Driven crazy by blog software

I've been having a number of problems with blogging lately:

• Blogger/Blogspot no longer shows me formatting buttons when I create blog entries. If I want to use bold text, bulleted lists, or any other formatting, I have to enter the HTML code myself. Another thing I can't do is preview my entries before posting them, which I used to be able to do.
  
  
• I cannot find a way to make the URL for a blog entry anything other than the full title of the entry. For example, the blog entry titled "Hassle-Free Junk Mail Reduction" has the long URL "http://cousinyellowstone.blogspot.com/2009/08/hassle-free-junk-mail-reduction.html". I would like to be able to create shorter URLs, e.g., "http://cousinyellowstone.blogspot.com/2009/08/junkmail.html". Is there any way to do this?
  
  
• I am unable to leave comments on one of my favorite blogs, Awake Anew. The "Comment as:" drop-down menu doesn't display any items, and without an identity (not even "Anonymous") I can't leave a comment. I had the same problem at Fake Plastic Fish, another favorite green blog, but was able to get around it there by clicking on Preview, which seemingly made Blogger wake up and realize that I had to be allowed to enter an identity. This technique isn't working at Awake Anew. Danielle, if you're reading this, please know that I'm reading your blog, I just can't comment on it.
  
  
• When I try to view pages at Fake Plastic Fish, my browser often displays the banner at the top and the advertisements at the side but doesn't show the actual text of the blog entry for ages. I've sometimes had to give up and shut down the computer because half an hour has passed, I've finished everything else I needed to do on the computer, and there's still no text visible. I've tried to get around this by using Yahoo's and Google's translation programs, hoping they would translate just the text and ignore the graphics, but, again, just saw lots of graphics and had to wait and wait for the text. Is there any web site out there where I can enter the URL of the page I would like to read and be shown only the text?

Please, no suggestions that I upgrade my computer. The last thing the planet needs is for me to buy more electronics. And, ironically, my computer works 100% perfectly for everything except blogging about environmental matters. I can access every other web page I want to read, including several blogs, just not the ones about the environment.