Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

A Sounders fan gets poked (Image: Seattle Fire)

To speed the process of getting the citys young adults inoculated against COVID-19, the Seattle Fire Department will begin deploying its mobile vaccination teams to neighborhood breweries, outdoor dining areas, business districts, parks, and beaches.

Officials call the new mobile vaccination strategy an effort to meet Seattle residents and workers where they are and increase vaccination rates, with a focus on younger Seattleites.

The Mobile Vaccination Teams will begin their tour of duty to reach the 16 to 30 crowd Friday in the University District and will be partnering with Big Time Brewery & Alehouse and Sweet Alchemy Ice Creamery to offer discounts to clinic patients. More deployments and deals will follow.

The effort comes as the city says it estimates more than 70% of Seattle adults have at least started the vaccination process. According to King Countys vaccination dashboard, while vaccination first dose rates for county residents 50 and older range from 76% to nearly 97% for those 75 and older, only 59% of those 18-49 have started the process and 42.5% of those 16-17 have at least one shot.

With a major increase in the federal supply, CHS reported here on the sudden shift in the city that has made the vaccine suddenly widely available in the city. Despite the wide availability, the region has struggled with continued spread of the virus though there are signs of a plateau and hope the area will not need to roll back to a higher level of restrictions on businesses and social gathering.

Officials have responded with a flurry of partnerships that include vaccinations offered at major sporting events and sessions with church organ accompaniment at Capitol Hills St. Marks Cathedral.

The citys vaccination efforts come as part of a pieced-together federal strategy forged during the Trump administration mixing commercial and retail providers and municipalities together in a loose network to distribute the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson developed and manufactured vaccines. Since launching its vaccination effort on January 14, City of Seattle says it has administered over 170,000 vaccinations to eligible adults over 111,000 individuals. These vaccinations have occurred at 88 Adult Family Homes, 90 affordable housing buildings with seniors and people with disabilities, 19 pop-ups, 18 permanent supportive housing buildings, two vulnerable youth-serving organizations, city sport events, and the four city-affiliated fixed vaccination sites including the megasite at Lumen Field.

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Seattle 'Mobile Vaccination Teams' to target young adults at breweries, outdoor dining areas, parks, and beaches - CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News

Fire crews say two adults and three kids are all in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after jumping from the home.

TOLEDO, Ohio A family of five jumped out of a window on the second floor of their home to escape a house fire Friday morning.

This happened in the 400 block of Spencer around 4:25 a.m. in south Toledo.

Fire crews say two adults and three kids are all in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after jumping from the home.

When a neighbor called 911, she said that a man was outside screaming that his kids were still in the house.

"I saw the fire come out that bottom window over there, shooting out flames," she said, "and then he's screaming, 'help me, help me it's a fire.' I called 911."

Toledo Fire & Rescue Department crews say the mother, father and two boys made it out initially, with the third child still inside. The father got a ladder and went back into the home to save his son.

"I seen him go up the ladder and go back in the window and then seen him fall from the porch with his son," the neighbor said.

By the time fire crews arrived, everyone was safely out of the house and accounted for.

Crews searched the house to confirm and deemed that everything was all clear and under control around 4:36 a.m.

Neighbors are calling the father a hero, saying he did all of this while he's recovering from a recent car accident.

Initial reports show the adult family members woke up to heavy black smoke on the second floor of the home. The father escaped through a second-floor bedroom window and the mother dropped two of children to the ground to the father.

The mother was then forced out of the window due to heavy smoke conditions. That was when the father grabbed a ladder from the back of his home, went back through the second-floor window and found the third child.

Neighbors added his "dad instinct" kicked in and he did was he needed to save his family.

They were able to escape back out of the bedroom window.

The fire caused heavy damage to the first floor of the home. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

TFRD PIO Pvt. Sterling Rahe says this highlights the importance of families having an escape plan in case of a fire. If your family doesn't have a fire escape plan, you can find more information on how to make one here. Be sure to practice your safety plan with all family members.

However, he says it appears there were no working smoke alarms in the home. TFRD says this could have turned out much differently if the family hadn't woke up to the smoke.

"Most often in fires such as this one, unless alerted by working smoke detectors, the outcome is fatal as smoke inhalation is often the cause of death. Early detection and the audio alarm from smoke detectors gives occupants an audible warning that can and has saved lives," Pvt. Rahe said in a statement.

