The Joshua Yoder Blog

 You know the thing I hate the most about dealing with depression and just mental health in general is the simple fact that I know that there are so many people in this world you is dealing with struggles in their lives. And I keep telling myself to stay humble and be grateful for everything I have in this world and that things can always be worse, but, I ultimately just end up hating myself. I wish I was stronger, I really do because I feel embarrassed about feeling this way. I hate it! I really, really hate dealing with this crap in my head! I mean, there are people dealing with cancer and other diseases, people who are struggling with addiction, you know we all got problems. So I do apologize I am honestly not trying to make this about me because I ain't anything special and most likely never will be. I'm just so frustrated about life and just trying to find meaning in anything really. My whole life I have tried my best to prove that I can do something with myself and overco...

 I just finished rereading an old book that I had gotten a long time ago from my friends at Metaphysics (Now Moon Dragon) called Secrets Of The Lost Symbol: The Unauthorized Guide To Secret Societies, Hidden Symbols And Mysticism.  The book was written by John Michael Greer and originally came out around the time I had left high school around 2009. The book was basically about showing the facts from the fiction from the Secrets of The Lost Symbol which was written by Dale Brown. Stuff like secret societies, mysticism, the occult and of course symbolism. Which was something that I have always been into ever since I was a little kid watching stuff like Scooby-Doo, Supernatural, etc. Just looking for codes and trying to find deeper meanings of the spiritual world. It was one of the first times I went and visited my friends at Metaphysics and I was just chilling around the shop and then I took notice to the book. Something about it just drew my attention and I guess you can s...

 One of my personal favorite pro wrestlers and I dare say, one of the greatest period, is The Undertaker. It is crazy to think that it has been nearly 35 year since the debut of this awesome character.  Fact fun, Undertaker had be wrestling even longer overall outside the WWE because you see, back in the old days of wrestling there were several different wrestling companies. And of course, we all got to start somewhere and Undertaker started off wrestling in his home state of Texas wrestling for the World Class Championship Wrestling in the late 80s and the rest as they say was history. Another fun fact was that the Undertaker made his WWE debut back in 1990, which is also the same year me and my twin brother Chad were born. So I always thought that was really cool. Fast forward years later, the first time that I got to see the Undertaker was during the time he was leader of the Ministry of Darkness trying to marry Stephanie McMahon. Which as a little kid, I was scared stiff a...

 You know I truly miss the days where you and some of your family and friends could get together to go to the movies and have a good time and enjoy amazing films. Well it certainly has been a while since I really wanted to go to the movies. Mainly because no movie really seems interesting anymore. I usually just look up old b movies or any other indy film and enjoy! Not really many big time films come out anymore and things are getting pretty expensive. And then me and my twin brother Chad saw a trailer for the next Deadpool movie. This time it brought back Hugh Jackman as the Wolverine. We were so excited about this movie coming out which again, has certainly been a while since we wanted to go out and see and movie in the theaters. As time drew closer, Chad had suggested we go out and see the movie. But this time, try something a little different. He said, lets go see the movie at this place in Huntingdon called Clifton 5. One reason was because we are bother still trying to go ou...

  One of the greatest drivers in the history of Nascar in my humble opinion is the one and only Bill Elliott. Elliott was one of the reason I began watching auto racing in general. Awesome Bill got his first start in Nascar back in 1976. Heck my parents never even met at that point to even start a family 😅. However it wasn't until 1983 when Elliott managed to get his first win of his career winning Winston Western 500 at Riverside. His final race in Nascar came in 2012 when he raced in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. Elliott compiled a grand total 44 victories, 320 top tens and 55 poles. His only championship came in 1988.  Elliott also has the record for the fastest average speed at Daytona in 1987 going 210.364 mph. But then later in the same season, Bill would break has own record at Talladega going 212.809 mph. With all of that accomplishments, it was no surprise that Bill Elliott was named to the 2015 Nascar Hall of Fame. One of the reasons why I really enjoyed watching Bi...

