Note that you can drag the different components of your BLOG page to where you prefer them.
I put my picture to the left of my text for example.

The calendar on the BLOG page is NOT the site event calendar, but shows which days you made BLOG posts.

There is a choice when adding an entry to elect to publish it directly and not review in draft form first if you prefer.

I will experiment and see what works best for a blog skin; the default one is okay but bland.