Toledo fire reminds everyone to test your smoke detectors and make sure you have a detector on every level of your home and in all sleeping areas.

Replace any smoke detector that does not sound when tested or is older than 10 years.

More:
Father saves son as family of 5 jumps from 2nd floor window to escape south Toledo house fire - WTOL

Business owners left to clean up after May Day riot

by: Lindsay Nadrich, KOIN 6 News Staff

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Spa Sasse Manager Michelle Moore tries to stay optimistic but said she is frustrated with what the COVID-19 pandemic and frequent destructive demonstrations have done for business.

The spas display case window was smashed again for the second time Saturday night during a May Day demonstration that later turned into a riot.

Several Starbucks locations were also damaged, including the store on Southwest Jefferson Street and 3rd Avenue, as well as the store on Southwest Main Street and 2nd Avenue and the store in the Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Police arrested six people that night. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt filed charges against three of the people arrested Phoebe Loomis, Quang Nguyen and Jeremiah Day.

Similar demonstrations have been happening for months in Portland with some people vandalizing buildings and setting fires near Portland Police precincts and other businesses across the city.

Many of the people who participate in these demonstrations often advocate for abolishing police, prisons and ICE on both social media and at these demonstrations.

Moore said she supports the peaceful demonstrations that happened earlier in the day on Saturday, but she is not in favor of destruction.

Theyre violent and Im not ok with it and I feel like the police dont have the proper resources or the time to take care of that, she said.

On top of the broken windows, Moore said they also had a break-in and theft this year. Now they lock their doors at all times, even during the day.

I shouldnt have to replace windows, thats something that (shouldnt) be happening in downtown Portland, she said. Its not something I think of as being regular.

Moore said getting customers to come downtown has been tough because of everything thats happened.

I dont think its going to get better yet, she said. I think we havent seen the last of it, so, unfortunately were just staying vigilant, just trying to stay open and stay welcoming.

Read the original:
Spa manager: I shouldnt have to replace windows - KOIN.com

Ashop owner is set to fork out 1,200 to replace his front window, after a distracted delivery driver walked through the glass.

The Game Pad on Norfolk Street, in Kings Lynn, have gone viral online after the owner released a video of a delivery driver who accidentally smashed their shop window.

The courier arrivedat the shopon Wednesday, May 5, buton his way out, as he looked down at a device in his hand, he failed to see the windowpane directly in front of him.

The Game Pad in Kings Lynn have gone viral online after the owner released a video of a delivery driver who walked through their shop window.- Credit: Jason Lee

Owner Jason Lee said he first felt sympathy for the driver, who explained he tripped and fell,but afterlooking at CCTV he realisedthat he had simply been distracted.

The 43-year-old said: As he walked out there was this almighty bang and crash and we thought he hit a cabinet but it transpired that he walked through theglass.

We gave him medical attention, closed the shop, called the medics and he was there for about 45 minutes as they checked him over. He got a cut to his leg andtheybandaged it up.

He originally told me that hetripped and had gone through the glass so I took it at face value but I looked through the CCTV and I could clearly see it wasn't the case at all.

He was walkingatareasonable pace,looking down at a device or tabletand not looking ahead.So,he went straight through the window.

The Game Pad in Kings Lynn have gone viral online after the owner released a video of a delivery driver who walked through their shop window.- Credit: Jason Lee

The shop window is now boarded up and Mr Leesaid it is now going to cost them 1,200 to have the glass replaced.

My initial reaction was sympathy, he said. Because it could happen to anybody but when I found out it was complete neglect on the driver's part Ididnt have as much sympathy for him.

He is lucky he got away with only a leg injury.

The one thing I would like youto say a lot of people have commented about the standard of the glass butI am only a tenant. The landlorddidn't make me aware of anything to do with the glass.

But the replacement glass will be up tobuildingstandardsand laminated.

Read the rest here:
Delivery driver walks through King's Lynn shop window - Eastern Daily Press

While you can use SFC, DISM, Reset & Cloud Reset options; today we show you how you can also replace a corrupt or missing system file with a good file using the Windows 10 Installation Media.

At times a particular system file may get corrupted and result in an unstable system and sometimes a BSOD. Things can get worse, and the only option you may feel is reinstalling the OS.

However, it is possible to restore corrupted files using the Windows 10 Installation media. It is important that you know the exact path of the system file before we go ahead. If you do not know it, searching for it using Bing or Google might be a good idea.

