Once again Zombie Mad Dog Media (Hosted WordPress Edition) walks the earth in search of fresh brains.

The shamans of Waxedstringandacanistan resurrected the evil dead sometime on Thanksgiving Day, while Herself and I were in Fort Collins eating a defunct bird and related items with my sister, her husband and his brother. I should probably sacrifice a laptop to the XHTML gods to show my gratitude. You can show your gratitude by catching up on Black Friday at maddogmedia.com/wordpress.

Dinner is over and we’re back home after a pleasant afternoon spent with kin by blood and marriage. The last miles, from Larkspur south, were a little hairy — the first weather we’ve had this fall blew in and glazed the roads thicker than a cop’s doughnut. But we were in no hurry and arrived without incident, unlike the one leadfoot we saw backasswards in the ditch near the north entrance to the Air Force Academy. Hope Thanksgiving was equally gentle to you and yours.

Even the turkeys are sick of those turkeys at Hostcentric.

Probably a pretty common post on blogs today, but I don’t care. I can be as trite and hackneyed as the next guy. Just ask anyone who’s read me for more than a season.

Today, I’m thankful for having work I usually enjoy that also pays respectably (albeit a little less so next year than this); for being able to anticipate the inauguration of a president who can speak English, has a work ethic and lacks both daddy issues and identity crises (like, say, the outgoing faux redneck with his blue bloodline and Poppy problem); and for not having to cook for a change. We’re making my sis and her husband do that.

Though I am in charge of the wine. Some chores, a man just can’t job out.

Meanwhile, still no joy from “tech support” at Hostcentric. The latest advice from their high-tech cave in suburban Waxedstringandacanistan is to reinstall the WordPress software. No, thanks. Already watched one blog go up in smoke; no need to repeat the experience when there are so many other brick walls for me to bang my head against.

But it is Thanksgiving, so let’s go out on a high note, with something else for which I’m thankful — Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” Hope you have a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat and that Officer Obie cuts you some slack if you’re caught driving garbage around the vicinity.

The new DogSite (maddogmedia.com/wordpress) is offline for some reason, and the bots at Hostcentric are being their usual helpful selves. I’m gonna have Al Gore sit on a couple of ‘em and see if that wises the others up a bit.

Meanwhile, the original site, maddogmedia.com, still seems to be functional, though it, too, was down for a while last night. Stay tuned, either here or there, for further updates as they become available.

Update: Hostcentric has farmed out its tech support to an unemployed zither player in Waxedstringandacanistan, who has been singularly unhelpful in helping me revive the spazzed-out DogSite. Apparently the only thing that sucks worse than Hostcentric at this brief moment in time is the BlackBerry Storm. Or so says David Pogue at The New York Times, anyway. So it looks like I’ll be running my little one-ring circus here until I can chase down a new hosting provider.

Even later update: The zither player has weighed in, saying I botched the WordPress install, even though (a) it’s a one-click install managed on Hostcentric’s side of our little deal, (2) my botched install worked just fine for two weeks until both maddogmedia.com and maddogmedia.com/wordpress were taken out by a virtual IED with only the former surviving to tell the gruesome tale, and (iii) last night tech support blamed a server meltdown that today it says never occurred. Whatever. I notice that billing proceeds with its usual ruthless efficiency. That side of the op’ must be run by Germans.

Come mid-December, I’ll shift the op’ to another provider. Gnome at DrunkCyclist has offered a couple interesting solutions, as has Hungry Chuck Ibis. And in the meantime you can always visit me here in the no-rent nuthouse.

Opus the Poet over at Mad Blog Media Mark 2 asked whether WordPress (the free version) worked well with Linux and Firefox. So I’m adding this post via my Eee PC netbook to see how it goes. So far, so good . . . .

Deputy assistant DogSite editor Turk von Turkenstein meditates over graphics selection.

I broke out the BFH last night and spent the better part of quite some time pounding on the DogSite v2.0, straightening out dents in this and kinks in that while swearing into a frequently empty wineglass.

So now we have three DogSites up and running, more or less:

The original
V2.0
And this one.