 We are getting ever so closer to one of my personal favorite events, the summer Olympics. The 2024 summer Olympics will begin on Friday July 26 and will come to a close on Sunday August 11 and it will be in Paris, France. God! I love the Olympics, to me, it is like having a show and tell in school where many different countries get to showcase what they have to offer. And we all get to learn new things from different cultures. Who would have even thought something like this that started off in Greece years ago has become such a major event.  I will certainly be running around different channels throughout the event because there are so many different athletic competitions going on at once, which in itself is exciting. There is going to be 329 events going through 32 different sports. Me personally, I am excited to watch, boxing, wrestling, swimming and some of the martial arts events as well. In my humble opinion, the Olympics is a place where everyone from around the world c...

 This past weekend was quite fun for me and my twin and we went along with our parents to go see the rest of our giant family as our Yoder Family Summer Reunion over at Greenwood. It is always good to see family, especially since we all don't see each other too often for a variety of reasons. But every time that we do get together it is always a fun time. One of the first things that I noticed when we all arrived at the pavilion was a poster sitting inside where there was a showcase of old family photos. And when I say old, I mean old lol. Some of the photos were in black and white. One of them really stood out to me and it was one with my grandma Yoder in it. Now I never got to meet my Father's parents, I was barely alive when they both past away and I never really was told about them. So it was really cool to see photos of them. Of course, the food was amazing! My family certainly know how to pig out lol. Getting to talk with everybody and seeing what they are doing with thei...

   One of my favorite games in recent memory was Fire Emblem: Three Houses. A strategy game for the nintendo switch.  You play as a mercenary who along with the character’s father Jeralt are interrupted by three students (Edelgard, Claude and Dimitri) who were being chased by bandits. After saving them from danger, you are given the opportunity to become a teacher at the Garreg Mach Monastery where you get to pick between three houses in the Golden Deer, the Blue Lions and the Black Eagles. The Golden Eagles were led by Claude who is the house leader. Then there was Lorenz, Raphael, Ignatz, Lysithea, Marianne, Hilda and Leonie. This group is more of a laid back, non judgmental, outcasts commoners who try to look at things from multiple angles. The Blue Lions are more of the traditional hero group. Where it is all about honor and doing what’s right. Dimitri is the house leader for the Blue Lions. He is joined by Dedue, Felix, Ashe, Sylvain, Mercedes, Annette and Ingrid. Th...

 Some of you might be a little bit surprised by this and I do admit, I am a bit scared to talk about this. However, I must continue to face my fears and be more open to people. And one of those things is the kind of music I like, which to be fair I really enjoy all kinds of music. But the kind of music that has been a heavy influence on me was heavy metal and it don't get any better for the metal genre than the ones who started it off. And they are called Black Sabbath. Sabbath has been around since 1968. Yes, you read right, this band has been around for a very long time and they have never disappointed. Black Sabbath has a grand total of 19 studio albums with the first being "Black Sabbath" back in 1970 and last album being "13" which was back in 2013. These guys are one of the greatest selling bands of all time among metal bands and were ranked number one by MTV among metal bands. They were placed second by VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock bands as well being...

   One of the first video games I remember playing as a kid and still enjoy to this day is Sonic the Hedgehog. Originally created in the early nineties by programmer Yuji Naka  and artist Naoto Ohshima who at the time were working for Sega. Sonic was basically Sega’s way of trying to compete against Nintendo and their famous character Mario. The first Sonic the Hedgehog game came out of for the Sega Genesis and to say that it made an impact, would be an understatement.  I remember playing this as a kid, and I just loved it. What was unique about Sonic was the speed of the character. The level designs were also incredible especially for the time, just watching that speedy blue hedgehog race through each stage was definitely enjoyable to watch. Though I must confess, the drawback to that was you never really got to appreciate all the artwork and graphics of the game. And of course, there were more games to follow for Sonic and his friends as they continued to fight for...