Prepare your Windows 10 Installation Media by downloading the ISO from the Microsoft website.

Next, boot into the BIOS, and set the first bootable drive as the USB or Flash Storage. Save and exit the BIOS/UEFI.

Insert your installation media and restart your computer. You should now see a Windows 10 Setup screen.

Choose the Repair option, and you will be taken to the Advanced Recovery screen.

Select Troubleshoot > Command Prompt.

Assuming you want to replace ntfs.sys which is located in the System32Drivers folder, execute the commands in the following sequence. You will have to choose x86 or x64 depending on your computers architecture.

Since we have removed the old file, it will not ask for any permission to overwrite.

Repeat the same for any other file which is missing, and then exit.

Restart the computer, and check if still get the file missing or a corrupt error.

There is one thing you need to take care of. Some system files change depending on the version of the OS. So make sure you copy the file from the same version of Windows 10 ISO. If you need files from a different version instead of the latest version, you can download any other version of Windows or you maydownload any exe, dll, etc, OS files from Microsoft.

This is a lot easier than running long SFC and DISM commands if you know how to use this.

PS: Did you know? You can also scan & repair a single file using System File Checker.

Read more:
Replace Bad System File with Good File using Installation Media - TWCN Tech News

Microsoft has an extremely useful Windows 10 tool you may never have heard of. However, if you want to upgrade a PC or do a completely clean install, its the best thing you can use.

Its called the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and its sole purpose is to prepare installations of the latest version either to upgrade your current PC or build a USB flash drive to perform a clean install of Windows 10.

The Media Creation Tool is free and extremely easy to use. Heres all you need to know.

The Windows 10 Media Creation Tool is a perfect way to make sure you have the latest version installed on your PC.

Its really easy to use and all you need is to set aside some time to allow it to download the necessary files from Microsoft.

On your Windows 10 PC, first download the Media Creation tool. The beauty of using it is that you only need this single download, nothing else is required as it will download the correct image for you.

You can get the Media Creation Tool directly from Microsoft, and its not a large download so wont take long to be finished. You dont have to install it, either, as itll run as a standalone application, which means you can transfer it between machines easily.

Once downloaded you can use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable flash drive to use on another PC or for a completely clean install. Alternatively, you can use it to upgrade your current PC to the latest version of Windows 10.

Open up the Media Creation Tool on your PC. Select the option to Create installation media for another PC and accept the license terms. The next stage involves choosing a language, edition, and architecture for Windows 10.

The edition will need to match whatever you have a license for, and in most cases, the architecture will be fine as x64. You only need to choose both or x86 if you know youre going to use it on a 32-bit machine.

Hit the Next button, choose the USB Flash Drive option, then select your flash drive from the list. Hit Next one more time, then Finish and the tool will begin the process of downloading Windows 10 and creating the USB installation drive.

Windows Update should deliver the latest versions of Windows 10 to your PC, but its not always the quickest at doing so. If you want to have the latest and greatest, the Media Creation Tool is one of the best ways to get it.

Open up the Media Creation Tool on your PC. Select the option to Upgrade this PC now and click Next. The Media Creation Tool will now begin downloading Windows 10 to your PC.

When the download is complete and the tool is ready to install Windows 10, youll have the chance to decide what you want to keep. Click Change what you want to keep and youll be given options to keep everything, keep only your files, or to keep nothing at all and do a fresh install.

When youre happy with your choice, click Install and the Windows 10 installation process will begin.

Whatever the reason you need to do a complete installation of Windows 10, the Media Creation Tool is one of the easiest ways to do it. Windows Update can sometimes lag behind in rolling out newer versions, but the Media Creation Tool is a quick way around that.

Its also perfect for building a USB flash drive to install Windows 10 on another machine, and as it works in the background you can go about your normal day while it does its thing.

See the rest here:
How to use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool - TechRadar

Valheim has enjoyed a lot of success out of the gate in early access, and now there are a ton of people who are waiting to see what kind of content is added to the game in the coming months. Valheims developer Iron Gate Games has indicated that the first big update for the game, titled Hearth and Home, is on the way, and today it shared more teasers for the incoming update. The company also shared that its been working on some graphics updates as well.

