Where can I get free (and ad-free) webspace?

You can check out ibiblio. But, I don't know how you sign up. I have a friend who hosts his site on ibiblio, you can check out his site at http://www.prezkennedy.org Or you could start a blog from one of many sites, http://www.blogger.com, http://360.yahoo.com there are others but those were off the top of my head.