  One of the most ridiculous and yet very entertaining fighting competition I have ever seen came out recently in a league called Power Slap. Yes! This is a real thing. What surprised me about this was the fact that UFC President Dana White founded this league back in 2022.  It had aired a show on TBS in early 2023, but the show didn't last long and was canceled. But Power Slap still has competitions going on and still provide content for a channel called Rumble. The rules of Power Slap are simple, a coin toss is used to determine which of the two combatants will go first. The slap fighter has 60 seconds to slap his or her opponent while the one getting slapped, will have 60 seconds to recover. This league even has different weight classes just like the UFC itself. There are also three to five rounds per bout and it is always one on one. There are fouls in Power Slap. For one you can not club someone, no stepping, no illegal windup and you can not flinch. I should also mention...

  One of my favorite basketball players of all time and one of the biggest reasons why I love the game of basketball is one Anfernee Hardaway, but most of us know him as Penny Hardaway. Penny burst onto the NBA scene back in the 1993 NBA draft where he was picked third overall by the Golden State Warriors. But through a trade with the Orlando Magic that sent him along with a couple first round picks in exchange for Chris Webber who was originally drafted by the Magic with the first pick. To say that Penny made an impact right away, would be a major understatement. With Penny to compliment the man in the middle Shaquille O'Neal, the Orlando Magic quickly found themselves as a playoff team. In fact, in only Hardaway's second season in the NBA the Magic had found themselves in the NBA finals. Sadly, they got swept by the Houston Rockets who were led by the great Hakeem Olajuwon. In the 95 finals, Penny shot 50 percent from the field while averaging 26 points per game, eight assist...

   One of the most iconic video game franchises in history in my humble opinion that I really, really, enjoyed playing was the great Command and Conquer series that was created and developed by Westwood Studios. The first ever Command and Conquer game that was ever released was back in 1995 where you got to choose between two factions. The first selection being the UN funded Global Defense Initiative who is set out to eliminate quasi-state cult called the Brotherhood of Nod which is the other option you can select to play as led by the Charismatic leader Kane. At the time, I was a little kid and didn’t realise it, but as I grew older I learned that the man who played Kane Joseph D. Kucan was also a producer who handled all the cutscenes for the games. And I must say, he did an amazing job playing the main villain character of the series. Kane is arguably one of the best villains in video game history and watching how Kucan portrayed him was also a joy to watch. It was one of t...

  One of my favorite movies I truly enjoyed watching was the Boondocks Saints which was released all the back in 1999. The story is about two Irish American twin brothers Connor and Murphy MacManus who seek to rid the evil from the city of Boston. Along the way they are being pursued by FBI agent Paul Smecker. One of the reasons I enjoyed this movie was that it was about twin brothers because I myself have a twin brother so that was a plus lol. Another reason was that the fact it was inspired by a real life experience from writer and director Troy Duffy while he was living in LA.  I can really relate to that because where I'm from I see a lot of evil. Drugs, Junkies, people showing no respect one another over stuff that is greatly exaggerated or just a flat out lie. Criminals who seem to be able to do whatever they want and get away with it. I do admit that I often ask God why is there so much torment in this world? Why can't people just love and understand one another?  ...

  It had been a few years past 2021 and it reminded me that it had been a little over 20 years since the death of one of my favorite video game systems ever in the Sega Dreamcast. I was only nine years when the Dreamcast first burst upon the scene of the video game industry. I remember watching Gamespot TV when they had the launch special and getting excited for it. It’s hard to explain, but something about it made it just caught my eye. I was so excited when I was told that we got a Dreamcast and believe me, I wasn’t disappointed. From such games like Crazy Taxi, the Sonic Adventure series, Jet Grind Radio just to name a few, really made me fall in love with video games. One game though that stands out to me was Shenmue. The creation of the great Yu Suzuki, it was one of most unique games I had ever seen. Not only was it an amazing story, but the gameplay was truly incredible. Also you could do so much in the game as well like if you're tired of doing missions, you can go relax a...

