I've not had much to post about the last few days. Life's been pretty uneventful and we don't have any more college hockey until next week. In order to fill the gaps until something more interesting comes along, I'm going to pick up the "10 things I've done that you probably haven't" meme, but post them one at a time. Which will fill that longing for a week and a half of annotated personal navel-gazing that many of you have.

Thing #1 That I've Done That You Probably Haven't

Lost a playoff round at a debate tournament to an opponent who arrived at that tournament prepared for the wrong topic.

The year was 1987, the location Lexington (MA) High School. It being the bicentennial year for the Constitution, the LD debate topics for the year were all going to be Constitutionally-themed. Unlike policy debate, where there was one topic for the year, LD topics changed on some regular basis (monthly or bimonthly, though a handful of tournaments had one-off topics).

In any event, some wires got crossed somewhere and the folks from the Bronx High School of Science show up thinking that the topic being used was something other than it actually was. Bronx Science is a pretty good team, but I figure that this is going to hamstring them.

But I wind up getting paired against one of their folks in the quarterfinals. Clearly, they were better debaters than I gave them credit for. And, naturally, I lose a 3-2 decision. I don't remember much about the round, though I do have a memory of getting stumped on a cross-examination question that I'd answered with relative ease in other rounds.

In a way this round more or less summed up my performance as a debater. I averaged about one piece of hardware a year, generally at that level. My best performance, at least based by nomenclature, was a semifinal berth at the very first debate tournament I ever participated in. My partner and I (in novice policy debate) had to forfeit based on team policy, as our semifinal round was against another team from my school with a better record.

The closest I ever came to a national tournament was via student congress, where participants get to vote for other participants. Being the only person from my school who competed in student congress didn't help.

So there's more than you ever wanted to know about my debate career.

Two rounds done, and we've got our all-WCHA Frozen Four. Pool standings, with number of teams left and national champion pick in parentheses:

Coen - 26 points (3/Colorado College)
Hight - 26 (3/Denver)
Boggie - 22 (3/Minnesota)
Sorenson - 20 (2/CC)
Bruce - 18 (2/Denver)
Harper-Nixon - 18 (2/BU)
Barker - 16 (1/Michigan)

A couple of people have noted how this pool is the ying to their March Madness bracket yang. Not sure it's reached that level for me yet, though Kentucky's impending loss isn't going to help me in Barker's pool (it was the one thing that differentiated me from the other folks who have Illinois going all the way). In the Bruce's weighted competition it appears that my fortunes are tied with Louisville's.

For something completely different, Easter was pretty uneventful. The in-laws were down for the weekend, and we had an early dinner at restaurant that's part of a local yacht club (we'd briefly looked at the place for our wedding reception, but they wanted way too much for a room rooted in the 1970s). Church was a zoo, of course, as the C&E folks packed it to standing room only. The priest made a pretty funny reference to the need to show up more often, using the phrase "same Bat-time, same Bat-channel." We'll see how it goes.

After the first round of the Frozen Four:

Coen, Hight - 14 points
Sorenson, Barker - 12 points
Boggie, Bruce, Harper-Nixon - 10 points

Upset points work a whole lot better when there are, you know, upsets. The only one that's happened - North Dakota over BC - was picked by no one. Not surprising given the people involved, various upsets involving BU were picked but obviously came for naught. Harvard and Maine got their share of upset picks, with similar results.

Without giving too much away about the second round so far, yesterday did bust someone's bracket pretty seriously. So much for a repeat of the 1998 final.

In related news, I got an email back from Comcast regarding my question on ESPNU. My inquiry was passed along to the marketing department, and did I know that there is a sports package that I could buy? Not that any of those channels would have helped me yesterday, either. I'm not sure that sort of answer is one they wanted to append a link to a customer service survey to, but I was happy to comment on the "helpfulness" of their canned response. I don't expect a reply.

Good early games on the road to the Frozen Four today. Maine took Minnesota to OT in Minneapolis, and Denver also had to go to an extra frame to knock out Bemidji State.

Not that I got to see either game.

