Blogger Alternatives

For the past two days I have wrangled and struggled to simply access my Blogger account. Sure sometimes I'm unable to post due to writer's block, but often-too often-it's because I can't post. I chose Blogger initially because it was free, and already used Gmail and Writely. I considered switching a few months ago, but then they added some new features like tagging. Laziness, optimism or a mixture of both kept me here. Now I'm fed up. How will my seven devoted readers (not to mention the occasional angry Jeremy Mayfield fan) read my blog, if it is constantly down?

Does anyone have a recommendation for an alternative? Eventually I want to do my own website and then blame myself when it doesn't work. Unfortunately that will take some time, as I'm still learning the nuances of design. In the meantime I hope to give Blogger the boot. I had more to say today, but now my momentum has slowed and I can't simply hit F5 to refresh myself.