I'll third the recommendation for Wordpress. I've recently started a blog using it, and found it to be quite easy to get going. It can be a bit confusing trying to decide which plugins you want to use, but you can start it without them and add plugins later. Jay
Wordpress is the way to go, quite a good script with many features built in and hell lot of plugins and themes.
Wordpress! Good thing about this is, it's absolutely free though you have to pay for hosting, or you can use their hosting. If you want absolute control over your blog then Wordpress is the way to go. It can be somewhat difficult to use but once you get the hang of it, you'll like it.
My latest blog entry (via the Online Opportunity link in my sig) is about a free web host (JustFree.com) that supports Wordpress, but gives you the ability to upload plugins, unlike Wordpress.com's hosting. Note that I don't use the free host myself, since I found out about this one only after paying for hosting. But it looks like it'd work for someone wanting free Wordpress hosting plus all the plugins you want. Jay