At this point I'm just taking things in from my own perspective. I've noticed a lot of people around here tend to talk about Visalia and Bakersfield like a lot of people talk about Kokomo back in Indiana. Maybe to them it's the pits, but to me there are live theaters for actual plays, art studio days, and more life in the cities - rural Indiana on the other hand is a ton of bars and churches and it lacks signs of any culture greater than a McDonald's every few miles. Back in Indiana I also never got to see anything like the sight of Bakersfield at night off in the distance (I was at the Tejon outlet plaza thingy the other night) - Northern Indiana is mostly too flat for that and the cities not big enough.
I've also went from petting cows to pass the time to finding causes I care enough about to volunteer for. But that is the standards I come from. Farms, fields, and nothing to care about.