What a great topic! I never thought I'd meet so many people from around the world either.
It's kind of cool when my grilfriend asks me about some import record from Australia and I say "Let me ask. I know a guy down there."
Anyway, I live in the middle of Silicon freakin' Valley. Lived here all my life and now most of the empty fields are filled with houses with no back yards or Cisco buildings. The weather is second only to SoCal. San Francisco is 45 minutes away. Monterey is an hour south. The music scene blows because all the engineers are too tired after work to go see a band. And Willie Brown is doing his best to kill the scene in SF.
It's really expensive to live here. I make an above average income and still can't buy a house. But, I'm complaining too much.
We pay for the killer weather. The traffic isn't as bad as everyone thinks. It's a generally nice area to live in.