Grand Theft Auto 5 and Southern California Nostalgia

My first job after my PhD was working as a postdoctoral research fellow at UC San Diego. It was the first time I had ever traveled overseas from Australia, and I was pretty young and naive in retrospect. When I first arrived I thought I was living somewhere called "la jolla" (hint to Australian's it's pronounced "la hoya"). Anyway I worked at UCSD in Milton Saier's laboratory for several years, where I developed my love for transporter proteins, bioinformatics and the San Diego Padres baseball team.

I've been playing alot of Grant Theft Auto 5 on my Xbox since Christmas, and in addition to the fun of driving fast cars like a complete maniac, I must admit they have done a great job with the virtual imitation of Southern Californian scenery in the game, playing it has made me feel very nostalgic for my postdoc days. I'm almost at 100% completion on the game, I just need to win a medal in the stupid 26 minute triathalon and then it will be time to move on to the next of my Christmas presents- Assasin's Creed 4: Black Flag (please give your pity to my poor partner, she will have to put up with me talking in stupid pirate accents while I play Black Flag). Of course multiple looming grant deadlines will probably interfere with those gaming plans.

Southern Californian scene from GTA 5

La Jolla cove