Specifically, Iron Gate says that it has been working on graphics updates for the troll, the second boss named The Elder, and the third boss named Bonemass to give their old models some new fresh looks. The new looks, Iron Gate says, better align with how the company envisions Valheim, but unfortunately, we didnt get to see any images of the new models for The Elder or Bonemass.

We did, however, get to see an image of the new troll model, which you can see embedded above. If you havent played Valheim in a while, the new troll might not look dramatically different from the old one, but the new model does have more hair and improved nails. Its also noticeably more muscular than the old model, so you can look forward to encountering these buff behemoths roaming the black forest when this update arrives at some point in the future.

Iron Gate didnt share too much regarding the Hearth and Home update, though it did publish two teaser images which weve included both above and below. The first image is a tiny one that seems to focus on a pair of player feet potentially wearing new boots resting at what could be the base of a new throne. The second image shows off what could be a new type of ore, which lines up with the fact that Iron Gate says there are many new items relating to it.

Sadly, we didnt get a release date for the Hearth and Home update today, with Iron Gate saying that it wont decide on one until the update is in a state that its happy to release it in. Well keep an eye out for that release date and any new teasers Iron Gate decides to share, but in the meantime, try to figure out what is being teased in those two new images above.

Go here to see the original:
Valheim devs tease Hearth and Home update additions, show off buff trolls - SlashGear

A new pop top in Denver's University neighborhood, by Ascent Contracting, architect John Collins, and Studio 8.18 Engineering. Photo by VirtuanceHome

That is the question many Denverites are pondering as they balance the need for more space with the challenges of entering the citys competitive housing market. Here, local contractor and pop-top expert Justin Bride offers helpful insights and advice.

Its a common conundrum: Your Denver bungalow was cozy when you bought it, but is downright cramped now that your family has grownand spent the past year cooped up together inside. Do you sell it and hope to score a new house of your dreams in Denvers competitive marketassuming the proceeds can cover the cost of sizing up in a city where the average single-family home price is quickly approaching $675,000? Or do you work with what you have by finding ways to stretch your square footage?

Justin Bride, principal of Ascent Contracting, Inc., has helped many clients navigate the latter path since founding his Denver-based residential and commercial contracting company in 2012, and has become a proponent of the practice along the way. Popping the top gives homeowners the opportunity to have a brand-new house in a historic neighborhood or an area of town that they already have grown to love, he explains. Most of the time, people want to open up their whole first floor, and having that pop top to accommodate bedrooms really justifies creating the first-floor layout youve always envisioned. It gives you more of a blank slate so you can get what you wanta really functional and energy-efficient home where there wasnt one before.

While many people associate popping the top with removing the entire roof to accommodate a full second story, Bride notes that smaller projects can have a big impact, too, from incorporating dormers to transform a partially used second floor into a spacious bedroom suite, to adding a back-of-house addition with a rooftop deck.

Imagining the possibilities is the easy part. For help with the practical considerations, we asked Bride to share his insights and advice:

5280 Home: What are the benefits of vertically expanding a home?Justin Bride: Any time you add square footage to your home, especially in todays market, youre adding value to your propertywhereas with an interior remodel, the value add may be more subjective. One of the reasons why [popping the top] is so prevalent in the city of Denver is that if there are site constraintsa smaller lot, or part of the site is already occupied by a detached garage, which you see all over Denver propersometimes it makes more sense to go vertical to get the square footage you want.

Does it cost less to build vertically?In terms of the price-per-square-foot cost for new construction, its similar to go up versus out. However, this cost is always closely related to the nature of the remodelin particular, how much remodeling of the existing square footage needs to be done to accommodate the new square footage. Sometimes, a single-story, or even double-story, back-of-house addition can be less expensive than a pop top on a per-square-foot basis because the owners may not need to remodel their existing home, resulting in a lower overall project cost.

In Denvers hot housing market, can homeowners expect to quickly recoup their investment in a pop top?It would be fantastic if they could recoup all of their construction costs by the time the project is done. But its safer to hope that within two to five years, they will have recouped all of their construction costs and be net positivewith the understanding that everything is market dependent. We know that the property values of homes with pop tops weve done in 2016 and 2017 are already much higher than the owners total investments.

Does popping the top take less time than expanding outwardor even starting from scratch?Building a new house requires the longest timeline: When we do a scrape-and-build, we project 12-14 months, and sometimes they go over that. Our pop tops tend to fall below a year, but anymorebecause theres so much demand, not to mention the challenges of getting materials in the COVID worldbelow 10 months is a pretty aggressive schedule.