No local cable - NESN, FSNE, or CN8 - carried either game. Now, if lived in college hockey hotbeds like Kansas City, Memphis, Tulsa, Wichita, or Mason City, Iowa, I'd have had some luck. But in suburban Boston, we don't get a game being played in our own state or one involving a Hockey East team.

Not helping is that Comcast hasn't added ESPNU to its offerings. It's not even available as part of their sports pack. Hopefully, other college hockey fans have sent along an email similar to my own, asking when it may join our lineup. Too late for this year, of course.

So the BU men's ice hockey season ended last night with a whimper rather than a bang (well, it was more like a whimper and a thud) by way of a 4-0 loss to North Dakota. If you saw the game on TV, take my word that it was worse in person. If you didn't watch the game, consider yourself lucky. Nothing worked for BU at any end of the ice, though their 0 for 10 on the power play especially stands out.

Last night was also the second - and hopefully last - appearance of the third jersey. They need to be encased in cement and sunk in the Charles.

The DCU Center (former the Centrum) is an OK place to see a game, though the NCAA component was odd. We got a lot of random clips of "exciting" moments from past championships - just not from hockey very much. We saw Notre Dame stay in the 2002 College World Series, Wake Forest win their second field hockey title in a row, and several basketball moments. We did see clips from 2001 (which we shall not speak of again) and 1996. I don't mind this, though they could have cut the number of clips in half and shown more hockey content.

I also know now the dates and locations of several NCAA championship events. Were I to be in Annapolis, College Station, Sacramento, or Houston over the next couple of months I'd make the trip. Note to Cooch: the NCAA team bowling final will be on ESPN2 in mid-April. Set your TiVo.

The BC-Mercyhurst game was much more fun, as a 5-4 final for BC would suggest. We knew something would be up when Mercyhurst scored on their first shot. Both teams looked like they were playing at three-quarters speed, while Mercyhurst's approach to defense was, shall we say, nonchalant? Still, they put forth a better performance than BU did. Erie should be proud.

In any event, if you're looking for 2 tickets to tonight's BC-North Dakota game, drop me a line.

As for the Frozen Four pool, only one person got all of yesterday's games right. He is, I think, also the most objective entrant of everyone given that UVa doesn't have hockey:

Hight - 8 points
Barker, Coen, Harper-Nixon, Sorenson - 6 points
Boggie, Bruce - 4 points

Only one person with a real bracket-busting loss; going with BU all the way was a bold choice for someone (not me!).

And after the serious post, more sports.

I've set up a group for ESPN's Baseball Challenge:

Group: Wait Until 2091
Password: fenway

What with the Schiavo case all over the place this past week, no time like the present to suggest to one and all that you set yourself up with a durable power of attorney for health care decisions.

Unlike a living will, the durable power of attorney designates someone to make medical decisions for you in the event that you can't. It also includes a section that, like a living will, allows you to make clear indications of what you want and don't want based on your assumed future condition and available treatment options.

The durable power of attorney does require a little more work than a living will. You'll have to have it witnessed and notarized and such, but doing this will help head off problems that could arise if you just filled out a living will and stuck it in a drawer.

NOTE: You should try to find a form specific for your state. A Google search with the terms "durable power of attorney," "health care," and your state's name should lead you to something useful. There are several sites that will try to sell you a form, though between your state bar and the helpful people at your local library, you should be able to find what you need at no cost.

(It should also be noted that nothing in this post should be construed as legal opinion or lawyerly advice. It's one guy [who is not giving you advice as a lawyer or with any guarantee of accuracy] putting out there for you to use as you see fit, as is, at your own risk.)

That being said, here are some decent links:

* The Missouri Bar offers a useful form and informational booklet, as well as a handy HIPAA waiver that will allow medical providers to discuss information with your designee.

* The University of Michigan provides this general form, as well as a link to the Michigan Bar's PDF version.

* This page from the Lifespan hospital network in Rhode Island also provides links to the proper forms and other information related to the topic.

Which of these is worse?

a. CBS is airing a movie tonight - in prime time! - called Spring Break Shark Attack.

b. At the end of the ad for Spring Break Shark Attack, there was a quick chomping sound.

c. Brian Brown and Kathy Baker have to stoop to starring in Spring Break Shark Attack.

d. They are all equally bad.

