You are me.
I got the idea about what I wanted to ask by subscribing to this feed. http://feeds.feedburner.com/sharepointmvpblogs?format=xml Then when I learned who I liked and who I didn't, I picked just a few to read. (Andrew Connel of course made the cut)
Then I started going to my local user group to listen to presentations. First and foremost you will need to learn what you need to learn because sharepoint can do so much. Then you need to imprint upon yourself DO NOT CUSTOMIZE and keep saying it over and over.
Once you have time under your belt and have found the bugs and errors, then and only then can you think about customizing Share Point. Walk before you crawl.
Also, Heather Solomon is great for design issues and ideas.