Building out [with a new addition] can have a similar overall timeline. Our back-of-house additions might peak at nine or 10 months and can be six to eight months. But with a back-of-house addition, the homeowner has the ability to live in the house for a certain portion of time. With a pop top, you really have to be out the entire time for everyones safety.

What are the structural requirements for a pop top, and does the typical century-old Wash Park bungalow meet them?Many Denver houses, especially those that were built between the early 1900s and about 1930 or so, were really well built. Whether they have brick or concrete foundations, they can almost always accommodate a pop top. In the best-case scenario, if all the conditions are right and the house was built later than the mid-1920s, which was when they started to use concrete foundation walls with continuous footers, there doesnt have to be anything done structurally to accommodate the pop top. But most of the time, its good to anticipate that light to moderate foundation support will be needed, in the form of helical piers or concrete pads.

Is it necessary to hire an architect?For a pop top, an architect is really necessary because were adding square footage, there are rooflines and stairways to be considered, and most importantly, were stylistically blending old with new, which requires expertise. Thats not to say that a homeowner needs to start by engaging an architect. Its just as good to engage a reputable contractor, who can then recommend an architect and start the project collaboratively.

Who hires the structural engineer?The architect facilitates working with the structural engineer because structural design is typically part of the architectural design phase. The same is true with mechanical design, as in HVAC design. That wasnt a necessity a few years ago, but in 2018, Denver began requiring a certain level of mechanical design with any project adding more than 30 percent to the existing square footage.

Speaking of rules, does zoning limit how much you can expand?Absolutely. In addition to setback requirements, there are two big factors that come into play: Most of the Denver residential zoning classifications limit building coverage such that youcan only have about 32.5 percent of your lot covered with a covered space. So, if you have a 10,000-square-foot lot, your house can only have a 3,250-square-foot footprint. If you have a two-story house, thats 6,500 square feet. Most lots in Denver are more like 5,000 to 7,500 square feet, and so most houses with pop tops have them because their footprint was maxed out at around 2,000 square feet.

The other constraint is whats called the bulk plane envelope, which you can visualize by imagining a tent, with 45-degree roofs, over a house. In most Denver residential zoning classifications,the tent can have a peak height of 30 feet, but at the property lines, the peak height is about 17 feet. The newly expanded house has to fit within that tent.

In Denver, do you have to bring the entire house up to code once you start adding on?You have to bring every area of the house, or even wall of the house, that you touch up to code. But these codes arent just there to give government code-writers something to do. Most are really well written and make a lot of sense. The energy codes, for example, are written so people dont have $400-per-month heating bills in the winter.

Are there other regulatory responsibilities to consider?The homeowner typically doesnt need to be concerned with [managing] things like plan submissions, building permits, and inspections, besides the time commitment that will be required. These days in Denver, the timeline from submitting plans to having the permit in hand is normally about three months. However, if the house happens to be a historic home or is located in a historic neighborhood, the project also has to be approved by the citys Landmark Preservation Commission to ensure the addition will be built in accordance with the character of the neighborhood. That can add a good chunk of time.

Its a big commitment. How can homeowners decide if its right for them?Weve had so many clients get into the process and realize its not worthwhile because their existing house just isnt right for them, or because other neighborhoods make more sense, or because they just dont want to go through the long, arduous journey to complete the project. But for the clients who do pull the trigger, the following are always the biggest reasons why:

Community.They have a strong bond with their neighborhood and neighbors, they love their schools and parks and local shops, and feel this is where they want to see their family grow.

Love for the process. Homeowners who really enjoy the remodels we get into are those who love going to showrooms and getting immersed in the world of options; people who really relish making those selections and being a part of it. For those who dont like that process, the best thing to do is hire an interior designer. But its important to remember that every final decision still has to be made by the homeowner.

Creating a legacy. Clients who opt to pop the top often like the idea that the changes theyll make will be enjoyed not just by their family, but potentially by generations and families to come.

A sense of history. This is where I get to be a little bit of a romantic. I love construction and imagining the skilled craftsmen who put their blood, sweat, and tears into building these homes. Theres a real piece of history in each one of these Denver homes. I love the idea of contributing to it, and good candidates for a pop top do too.