I thought for sure that this site was going to be the way to go, mostly based on cost (none) and ease of use (plenty). Big Mama WordPress feeds you, burps you, changes your dipes and holds your hand when you cry. But she doesn’t let you do much, especially when it comes to uploading photos, graphics, audio and video, unless you upgrade (read: Send money, Junior).

Sheeyit. I already have a paid website — the original, hosted by Hostcentric — and I can chuck my digital stones into that big-ass pond for years before it turns into a rockpile. And with WordPress installed there, I can do what you see here, kinda, sorta.

The downside is, running your own WordPress show requires you to get a little more hands-on behind the scenes. Big Mama ain’t there to walk you through kindergarten on things like RSS feeds, header images and other tweaks and sneaks. Hence the wine and swearing.

Still, I think it looks more or less OK. Pop on by and take a look.

One of these days I’ll learn to look before leaping. The free version of WordPress limits uploads, an extremely low ceiling that I’ll jam my pointy little head through by Thursday at this rate. Sorry ’bout that, those of you who’ve bookmarked or subscribed to this rascal. But I’m less interested in saving money than doin’ what I want to do, when I want to do it. So we may be going back to Mad Dog Media v2.0, which can be found here.

Tell ya what: Lemme fiddle with this rascal through the end of the month before you start rearranging your virtual furniture, OK? Both v3.0 and v2.0 will offer RSS feeds along with the usual hideous screeching — but v2.0 will include pix, audio, video and access to seven years’ worth of the same ol’, same ol’, without me having to shift a whole lot of stuff around and start writing checks to a new crop of thieves.

Editor’s note: And yes, v2.0 remains very much a work under construction, so if you don’t see your favorite link, it’s ’cause I haven’t posted it yet.

Thanksgiving is, what, 10 days away? And Bibleburg enjoys a windless day in the mid-60s. I gave the old palantír the slip for the day and went out goofing. Screw Sauron and his deadlines. I went out and got me some vitamin D the hard way, running in Palmer Park.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer — maybe a record high in the mid-70s — but the Big Eye requires my fealty, so I’ll be chained to an oar at VeloNews.com. Maybe I’ll haul the MacBook out on the deck, air out the cats.

Today’s warm weather seems to have confused the local flora and fauna more than somewhat. Herself swore she saw a tree trying to bud out during her run this afternoon, and a large, befuddled black wasp found its way indoors, looking for I don’t know what. What it got was a quick introduction to the Shop-Vac and a one-way ticket back to the great outdoors. That sucker was the size of a serrano chile and I’ll bet it packed more of a bite.

Che, my Vespa LX50, is quite the conversation-starter.

Broke the Jamis out for a 90-minute Four Parks ‘cross ride (Monument Valley, Goose Gossage, Pulpit Rock and Palmer Park), then ran a few errands on my tomato-red Vespa, which I think just got named Che for no particular reason. A couple on bicycles met me at an intersection and the male half stopped to grill me about scooters. I said mine was too expensive but I sprung for it anyway because I have mental-health issues and that he could get one considerably cheaper if he weren’t in dire need of electroshock therapy. He said he was 60-something and had never owned a scooter but had been coveting one, and I replied, “Hell, I’m 54 and this is my first scoot’ and I’m lovin’ it.”

I expect the folks down at Sportique on Tejon will be seeing him shortly. He circled me once or twice like a bumblebee inspecting a flower.

More pointless dicking around with the site for your amusement. I’ve changed the header image a few dozen times while waiting for ride time to come around (50 degrees and up). Looks as though Bibleburg’s brief flirtation with fall is at an end for the foreseeable future — the NWS calls for highs in the 50s and 60s over the next week. Fat city.

What the weather in DeeCee is like is another thing altogether. Storm clouds are a’brewing over faux Donk Joe Lieberman’s relentless stumping for the wrong party in the election just concluded. The Jackasses will cast a secret ballot on Tuesday to decide whether the shameless old whore should be stripped of his committee chairmanship, and I hope against hope that he will be made to walk the plank. Go caucus with the Pachyderms, José. Pack your trunk. Ho, ho.