No Texting

TigerBlog didn't send a single text message yesterday. Not one.

Is this unique for him? He's pretty sure the last time he went an entire day without sending a text was in 2012, when he was in Costa Rica with the men's lacrosse team and didn't have reception for two days. It's possible he didn't this past summer when his phone got wet, though he thinks he could still text, just not make calls. It could have been the other way around though.

Texting is TB's preferred method of communication. Quick. To the point. No wasted time.

The problem with texting is that there is no context other than the words themselves. There's no delivery. No facial expression. It's easy to confuse the true meaning from the imagined, especially if the message has a tinge of sarcasm, something TB has been known to employ from time to time.

TigerBlog remembers the first time he ever got a text message. It was back in the fall of 2003 - don't ask him how he remembers stuff like this - and he got this strange icon on his flip phone. It took him a few minutes to figure out what it was.

He has no idea how many texts he's sent in his life. It's a lot, he assumes.

For some reason, he decided not to do it yesterday.

If he did, his first one would have been to Craig Sachson, his OAC colleague, and would have said something like "at least the Giants have more wins than the Sixers." He's pretty sure the back-and-forth would have eventually made its way back to "who will win more this season."

Then he would have texted another OAC colleague, Ben Badua, to see how his trip to Cancun with the women's basketball team went.

TB can imagine the answer. The Tigers went 3-0 in Mexico, with three relatively dominating wins over Wake Forest, Montana and Charlotte. Princeton is now 7-0 on the season, which is amazing for a few things.

First, Princeton has already played seven games. It used to be - not that long ago - that college basketball season began on Dec. 1. Now? Princeton played seven games in November.

Second, Princeton has never been 7-0 before. Princeton had been 6-0 three times prior to this. The 2014-15 Tigers are now 7-0, with six of the seven wins having come by at least 16 points (and four coming by exactly 16 or 17).

Princeton has four players averaging in double figures, with three between 10 and 11 (Michelle Miller, Alex Wheatley, Annie Tarakchian) and a fourth (Blake Dietrick) with 12.1. That's great balance.

So that would have possibly been a text.

Okay, and TB did cheat just a bit. He would have texted Yariv Amir, a different colleague, but he emailed him instead. Still, he sent no texts.

He did tweet a picture.

It was one of Kevin Lowe, the all-time leading scorer in Princeton men's lacrosse history with 247 career points.

It was one of the many pictures that the OAC has been tweeting in the last week. These pictures have ranged from the very, very old to the very, very recent, and they've helped trace the athletic history of Princeton.

The intercollegiate athletic program here turned 150 recently, and the pictures have been part of that. They've also been part of the lead up to tomorrow, when Princeton has its Tiger Athletic Give Day, as part of the 150th celebration.

Tiger Athletic Give Day - it has its own website - begins at midnight Eastern time tonight and runs for 24 hours. There are contests among Princeton's Friends' groups to see who can get the most donors, as well as challenges to reach a total number of overall donors.

TigerBlog has been amazed by the response to the pictures that have been tweeted. They have drawn numerous retweets and favorites and even responses, something that most @putigers tweets do not.

The trivia questions that TB tweeted drew all kinds of guesses, something that TB might not have, well, guessed.

The response to all of it has been so good that it will be continuing after the give day. It seems like there's a market for it.

First things first, though. Give day.

Midnight to midnight.

Text your friends.