As promised, here's my Frozen Four pool for the year.

Go here to see the bracket (warning: a print window will also automatically pop up). You send to me your picks for each round through the finals. Points will be given on a 2-4-8-16 basis (2 points for picking a first round win, 4 for the second round, etc.).

Upset points will be granted throughout the tournament based on regional seeding. For example, if Mercyhurst topped Denver to win the national title (and you were crazy or drunk enough to call it), you'd get 19 points (16 for the correct pick, plus three bonus points for the difference in their regional seeds).

The regional seeding is helpfully provided at the bottom of the bracket page.

One entry per person, due by the 11:59:59 pm EST on Thursday, March 24.

I'm not sure which of my five brackets on ESPN.com's tournament challenge is my "real" one. I know it's not the one where I chose winners based on whose mascot would win in a fight (that's how I got the improbable Iowa State-Montana final). I suppose it'll be whichever one is doing the best right now.

There's actually little variance between three of them, separated by 20 points. I didn't pick too many of the upsets, mostly mild ones. I think UW-Milwaukee was the one I picked most consistently, while UAB got a nod at least once. I think the only place I got Vermont was the same place I got Bucknell, the aforementioned mascot bracket.

Speaking of mascots, the second intermission of tonight's BU-UNH Hockey East semifinal featured the mascots of the four semifinal teams in a hockey game against the five mascots of the non-semifinal teams. The non-semifinal team won 2-0. Some observations:

* The UMass minuteman has an unnatural grey pallor to his skin. It's like he's got an airway obstruction or some sort of constrictive lung ailment.

* The Merrimack warrior had a skin tone very similar to his helmet and uniform. I'm assuming he's a Roman legionary stationed in Judea or something. Added entertainment value here as the logo used to represent Merrimack on the video screens was their old one, the Native American rather than the generic ancient guy.

* The Providence friar was wearing a white robe. We figure he's actually come out of the closet (or perhaps shrub) as a Druid.

* The UMass-Lowell river hawk is actually more like a man-bird superhero. It has no wings, a cape, and a very tight-fitting costume.

Everyone else's mascot looked pretty normal, except that Northeastern's husky looks a little horse-like to me in the face.

Anyway, this was the most entertaining part of the game, as BU went down 5-2 to UNH. It was a 40 minute system failure for BU, who garnered all of three shots in the first period (somehow only going down 1-0), and not reaching the 10 shot plateau until there was just over a minute left in the second period. Nothing was working on any end of the ice, and our atrocious penalty killing (7th of 9 in Hockey East) was in full force.

Not sure it'll change too much in regards to the NCAAs, as long as other tournaments hold to form. But I assume we'll be playing in our road scarlet uniforms rather than home white. That may not be a bad thing, as long as they aren't the accursed third jerseys.

Rounding out my sports viewing of late was the opening hour or so of the steroids hearing yesterday. It made for thrilling TV, as the ranking members of the committee and subcommittee made pretty much the same speech four times. The committee chair did make some passing reference to not looking forward to nosebleed seats in the coming few years, which gave a sliver of credence to Tony Kornheiser's theory that the chairman called the hearing in retaliation for MLB not putting the Expos in northern Virginia, which includes the chair's district.

I got through about half of Jim Bunning's testimony before changing the channel. I flipped back a couple of times, but only for a few minutes before returning to sanity and turning back to basketball. I didn't see any of the "star" testimony, but I don't think I missed all that much. Besides, if Bonds wasn't there to blow up at various elected officials, the hearing was never going to be that much fun, anyway.

I'll also take a moment to plug Matt the Bruce's "March Mathness", where you assign what amounts to confidence points to any or all teams. I may be doing it a disservice by calling it "March Mathness," as it's not all that complex, but it does require that extra step beyond the usual BS analysis that 99.4 percent of us put into filling out brackets. Or, probably more accurately, the usual BS analysis that 100 percent of me puts into filling out brackets.