  I have been on a bit of a retro gaming kick for quite a while now and I have been either enjoying playing some old school games or watching youtube videos of games from back in the day.  I do enjoy the new games that come on variety of gaming systems, but every once in a while, I pull out some of the classic video games.  One of the main reasons why I enjoy playing some old school game is the fact that it brings me back to so many memories to me growing up as a kid. The first video game system I ever remember playing is the NES which had been out in stores long before me and my twin brother Chad were even born. Of course retro gaming doesn't just apply to home consoles, but also to the arcades as well. I remember going to places like Chuckie Cheeses and playing classics like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Virtua Fighter, Street Fighter and many racing games. It is such a shame that there are not many many arcades out there anymore because as fun as it is as it is to ...

  One of my personal favorite video games to ever come out as a video game nerd is the Madden Football franchise. These video game series is older than me lol! Madden first made its appearance back in 1988 on a computer. The Apple II to be more precise. And the rest they say is history. I loved playing this game so much because I got to be apart of an NFL franchise, so to speak. But I also got to spend time playing with my older brother Cody and his friends. As the series evolved throughout the years, Madden has help set the standard of what a football game should be. A lot of that credit should go to the late great John Madden who pushed for a realistic football video game. Another person that a lot people may not know about either is a guy name Trip Hawkins who if it wasn't for him, the game may never come to existence. Even though it was for pretend, I really enjoyed being apart of a football team. Although I never played football myself, it is always fun to be able to draft pla...

 One of the most influential bands of not just my life, but in music history in general is the world famous grunge band Nirvana. Hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Nirvana ended. It is still sad knowing that Kurt is no longer with us. What this band was able to do in such a small time truly was incredible and am I so thankful for the internet because I can listen to them anytime I want. I grow up around an older crowd and that was pretty much the reason how I was introduced to Nirvana along with several other musicians throughout the early 90s. Overall, the band has over 75 million albums sold worldwide making it one of the best selling bands of all time. Which is not surprising because Nirvana has amazing songs 😁. Smells Like Teen Spirit was certainly their biggest hit to the mainstream audience, but don't get me wrong, it is an amazing song. But for me personally, I really enjoyed the songs Come As You Are and Lithium. Of course Heart Shaped Box was incredible as we...

   I finally got a chance to play a video game on my ps4 called Death Come True. It is an interactive film adventure game written and directed by Kazutaka Kodaka. This game was so much fun! Not to spoil too much of the story for people who haven’t played the game. The main character of the game is named Makoto Karaki who wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of who he is, why he is in this hotel room and quickly discovers that he is a wanted serial killer being hunted down by the police. What I really enjoyed about playing this game is the constant twists and turns that help guide you through the story with every decision that you make. Another thing that I loved about the game was like any great detective game is that you must pay very close attention to every single detail. Whether it be from the clues you find throughout the game, these that a character had said during the game and you especially have to pay attention when you start getting your memories back because it i...

 Hey everybody! I am really excited to do this interview for my blog because it involves a guy that I have been friends with for a while now and to see where he has come from since the start of his singing career has really been special to see. His name is Hayden Snook. JY: What inspired you to become a musician? HS: I would say that having a lack of an outlet to express myself and how I’m feeling is what inspired me to become a musician. This gave me a way to express myself without fully outright saying it. Learning guitar myself and songwriting gave me that outlet. I always loved music, especially because of how much it really is art. Art can be left up to interpretation, so though when I write a song and play it, it may have my meaning, but it can also touch someone else in a different way. That’s cool. My experiences and my emotions can be put into music. JY: Best way to describe your music style? HS: Best way to describe my music style is a mix of Country/Folk/Rock. Ho...

