Here’s your Craigslist missed connection of the month. Possibly longer.

Remember that annoying kid who used to work in your office? Remember how he got everyone to cover for him when he was out “sick”? Remember telling him something remotely personal about yourself and feeling you’d regret it later?

TO: all of my old coworkers from Citibank Castro
Reply to: pers-271515622@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-01-31, 4:59PM PST

OK – so I am not too much older or wiser but it’s been 4 years since I worked there and I just wanted to thank all of you for the support during my employment.

I was a wreck – literally – now that I look back onto the situation I feel stupid – I was a stupid 19 YO with my priorities all screwed up.
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This is getting to be ridiculous.

According to an AP story just posted on SFGate, Barry Bonds is refusing to sign the contract with the Giants that they said twice now was all done. They went so far as to have a Monday night press conference announcing the signing.

Now it seems Major League Baseball rejected a clause in the agreed-upon contract having to do with “personal appeareances” — lucrative appeareances at banquets, baseball card signing events, and other promotional hoo-ha that can mean tens of thousands of dollars for athletes. And without the personal appearance clause, Bonds is balking.

Man, would I hate to be a flunky in the Giants’ offices right now, and have to listen to the outraged screaming.

Most people think of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley as a hotbed of progressivism, or at least liberalism — for example, this SF Chronicle story from last week, Obama gains early Silicon Valley support, and in 2004, CNet published a story about local Republicans called Piercing a Silicon Valley stereotype — but there have always been plenty of Republicans here: look at this long list of CEOs who donated to the 2004 Bush campaign and this other article about tech execs who supported Bush, including Cisco’s John Chambers, eBay’s Meg Whitman and Yahoo’s Terry Semel. (Think about it: it’s one thing to have supported Bush in 2000, but after two years of quagmire in Iraq? What were they thinking?)

Now a man who made millions off PayPal, someone named Rod Martin, has put his money into a rabble-rousing far-right website that aims to be the MoveOn.org of the right: TheVanguard.org.
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Just a little bit over a year ago, I came out here with my friend-turned-roommate to go apartment hunting for our first shared place in San Francisco. We made what seemed like a million appointments to various apartments throughout the city – from independently owned spots on the fringes of town to huge towers of name-brand places in the heart of the city. We filled out applications, shook hands with apartment managers and current tenants and debated about the merits of living in various sections of town.

In the end, our decision was an easy one. Due to a combination of bad credit, lack of employment /income proof and non-existent prior renting history, we were turned down by almost every place that we applied. In fact, there was only one place which accepted us – primarily due to my intense persuasion of the current tenant to put in a good word for us and my willingness to pay an exorbitant deposit and to practically sign in blood that I’d be a good tenant.
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Responding to complaints over the fait accompli sale of the Mission Armory to Kink.com for use as a film studio, the San Francisco Planning Commission agreed to hold a hearing on the matter.

Which is another way of saying to the neighborhood activists: drop dead.

While locals can yelp about the proximity of the Armory to schools and homes (here’s local activist* Roberto Hernandez: “How do you tell a child from a school right down the street they are going to be filming pornography there?” Uh, Roberto, I’d say you don’t**) the fact is that the Planning Commission can’t make any rules on what is essentially a free speech issue.

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Driving to work along southbound 101 to Redwood City today, I was wondering why the traffic seemed to be flowing so smoothly. Then I noticed backups at on-ramps in San Mateo — some of the on-ramps had 10 or 20 cars stewing behind the metering lights.

Seems CalTrans turned the metering lights on for the first time for this morning’s commute — only to discover malfunctions in at least two. Backups were so bad at the Hillsdale on-ramp that cars were backed up onto city streets.

Watch out on Feb. 20, when metering lights on northbound ramps will be turned on.

The Giants and Barry Bonds signed a one-year $15.8 million contract last night, 54 days after announcing that a deal had been reached. The nearly two-month hiatus and the news that Bonds had tested positive for amphetamines in August of 2006 and had blamed teammate Mark Sweeney for having the amphetamines in his locker — leading to much speculation that the Giants might be looking to get out of the as-yet-unsigned deal — will be forgotten once the 42-year-old left fielder starts hitting home runs.

Bonds will appear on KNBR radio at 5:00 pm today.
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This is one hell of a Roommate Wanted ad. There are many comments I could make but I think instead I’ll let it speak for itself.

World of Housecraft: $738 a world awaits… (SOMA / south beach)

I read some very bizarre news this weekend- basically that, last Friday, an electric GM ca GEM car (thanks DDP), despite being unplugged, exploded next to the Warming Hut causing a fire that will close it for a month or so. Sad, and odd. Warming hut is in the Golden Gate National Rec Area – (Not to be confused with GGNRA). It’s a cafe and bookstore/toystore at the end of Crissy Field near the bridge, at Torpedo Wharf, you know, Torpedo Wharf (note: I have seen this only on one map and a historical interpretation and nobody has ever said it to me!).
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Berkeley based book distributor’s bankruptcy threatens small publishers, here and around US.

The parent company of Publishers Group West, a locally based company who distribute 150 small press labels like V Vale’s Re/Search, Henry Rollins 2.13.61 and Dave Egger’s McSweeney’s have stopped paying their bills and this is hurting many smaller book imprints. Currently the San Diego based parent company of PGW is holding onto millions of year end receipts, while a buyout offer is being considered from NY based Perseus.

These small press publishers in the meantime have no access to the money made from their sales to chainstores during the year’s final quarter, which is generally the most lucrative time of year.

Affected companies have until Feb. 7 to file objections to a buyout offer, in which clients of PGW could get up to 70 percent of what they are owed, but only if the clients agree to a four-year distribution deal with the NY based firm called Perseus.

Uh, Pray for the publishers…
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