So while I will not be running my usual March Madness pool (though I will be running a Frozen Four pool once the bracket is set up on Sunday), I do have an ESPN.com Tournament Challenge group for one and all:

Name: Bracket Racket 2005
Password: madness

ESPN does give you five entries, so feel free to use one (or all) to join. Note that the group will lock when play begins, so you won't be able to move your entry to another group.

Apropos of having nothing to say, an update on the reality shows I watch. You missed them, I can tell.

On American Idol, the show has whittled its contestants down to the final 12, but with a hitch. One of the more popular contestants on the show quit due to some set of ill-defined personal reasons involving family matters. Of course, every yahoo with access to a two-bit message board is saying he's gay and didn't want to be outed.

Regardless, the show's change in format, where the 24 semifinalists competed every week rather than in groups over a month's time, actually went pretty well outside of throwing two and a half hours of programming at us a week. One problem was the gender-balancing of the contestant pool, as there was not equal talent in the men's and women's pools (this year in the men's favor).

I'm not going to get into the individual contestants, other than to note the greatest benefactor in this whole episode of a finalist quitting is the son of baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who was voted off in the last round of the semifinals. He had more votes than the other guy who got booted, so he was asked back to take the open spot.

The Apprentice and it's book smarts versus street smarts is proving one thing very clearly - it doesn't matter how much education you have, your ability to succeed pretty much directly correlates with how much of a jackass you are.

The tasks have mostly been marketing-related, coming up with a way to pitch a new Burger King sandwich or promote a new body wash (a task one team tried to win by making an ad combining the fondling of cucumbers and surprise gayness).

The contestants are more interesting than last time out, though with that level of "interesting" comes worrisome, call a mental health professional moments. Such as when one contestant walked off the task, wheeling her suitcase aimlessly along the streets of a Jersey seashore town. Or another contestant going into fugue state while recounting her hardscrabble upbringing.

Anyway, it's better than last season, if still ridiculously over-hyped. I'm looking forward to Martha Stewart taking over for a series, if for no other reason than in hopes that she'll shiv someone.

America's Next Top Model has started its fourth season, and it's pretty much the same as before. Young women do something requiring photography and are adjudged worthy or not of becoming a housemate on The Surreal Life sometime in 2007.

Off the bat, I did not like the way the show went from 35 to the 14 finalists in one show. Perhaps a two hour episode would have been better, if at least to give more background to contestants. It was pretty easy to tell who was going to make the finals given how many of the women who didn't basically had cameos in the episode.

If the show's idea of a creative shake-up is a move from New York to LA, it may be a long season. They've also seemingly gone the "interesting" route with casting, given the number of contestants with children (and even, occasionally, husbands).

Tyra Banks, true to not wanting to create a stereotype in casting a bitchy African-American, did so again this season, finding a young woman who managed to antagonize the folks running the first shoot and complain about her makeover (after complaining about not getting one as her look was adjudged to be sufficiently "fierce"). Yet she survived the first cut of the finals. Thankfully, there was a contestant over the age of 21 who had the gall to be a weight closer to most of humanity than the rest of the contestants.

Should this season unfold like all the ones before it, I hope they'll take the summer to come up with some changes. Reality requires some tweaking with format to keep things fresh, and they don't seem to have tweaked enough yet.

The Icedogs live for another week.

BU advanced to the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament by winning tonight's deciding game with PC by another 2-0 score. Goalie John Curry now hasn't given up a goal in just over 168 minutes of play (the last two full games and the time he was in net after PC's second goal on Friday; their other two were both empty netters). His shutout streak was mentioned twice tonight in the third period, yet such fate-tempting didn't lead to the expected Friars goal.

Tonight was less chippy while still physical. The most damaging hit of the night was on the referee, as he collided with a PC player that was coming out of the penalty box. The game continued without the ref for the rest of the period, with him returning for the start of the following one. Consensus among us at the game was that he got the arm he hurt good and numb, and he didn't move it all that much the rest of the night.

The Terriers move on to the semis, where they'll face UNH. Speaking of shutout streaks...

