SO yeah, I just read your bio there... and you ARE from Merced!
OH my gosh, I was born there, and lived there forever, except the brief time I moved away to go to college in Sac, but... I moved back... to Atwater and then MErced again, when I got hired at my job...
I lived there for a long time again, and just barely moved out of state almost two years ago by now.
In all my time on dA, I have never run into anyone from my own hometown!