Looking for a helpful neighbor...

If you've noticed, there have been some very minor changes to this site's design. I've toyed around with a lot of other changes, but for now, I'm only making a few at a time. I'm in need of some help so if anyone can offer some answers or point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.

The Current List:

1.) Does anybody know how to easily limit how much of a post is shown on the front page of a blog? I write some very long posts sometimes and want an easy way to show the first few paragraphs and include a link that points to the full post. Right now, I can't find an easy way to do it with Blogger. I've resorted to writing two separate posts to accomplish this which is annoying and time consuming and in the long run won't help me keep my posts organized.

2.) Why do people write out their e-mails as: me at gmail dot com instead of me@gmail.com. I've noticed this mostly on a bunch of blogs I read. Is this just an aesthetic choice or is there another reason behind it? The only thing I can come up with is that people write out their e-mail that way to prevent spammers using automated programs to harvest e-mail.

3.) Is there an easy way to tag posts for Blogger? I have one option that utilizes del.icio.us, but I'm looking for other options, especially an option that is more automated and isn't too time consuming to use.

4.) Lastly, my site feed is powered by Atom and it's been brought to my attention that it's not working properly. It's only showing old posts (pretty much up to 2004), but no of my new posts. I've e-mailed Blogger Support but if anyone else has some suggestions.