See the article here:
Should You Pop the Top on Your Home? - 5280 | The Denver Magazine

For claritys sake, Sam Wilson and John Walker will be referred to here by their aliases instead of Cap, Fake Cap, New Cap, Jerk Cap, etc. That would only get confusing. But, make no mistake, Sam Wilson IS the new Captain America.

Thats really been the main purpose of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, hasnt it? To fill in the arc from the end of Avengers: Endgame to the next time Captain America is seen onscreen, played by Anthony Mackie. Just handing off the shield would have felt a little slight for such a legendary character (although the video clips of audiences cheering if the Cap reveal in this episode had happened in a movie theater would have been cool). And so the MCU has given the new Captain America an origin story in the form of a six-episode miniseries, while also pushing forward the redemption of the Winter Soldier, setting up a new villain in the Power Broker, and bringing U.S. Agent into the fold. (We clearly havent seen the last of him or Julia Louis-Dreyfuss Val, both welcome additions to future films and series.) Wilson never really had much of an origin story as the Falcon in the MCU, but now hes become a dense study in themes of responsibility, power, and the dark history of the country hes going to not only defend but repair as the new Captain America.

The season often felt rushed and lacked some depth in its analysis of race and power in this country, but it served its narrative purpose and provided some solid entertainment along the way. Its hard to say yet how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be remembered because, like so much MCU product, its hard to gauge its full impact until we see how it ripples through future projects. It was flawed but fun. Only time will tell if it was substantial.

The finale opens where the last episode ended a lockdown at the GRC. Bucky is there already, Sam is on the way, and even Sharon has made it into the country, bringing along some nifty Ethan Hunt disguise tech that hasnt been seen since Natasha used it in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. (Its called a Photostatic Veil, if youre curious.) It turns out, Karli was waiting for Sam to get there to start the fireworks. Sam flies through a window (heroes dont take doors), and says, Im Captain America. Hell yeah, you are. Karli tries to talk Bucky out of fighting for the wrong side, but hes deep in his feelings, talking about the nightmares of who he has killed in the past, trying to warn Karli that she will someday have the same.

There are a bunch of quick action beats in an extended sequence that takes up about half of the finale. Sharon uses a mercury vapor bomb on a Flag Smasher; Sam fights Batroc and proves hes gotten pretty good with that shield; Bucky uses a motorcycle to launch himself at a Flag Smasher; Walker comes for Karli, who gets the great line, I dont want to hurt people that dont matter. Dont tell American Hero John Walker that he doesnt matter.

Sam saves some hostages from a helicopter by literally removing its evil pilot, but the first main non-action beat comes when Walker is given a chance to save burning hostages or keep seeking vengeance, and he takes the latter option. Its a subtle beat that indicates where hes at in terms of heroism, even if that mind-set doesnt last long. Moments later, Karli escapes with the hostages and drives a truck of them over a railing. The truck teeters on the edge of demise, but Walker finally makes the heroic decision and tries to pull it back to safety before being attacked by Flag Smashers. Sam arrives to save the day. People applaud.

Theres about to be a true showdown when Batroc fires smoke bombs to help Karli escape. Sam has heat-vision goggles! He leads this new trio with Bucky and Walker to track them, but Carter has already found Karli, fully revealing, through some truly clunky dialogue, that she is the Power Broker. Batroc tries to blackmail more money out of Carter, who shoots him, and gets shot herself by Karli. Sam bursts in and fights with Karli well, Karli fights and Sam defends. He wont fight. How noble. Karli gets a gun on him but gets shot by Sharon. Its a sad, blunt end to an interesting character, murdered by someone who once financed her. Sam brings her body to her fellow revolutionaries. Death is always the end for extremists in the MCU, but the people who really pull the strings rarely face justice.

In a scene thats certain to divide fans and critics of this show, Sam gets to drop a few speeches on senators and council members. He notes how labels like terrorist, refugee, and thug only lead to problems of blame and responsibility. This isnt about easy decisions, Senator. (And yet this scene feels a bit too easy in terms of writing.) Even Isaiah Bradley is watching at home, nodding in approval. Sam says he has no serum and no blond hair. His only power is belief that people can do better (and some Stark wing tech that can pull pilots from helicopters, but whatever). He speaks about representation and encourages people in power to ask the right questions, like why did Karli die trying to stop them?