Good news tonight too for the men's hoops team. They made the NIT, and will travel to DC to take on Georgetown in the first round. Northeastern also got in, though they'll be making a longer trip to face off against Memphis. Holy Cross (for the locals who care) get to face off with intra-religion foes Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the winner of this game does not have a shot at the University of San Francisco or St. Joe's in the following round.

Things returned to normal at the Agganis Arena tonight, as the BU hockey team won a 2-0 decision over Providence to force a third game in their Hockey East quarterfinal match-up. Much better performance than last night, though PC was a lot chippier than you'd expect from the team with a one game advantage.

We're the only series going three games, as Maine and BC won their deciding games by 5-1 scores. For the record, the two "streaking" teams no one wanted to play wound up going 0-4 and got outscored 22-4 in the playoffs. Thanks for nothing, NU and Lowell.

On the down side, the BU women's hoops team lost the America East tournament final to Hartford, 52-50. Hartford won on their last shot, an 18 footer that hit the front of the rim and got a home bounce up and in. We got one last chance, but couldn't get off a decent try. So no repeat of 2003's tournament run from the eight seed, but a positive tournament nonetheless.

In another case of being careful about what you wish for, the BU hockey team lost to Providence 4-1 last night in the opening round of the Hockey East playoffs. This despite putting up over 50 shots on goal. Providence scored on two of their first three shots.

As you can imagine, it was not a game for the highlight reel.

And as for Northeastern and UMass-Lowell, the two teams no one wanted to play? NU was drummed out of the tournament by UNH, losing two games by a combined score of 10-1. Lowell, meanwhile, went up to Maine and got spanked in the first game 7-2.

UMass-Amherst almost did us a favor, but their 2-0 lead became a 2-2 tie to end regulation, and BC took it in OT. Damn.

On the plus side, the BU women's hoops team is making another improbable run at the America East title. After winning a play-in game to be the tournament's 8th seed, they knocked off top seed Maine, and beat Vermont last night to make the finals, where they'll play host Hartford. If the weather were going to be better, I'd have half a mind to sell my hockey tickets and drive down for the hoops.

Here's a new weather term for you all: thunder snow.

It is, simply enough, when you get a snow storm that also produced thunder and/or lightning. We had just such a system yesterday, as in the space of about six hours our temperature dropped by half and the rain turned snow (with a fun frozen rain period in the middle that gave everything a nice, Krispy Kreme-inspired glaze).

Should I be worried that a condition once so rare that Lewis Black called in sick for a gig (in Boston, interestingly) now has its own weather term?

As you can imagine, this was a fun storm to dig out from. Snow on top of ice, blown to various depths thanks to a wind that topped out with gusts around 50 mph. And to think we get to do it all again on Friday. Hopefully without the thunder.

Tonight marked the end of the season for two BU men's teams.

The hockey team wrapped up its regular season with a 3-2 at New Hampshire, locking up a tie for second place and the second seed in the Hockey East tournament. While that's a great result for a team not expected to do quite that well this year, it's a little frustrating when you look back and see opportunities lost during the season. Giving up leads to tie games at home against Lowell and UNH (the latter just this past Thursday). Only getting one point out of Northeastern the weekend before. Dropping both games to BC during that home and home series.

Still, better to play Providence in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs than either NU or Lowell, given how this season's gone.

The other team that wrapped things up tonight was the hoops team, as they dropped their opening round game in the America East playoffs to Maine. This is the second year in a row they've lost the opening round game. It may be something in the location, at least this year; they also lost their regular season finale at Binghamton, who is hosting the tournament first and semifinal rounds.

The hoops team winds up 20-8, which I hope will get them into the NIT. I'm not holding out too much hope, given that their best win of the year was their home victory over Vermont. They do have wins over URI, Fordham, Youngstown St., and Michigan, but none of those teams are over .500 (some dramatically so). We'll see.

It must be a sign of my growing comfort with the dentist that I didn't blog before going in to see him today, as if I were going off to war and needed to say that one last thing before shipping out.

It would also be a sign that I voluntarily took a second appointment today to get more work done to hasten the end of the never-ending root canal.