  This maybe to no one's surprise, but I am a major dork lol. And one of those dorky things that I hold dear is my love for Professional Wrestling. I was just a little kid in the mid 90s when I first saw a glimpse of my first pro wrestling with a little show called WCW Saturday Night when I got to see a wrestler "A man called Sting". From there onward, I became a huge fan of professional wrestling and grew up during one of the biggest boom period in wrestling history in the Monday Night Wars where the WWF (Now WWE) battled it out with rival WCW. It was such an interesting time for me and brothers because we really didn't have a favorite one over the other as we had multiple wrestlers we enjoy watching. For example, I'd loved watching Sting fight the NWO as well as watching other wrestlers like Raven and his flock, Harlem Heat among so many others. But I also loved to watch WWE wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, Kane and the Undertaker. T...

 As the title says, I have been trying to get out and try some new things and one of those new things that I have always wanted to do was playing a card game called Magic The Gathering. It was created by Richard Garfield. It's crazy to think that this game started back in 1993 and I just recently decided to learn how to play it. One of reasons why I didn't play it was I didn't know anyone who played the game. I remember playing many other card games growing up as a kid like Pokemon and Digimon cards just to name a few. I have always loved and appreciated the artwork that went into creating these cards. But unfortunately, a major reason as to why I haven't tried and play it for a long time was because, it just seem so complicated. And so far, I am having a tough time learning it. But I am thankful for some of my friends who are helping me. I feel bad because I know I can be frustrating sometimes for people because I can be pretty slow in the head. I am currently learning...

  Anyone that grew up in the 1990s remembers playing the Nintendo 64. It came out back in 1996 and man was that system so much fun to play. It was the last system I remember playing that involved using a cartridge to put in my game. The N64 in my humble opinion is one of the best systems in gaming history. In fact, many of the games that were on it are still considered some of the greatest video games of all time and even being played to this very day. Some of the things I remember about the N64 was the controller. It was one of the weirdest looking controllers I had even seen. Yet, I enjoyed the heck out of it! The M shaped controller had a joystick sitting in the middle to go along with a d-pad on the left and all kinds of different buttons on the right side. There were even other buttons on top of the controller and one in the back. Now lets get to the fun part, the games lol. When I looked back to research the history of the N64, one of the things I noticed about the system was...

  For those that do not understand the term B-Movie, it is a type of movie that was low budget. These are not the big Hollywood kind of movies. A lot of these movies were not necessary the best of quality but I always appreciate the effort a lot of them put into these movies. In fact, if it weren't for some of these indy movies, we all would never get to witness great actors like John Wayne, Jack Nicholson, Pam Grier, Vincent Price, Karen Black, Bela Lugosi, Eddie Constantine, Bruce Campbell and Bruce Lee. Speaking of Bruce Lee, one of the genres that is a constant in b-movies is the martial arts movies. Another big one is horror films and also the biker genre has also been a consistent theme. Such movies like Foxy Brown, The Wild Angels, Halloween and the Andy Sidaris movie series, just to name a few have made big names for themselves. Many other films had such low budgets but sometimes have made millions of dollars which is crazy but amazing at the same time. It is kind of the bi...

 Well everybody! Myself and my twin brother Chad had just gotten back from another interesting event in the form of the Agape Festival. For those who didn't see my previous post about it, here is a quick reminder. The Agape Festival is a Christian music festival that has come and replaced the recently canceled Creation Festival.  When me and Chad first heard about it a while back, we decided to see what it is all about. Now in fairness to the event, I did not expect it to be as big as Creation was right away. This is an upstart festival that is trying to build back up. The festival was led by the Jesus Ministries who are looking to bring people closer to Christ and help inspire many others who are struggling with whatever ails them. One of the first things me and Chad did was walk through the woods and I got to show him around some of things I saw when Creation was still around. We were giving a life by some volunteers to the top of the hill where we got to see the lookout pos...