are there certain people you look for? certain people you know will be on? any particular threads you will be checking first? or is it a completely random thing for you?
there are certain threads I check to see if there are any new posts in... like KtCW and the music threads I've started. music match game seems to be going strong, but I got a line on you is hit and miss. music trivia and the other threads I've started seem to have died quick and painless deaths.
there are a couple of other threads I check on a regular basis, like the DLS thread. most of them are music and movie related.
whilst I'm doing all this thread-checking, there are certain names I keep an eye out for as far as posting, but I don't have a buddy list. sometimes I'll send these people a PM, and sometimes I try to get some back and forth going with them in a thread or threads. sometimes I just wait and see if any of them notices that I'm on.