Craig Sour

I am co-owner of Value Express PC Service (www.facebook.com/ValueExpressPC), in Greensboro, NC, near the UNC-Greensboro campus.

When I was a teenager I lived a life of extreme curiosity and adventure with little caution and fear. It served me very well and I learned a great deal from those life experiences. Now that I'm older, with 3 children I'm living life more cautiously with tamed curiosity.

I started baseball at age 6; started hockey at age 10; and boxing and football at age 12; Tae Kwon Do and Akido Randori methods on/off since 30. Was very angry child but learned to channel my anger into positive energy.

Had strong mentors early in my life - Angelo, Doc, Mom that kept me out of trouble. Learned massage, nutrition, bodybuilding, and physiology through training with a past Mr. Universe and other courses in school. Lost my mother in 1999 at age 52, two days after my first trip to Asia.

It broke me. She was a single parent that managed to provide the love and guidance we needed despite hard times and battle with alcoholism. After 8 years battling alcohol she sought help and overcame the disease.

I've been tinkering with computers since I was 10 using MAC II and TRS-80. I took apart my first IBM on a 8088 at age 12. Jumped on Timex Sinclair ZX80/81, Atari 800, Tandy 1000/1000EX, Commodore 64/128, Packard Bells, it goes on and on. In high school (1983-1986), I discovered DEC PDP-11 and VAX-11. Taught myself the OS and wrote accounting/bookkeeping programs using BASIC. Started writing simple games at age 13 making pong simulation and random games.

I eventually started my career as a programmer and landed my first job at 19 without a degree. In 1991, took an offer to relocate to NC as a programmer analyst. Decided to get degree at UNC-Greensboro. In 1992, I realized my personality was not cut out to be a programmer so I ventured into system operations, workflow automation, and integration

In late 1992, I landed a phenomenal opportunity with the same company to manage a completely new graphics/prepress department that was entirely computerized with high-end graphic systems, with MACS and PCs, proprietary BARCO graphic systems, all integrated with VAX 7000 minicomputers.

My career is oddly filled with a strong love and passion deep within that never seems to falter. Never feels like a job. Whether there is a crisis situation, design challenge or project for security/automation/enterp