To start the cleanup scenes to the season, the remaining Flag Smashers are dispatched by Zemos Alfred. Zemo smiles hearing the news on the radio, and Val does the same seeing it on her phone. Shes with Walkers wife as the former Cap becomes the U.S. Agent. Bucky goes to offer a little closure to the father of a man he murdered, and maybe even a second date with the waitress from the premiere.

Finally, Bradley tells Sam that hes special. A season that has often felt rushed earns that criticism most of all here, going from there will never be a Black Captain America last episode to an approving hug an episode later. They talk about it not being an easy fight, but there are definitely parts of this season and this episode in particular that felt way too easy. One wonders how much more fulfilling it could have felt with more time to really dig into the themes of the show.

It all ends with a party! As On and On, by Curtis Harding, plays, Bucky, Sam, Sarah, and the locals celebrate on the pier. Thats what the MCU does. It goes on and on. But now it has a new Captain America.

Post-credits scene! Sharon Carter gets an apology from the government and is allowed back into it, even given a new job. Theres a truly clunky fade to her outside the Capitol, calling someone to reveal her dark side. The Power Broker is now in the U.S. government, ready to sell its tech and secrets to the highest bidder, something that feels like it may have been her endgame all along, financing the Flag Smashers in a way that allowed her back into the fold. Look out.

The first fight between Sam and Batroc is a clear echo of the first fight between Steve Rogerss Captain America and Batroc in the opening of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While that was a sequel, it was the first time that fans saw Cap fighting in modern times, and its a nice reflection that Sams first fight as Cap is against the same enemy.

The episode ends with a new title: Captain America and the Winter Soldier, making its narrative purpose in the MCU even more defined.

Speaking of that, doesnt this put to bed any rumors of Chris Evans returning to the MCU as Captain America? Those always seemed a little silly, but it would be almost narratively impossible now. At least for a few years.

When will Sam and Bucky discover that Sharon is the Power Broker, the one who really financed all this chaos? The next movie? Another series? Never?

Thanks to everyone for reading all season!

Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!

See the article here:
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Finale Recap: All-New Captain America - Vulture

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has never had a shortage of player-created additions. Everywhere you look there's mods ranging from small and strange, like playable Waluigi, to expressive and expansive, like the removal of the game's cel-shaded aesthetic. Breath of the Wild's modding scene is over four years old, with hundreds upon hundreds of mods for both the Wii U and Nintendo Switch versions of the game to pick from. For something to stand out of the pack, it'd have to be truly impressive.

Enter The Legend of Zelda: Second Wind - A Breath of the Wild Expansion. What originally started out as a group of smaller, individual mods for minimal changes to Nintendo's epic, such as replacing out-of-bounds chests, has ballooned into one of the biggest mods I've ever seen. In fact, it's a little unfair to call Second Wind purely a "mod" and not an unofficial expansion pack, because it's bigger than either of the two officially sanctioned DLC packs Breath of the Wild originally received shortly after its launch in 2017.

Second Wind is a fully-fledged expansion to Breath of the Wild, bundling in new regions to explore, new weapons to unlock and experiment with, and even brand new Shrine trials to undergo with Link. There's plenty to parse with the Second Wind mod, which you might've seen written up on Gamesradar. It's so big in fact, that everything mentioned here is only part one of the mod, called Labors of the Hero, with the enigmatic part two slated to arrive further down the line.

"The very foundation of anything we do within this project revolves around creating something cool for a series we love," development lead of Second Wind, CEObrainz, tells me through Discord. Second Wind's development is operating on such a large scale that its dedicated Discord channel has over 12,000 members, approximately 5,000 of which are beta testers for part one, Labors of the Hero. Despite the staggering number of developers working remotely around the world, CEObrainz asserts that this isn't a problem in the slightest, as it's instead allowed for a diverse range of experiences and talents to blossom.

Second Wind feels like an amalgamation of disparate ideas, brought under one roof and bundled into one epic mod. CEObrainz tells me that although Second Wind began life as a group of smaller mods, such as the impressive Hyrule Rebalance mod and the Survival of the Wild mod, these laid the foundations for a lengthy roster of fan-developers coming together for something bigger and better than ever before. "Lylah, one of the lead devs, came up with the Second Wind name and logo and from that point the expansion truly began to take shape."

