What I like: the weather is nice. Where I live it is usually 70-80 degrees and sunny 80% of the year.

I also like being able to find good ethnic food -- Indian, Thai, Mexican, sushi. There's also a lot of ag, so farmers markets and fresh produce are always nearby.

There's a lot of geographical diversity -- snowy mountains, sandy beaches, lakes and rivers, barren deserts. That's really nice.

The ethnic diversity has its pros and cons. My hometown has seen a major demographic shift in the past 30 years. Large parts of it now resemble a Tijuana slum and over half the county is on welfare. It used to be a small town Norman Rockwell kind of place and now it's trashed with gangs, litter and graffiti all over the place.

The Central Valley has terrible air quality and a major meth problem. Lots of people are miserable there. Avoid.

If you plan on starting a small business, you should know that regulations in CA are extremely onerous compared to most of the rest of the country.

Finally, yeah, the traffic sucks. And so does the high cost of living. I pay $1550 for a 2 bed apartment and that is pretty typical here.