Our fun today was shaping the tooth (or what's left of it) and getting a temporary crown, with the second trip in to make a mold for the post. I didn't even use any Novacaine, which isn't that surprising when you remember that all the nerves for that tooth are long gone.

Not that it was painless. The dentist's assistant was using a tongue depressor to keep my tongue out of the way, and the end of it was jabbing into the back of my mouth something fierce. I had to get them to stop a couple of times even.

Thankfully, when I go back next week to get the post put in I'll be numbed up so I won't feel the jabbing. I actually get to go twice next week, too, as for some reason I have a cleaning scheduled the day before the post. Not that I'm doing all that much, I suppose.

TD Banknorth Garden.

Ugh.

For those of you who hadn't heard, the building formerly known as the FleetCenter is now the TD Banknorth Garden. As bad as the FleetCenter name was, with its connotations of colonic health, at least had a certain euphonic nature.

Now, you either have a mouthful or a pointless grab at nostalgia by folks who'll just call it "the Garden." Were this the first name we went with after losing the original Garden, then fine. There's continuity there. The FleetCenter interregnum makes the reversion to a Garden-inclusive name seem a little pointless. Inasmuch as there are people who never stopped calling the arena where the Bruins and Celtics play the Garden, there are others (like myself) who'll probably keep calling the new place the FleetCenter until we get more odd looks than not.

Don't mistake this for love of the FleetCenter name. But there was one Boston Garden. It was torn down, and the building that replaced it is not it. Regardless of who paid what to call it whatever. From my perspective, you could keep calling one of those one day names from the past month and it'd suit me fine. Heck, I think the Jimmy Fund Center is a much better name, given that it highlights a very worthwhile cause rather than someone who'll charge me $1.50 if I'm using their ATM with a non-native card.

The new building is generic, and the changing corporate names just reinforce the point. When I do finally stop calling it the FleetCenter, I'll probably just refer to it as Banknorth. That's the part of the name the bank would want me to remember, isn't it?

For the second time in two days, someone here in Beverly drove their car across railroad tracks and got hit by a train.

Yesterday, a Peabody woman got the rear end of her SUV taken off when she tried driving across the tracks. The gates and lights deployed a good 45 seconds before the accident (according to the story I read), but they didn't stop the woman because she was driving on the wrong side of the street.

Needless to say, she's facing a number of charges.

This morning, a guy had his Pontic turned 180 degrees when he didn't see the lights or hear the bells while driving over Beverly's only railroad crossing not to sport gates (it's on a private road; not surprisingly residents are very concerned about not having gates now). It's understandable that he wouldn't hear of see the warnings of an impending train: the driver is 87.

He's also a former secretary of the Air Force and NASA exec. I know, it's not rocket science, it's driving.

Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal!

Not sure what's been put in the water here recently (my guesses, given the accident stories: bourbon and Ambien, respectively), but it's an odd run of accidents. Keep your fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Interesting side note is that trains coming through Beverly don't sound their own horn at crossings. Apparently, Beverly has managed to trump whatever state and/or federal laws would require it. Train horns are kind of a hot button issue here; my hometown has had a citizen's committee set up (called HORN, which stands for something too cute by half that makes you want to slap whoever came up with it), with the main contention being that train noise lowers property values.

Because, you know, you might miss that there's a train running by your house.

Considering we've also had a fatality in recent months (boy on bike not seeing or hearing train, view obscured for some reason), perhaps the value of one's McMansion isn't the most important issue here.

I'm a little less understanding about the Pats cutting Troy Brown loose than I was regarding Ty Law. Age may be a concern, but given how versatile Brown is, the role he's played with the team, and his willingness to pass up bonus money in taking that role, it seems petty that the team would cut him loose. I know, I shouldn't be surprised at a front office making a cold-hearted business decision. And I suppose I'm not. I'm more disappointed.

As a free agent Brown could still return to the team, but I'm not counting on it. Then again, I could see Brown taking less and returning if the other offers aren't that much higher and are with less successful teams. He seems like a guy who would, after a fashion, value winning above more cash.

Even still, it's a pity I'm even talking about this.