I spent a few hours fiddling with Wordpress today and I seem to have fixed the issues with my blog template. I installed the new 2.5 RC1 over my old 2.3 installation (that solved the duplicate entry issue) and switched to a new template (that solved the about page not showing up). After trying a few WP templates, I finally settled on Hemingway - simple, classic, minimalist. I actually loved my old template but change is always good.