Oh man don't look now but it's another "I'm moving to the bay area" post!

So here's the deal: I just got a job in San Francisco, in the financial district; I start Monday. I was semi-planning on finding a place in the city, but upon seeing how much cheaper I can get a place out in the East Bay I'm seriously considering just sucking it up and taking BART every day. I'm temporarily staying at a motel so I'd like to find a place fairly quickly. What are people's opinions of the various cities out here? I'm in Walnut Creek at the moment and I'll probably take some time to wander around here tomorrow; where else should I look? What is there to do out here? Where do babies come from? What is the meaning of life? How many boards would the Mongols hoard when the Mongol hordes got bored?

...Sorry, I'm a bit overwhelmed with the whole moving/new job thing. Help?