ey' man you just sayin' central cali is nothing cuz you from the bay where there is lotsa somethings that you can barely take your eyes off of!
I've lived in California all my life: Southern birth - 7 yrs., Central 7yrs. - 16yrs. and 6 months, Northern 3 1/2 months!
Southern California is pretty awesome when your a kid, well anywhere is but damn I had a nice time living there. I Lived 10 miles from a flat, low tide beach where my family would have bon fires all the time. I admired surfers and swam in the ocean a lot. I feel a strangeness going back to LA now but I still really like the interesting atmosphere it lends to your life. Hollywood and Beverly Hills are a twisted trip! You might see a disheveled looking homeless lady with a shopping cart out in the middle of a Beverly Hills street yelling at cars while you stare up at a Gap billboard and there are expensive looking people in expensive looking cars honking. Ahh, Del Taco...french fries and a taco to boot.
Central Cali is where I've spent most of my life and hated it most of my life. I won't go off listing all the things I dislike about Central Cali because I'd be wasting everyone's thought. But there are very many cultures who live here and have opened up restaraunts and awesome stores to cater to the small communities of their cultures. They usually don't mind it when people outside their communities stop in and get to know them a bit better.
Houses and land are cheap.
If you look down the streets on a clear winter day you can sometimes see snow capped mountains. Small but sprawly big town feeling makes you feel right at home. They say you get an accent living in the central valley. The ol' Californian southern drawl

In the most suburban neighborhoods you can still find nature popping up in those nicely trimmed lawns. I am talking about weeds and fungi, ahhh hhhaaa hha ha haa!
Northern California is the nicest (in many ways) places I've ever lived. I only lived there for 3 1/2 months but experienced so much before that and in that period of time that made me so much more universally aware. I experienced really, really, really good sea food! Amazing beaches I barely even knew existed! Coming from LA beaches makes you cringe at the beauty of a Marin or Sonoma County beach. The forest makes you feel like a fairy seeing all the lush ferns and mushrooms hiding underneath the nooks and crannies of the forest floor. Ahhh, I had never felt more greatful to be alive then when I lived there. Even living there made me appreciate the vast flatness and polar opposites the Central Valley has. The majority of people are amazinginly nice and courteous and not stuck up like many other people I've met in SC and CC. More people are aware and smarter and they know it too. Education is so readily available and the human resources are very well organized and coordinated, well atleast most of it. I'm talking about bus, women's health care etc. Shit, not to forget the music scene!!! And all the music the bay area attracts.
California is a richly woven state full of many great peoples and some great educational and natural sites. Yay California! You got to experience California if you have not been here, come visit!
Peace!