Regarding the Blog feature
My advice if you really dislike it is to try to ignore that it exists, similar to the calendar or members list functions. To be honest I have no idea where the blog idea originated, one day it just appeared, quite possibly as part of a VBulletin upgrade. I was never consulted, advised or knew that we would have a blog feature in early July or whenever it was it appeared on the site.
Regarding Private Messenger or PMs. Like I promised I will bring them up with Mangement (new General Manager Marty Jensen) after The Bash and express that some posters are in favor of having one on the site. The decision is not mine, and to again be honest I doubt if my recommendation will matter one way or another. This subject has never been received well in the past by management and Tech Support.
Time will tell.
wilheim