Do not feel to bad, you are not the first and for sure not the last! Adding on to another persons issue that you are also having does keep things in the same spot.
For starting your own blog, from the main page of the forum you will see the "blog" section at the top. One thing that I have noticed on the blog section is that it does not seem to get the attention like the normal posts do in the forum section. I've seen a few blogs that have not received any responses.