Darren has some good points here based on a post by Chris Pirillo. A great read, but I’ll add some of the things I do regularly:
1. Read the blog list at BlogAds
Want to see different blogs that are doing amazing things, the BlogAds blog list does it for me every time. Yep, I know it sounds silly because the list is actually there for advertisers to look at, but it also provides an easy to read resource with ad views as well, particularly pertinent when you also want to look at new stuff in consideration of traffic as well…great way to get fresh ideas
2. Visit Digg and Netscape…
and make sure you take a look past the first couple of pages, particularly past the listings for the Weblogs Inc blogs…also try the newly submitted pages as well, sometimes you just find interesting blogs
3. Ask people for their opinion on stuff you might already thought you are right on
Sometimes people will disagree, in disagreeing though you might learn something different and could even change your position as well. The biggest problem as a blogger you can find is the situation of everyone saying that your right, yes men and shills are poisonous to objectivity.
4. Spend 30-60 minutes at Wikipedia
…and keep following the related links on stuff. You’ll find out about amazing things, some of which you could end up blogging…otherwise I find it mentally stimulating anyway
5. Play Second Life
What can I say…my only problem with Second Life is getting out because I could spend forever on it. Occasionally people say Second Life is boring, usually its because they see Second Life as a multi-player online game. It’s not, its a virtual world that just also happens to have games in it. Tringo is the best game ever created…I could (and often do) play it for hours, but there’s a whole pile of other games in world as well. There’s also a lot of other things that can be done, interacting with other people (like a chat room), playing tourist (it would take 1000’s of hours to visit every place in Second Life), even playing a virtual game of Sim City if you like through the ability to own land and improve it, and if you like, sell it later for a profit that is convertible to US dollars. Ever wanted to be a fashion designer, a builder, and pimp or night club owner…all these and more are possible in Second Life. As the slogan goes: “Your World. Your Imagination”.
6. Type crap into the Technorati search box
Sometimes you get some amazing results in the blogs that they list.
Number 6 works for me; typing crap into ANY search field, whether it be technorati, Google, and even Wikipedia has helped me find gems.