Earlier this year, my wife and I moved to a new home from our condo.  In the condo, I built a home theater in the garage because the cars wouldn’t fit.  It was built in such a way that it could be disassembled if and when we ever moved.  Well it happened and I dismantled v1.x of the theater and brought the pieces with us, including the HD projector, the 10′ self-retracting screen, sound absorption pads, curtains, multi-level seating, and the brains of the system.

So after settling into the new home, I began work on v2.0 of the theater using a 12 x 15 ft bedroom in our finished basement and a lot of help from my family & friends.  While I won’t go into all the details of the work done, here is a summary:

• 3 custom columns were built with to house sconces run on a remote control dimmer using the existing overhead light mounting box.
• acoustic sound tiles installed and painted on the ceiling to absorb sound so that it doesn’t disturb the baby’s room directly above.
• high frequency absorbing sound pads installed/fitted on the walls.
• window shades replaced with black out curtains along with a full window treatment.
• seating platform reduced to 1 level and extended to fit across the entire rear of the room.
• suspended “cloud deck” cut, painted, and hung to add flare to the room and to house lighting, conceal cables and ventilation.
• Air conditioner duct work added in the ceiling to provide cool air from the air conditioner unit in the next room.
• an entertainment cabinet converted to be a concession stand with mini-frig, and water cooler.
• front of room framed out for the screen, speakers, etc.
• columns and front face equipped with shelves to display models and movie/tv statues
• theater equipped with 1080p HD projector, 5.1 surround sound, capable of playing almost any modern media as well as playing PC games on the big screen.

There was a lot of work put into this theater to make it awesome room it is.  Unlike its predecessor, this build is permanent to the room.  What took me several years on the original theater to complete, took 2 months to complete, and I want to thank Andrea and Terry Atwood for helping with construction and later decorating, my wife Charla for putting up with me during the build, and my friend Conrad Flynn for the help and ideas he provided.

Check out these photos from the build and the final result:

Greetings CTS Clients,

I would like to thank you for allowing CTS to provide you with technical support over the last several years.

As often happens in life, things change, and a large change is coming in my family.  Come February, my wife and I will begin moving from the Bozeman area, back to the Helena area.  For CTS’s Helena base clients, this will be a good thing.  For my Bozeman based clients, the biggest change is that it won’t be as easy for me to provide onsite service visits.  Luckily, with remote technology, I can still provide similar support as I do now.  Additionally, I won’t be a stranger to Bozeman as I will be still employed by the same Bozeman based company (the wonders of telecommuting) and I will be making frequent trips to Bozeman for various company functions.  Service visits could be scheduled to coincide with these trips if needed.

To facilitate the move, CTS will be going on hiatus, effective immediately, with exception of its current support issue(s).  It will remain on that way until sometime in March, possibly April, when my wife and I have completed the move and I’ve rebuilt the resources needed to provide CTS’s technical services.  During this time, CTS will not be accepting any new projects or support issues.  Please keep in mind, this will not affect anybody’s website/email services or anti-virus protection.  If there is an issue with either of these, you will receive support.

Thank you for your patience as my wife and I make this change in our lives.  It is my hope that once CTS is back on its feet again, you’ll continue to utilize its services.

CTS has recently completed a new website at www.churchreads.com.  This website features literary work(s) from ACullen.  Check it out…

As of May 2013, Stratum Design & Cullen Tech Services are utilizing the SharePress plugin by Fat Panda to link WordPress posts to applicable Facebook pages.  In order to do this however, the owner of the Facebook page in question must be/become an app developer and create an app to handle the transactions between the WordPress driven site and their page.  While this seems daunting at first, the folks at Fat Panda have made easy to follow instructions to make the app work with SharePress.  These instructions can be found in our Knowledge Vault.  Please keep in mind that if you are a Stratum Design, Cullen Tech Services, or SuperSonic-Online website client, we’ll have the plugin installed and you will be able to access the Pro features of this plugin.  Please start with the “Creating Your Facebook Application” section as we just need you to create an app with Facebook and supply us or paste your App ID and App Secrete in to the SharePress plugin.  Once this information has been installed in confidence, we will take care of the remaining configuration.  Thank you Fat Panda for making this plugin and documentation easy to use and follow.

Please click the link below to continue…

Knowledge Vault Article: Creating a Facebook App for WordPress

Great news! CTS has completed a major upgrade of the atwoodarts.com website.  It’s got a new look and enhanced functionality for Atwood Accounting Services and Andrea Atwood’s Art.  Check out the new and improved www.atwoodarts.com for all your accounting and art needs!