The Labors of the Hero part of Second Wind will actually introduce new story-centric quests for Link to undertake, with a flowing narrative embedded within. CEObrainz tells me that the developers recognize that "nothing we do can truly fall in-line with the events that took place in this Hyrule," but they still believe there's interesting ideas to be explored off this beaten path. These include a girl living under the iron fist of her father, who wants to become an adventurer like Link, to the grandson of a Hylian noble who wants to make amends for his family's past misdeeds. There's some genuinely fascinating concepts in here, and they're proof of how Second Wind's developers seek to compliment Hyrule's existing stories, not override them.

"Second Wind fixes the rewards by making it so you actually get something tangible for the effort you put into the game"

It's these quests that allowed new gameplay aspects in Second Wind's Labors of the Hero to flourish. "Things really picked up once quests were figured out and events were experimented on," CEObrainz says. "Currently, we try to ensure that everything we do is related to something else. There are no additions to Second Wind that are added just for the sake of being there, and in doing that we ensure all members who contribute something feel as if their work has true importance no matter how big or small that addition is." As the developer's modding capabilities expanded over the years, so too did the new gameplay aspects being introduced in Second Wind, like items such as arrow quivers for Link to utilize.

"If every weapon gets its own sheath and can magically appear, then I think it's fine if the same applies to bows with their quivers." Two expert modders within the team, DarkGuard and Moonling, created arrow quivers specifically for Second Wind reflecting something that the developers feel should've been there from the beginning.

Some of the modding team had certain wishes of Breath of the Wild, and Second Wind lets them see those wishes realized. "As much as I love the open world area's and encounters, I really miss the dungeons from classic Zelda games," a modder called Gray tells me. That nostalgic longing for Breath of the Wild to better reflect the history of the series is shared by other members of the Second Wind development community; for example, modder Normies Progress designed new Shrines for the mod that offer different rewards than the weapons and items that would break after a finite amount of uses in the core game. "Second Wind fixes the rewards by making it so you actually get something tangible for the effort you put into the game, the shrines get reworked to look completely different and even become more like classic Zelda dungeons in some cases," DarkGuard says.

"I've gotten a lot of excited comments over the masks from Majora's Mask that've been added"

There's a lot to be tested in Second Wind, hence the horde of over 5,000 beta participants eager to try this mod for themselves. CEObrainz jokes that receiving such volumes of feedback has really reminded them just how hard a job Nintendo has of actually balancing their games. "We've learnt how to improve on the intuitive nature of puzzles, mechanics, dialogue and the overall structure of the mod," they say of feedback so far.

Elsewhere, other developers like Sven Cakemann has seen genuine excitement from players upon seeing some of the additions present in Second Wind. "I've gotten a lot of excited comments over the masks from Majora's Mask that've been added," they tell me. "Generally, the feedback has been akin to 'wow, this is really neat!' and some general suggestions on making them act more like they did in [Majora's Mask]. Unfortunately, there are some limitations on what we can do (like, no transformations), but hopefully with some recent developments we can get all the masks/hats to be unique, or at least be useful."

Right now, CEObrainz and the rest of the modding team for Second Wind plan to release Labors of the Hero later this year for the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild, playable via the Cemu emulator for PC. That's not to say they don't plan on supporting the Nintendo Switch version further down the line though, as they plan on turning their attention to the portable version of Nintendo's game once the Wii U version is complete.

As for the future of the mod itself though, CEObrainz is keeping their cards close to their chest with part two of Second Wind. "A lot of Part Two is secret to everybody (even some of the team members)," they tell me. "What I can share is that anyone who is a Ghibli fan will be able to see the things we do and associate some aspects of it with those films and yes, we do plan on adding at least one proper old-school dungeon." Labors of the Hero might be in the pipeline for release later this year, but part two of Second Wind is further off on the horizon, without so much as even a name to it just yet.

It's clear that there's a lot of love and passion being poured into Second Wind by the development team, scattered around the world. It's fascinating to see a team of over 5,000 playtesters and developers brought together under one roof by the wish to expand upon one of their favorite games. Breath of the Wild has offered player-created wonders consistently over the four years since its launch, but Second Wind might be one of the most noteworthy yet.

Second Wind could help keep you busy while you're waiting for Breath of the Wild 2, which still has no release date. In the meantime, you can check out the Best Zelda: Breath of the Wild mods.

Read more:
Inside The Legend of Zelda: Second Wind the Breath of the Wild mod that's bringing new stories and regions to Hyrule - Gamesradar