. In fact, in the original arcade game, the max score you can receive was 3,333,360 points after completing 256 levels. Needless to say I never came close to completing it. But either way, I really loved playing this game. This game had a 10 year head start on me before I was born, but man would I have loved to been around it during the 80s. The first time I remember ever playing Pac-Man was going to a Chuckie Cheeses a...

 One of the best Christmas movies ever in my humble opinion is the 1990 classic, Home Alone starring Macaulay Culkin who plays Kevin McCallister. The movie was written and produced by John Hughes and the story follows the McCallister family who accidentally forget their eight year old son while on a trip to Paris leaving Kevin all alone at his home. Things become even worse when the criminal duo known as the Wet Bandits plan on robbing the house and it is up to Kevin to defend his home. This film has been an impact ever since it was released and has been a stable for Christmas movies to this very day. I mean, this movie had all, laughs, family drama, excitement and the true meaning of Christmas in my humble opinion. What I like the most about Home Alone, is how it talks about no matter what you go through with your family. You still love each other and seeing how the mother fights her way to get back home to find Kevin is truly admirable. I also love the character Marley who repres...

 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...