After some testing, though not as much as I was expecting, I've decided that my newest Carmeli isn't quite worthy of being my daily driver.

So I've gone back to my Scruggs. I love that cue.

Got the Carmeli today, as expected. The new wrap is awesome, and the cue is even more beautiful than it was.

Now begins the longish process of getting used to it enough to decide if it will be my new daily driver.

So far it's not looking good.

Got a call from Ariel Carmeli this morning. My cue is finally ready to be shipped back to me.

Backstory: I won a Carmeli cue in a raffle in January. I liked the cue just fine, and I ended up buying another Carmeli. Then I shipped the new cue to Carmeli to get the irish-linen wrap replaced with spanish-bull leather. That was in March.

And so now my cue is ready and should be shipped back to me this week. I figure I'll get it early next week.

(Talked to Ariel again. He shipped it overnight from California. So it might even arrive here Friday. That would be nice of it.)

Problem, is, I've really fallen in love with my Scruggs (won in another raffle) and I'm not sure I want to switch.

I fixed all the embedded videos, except for one that isn't on YouTube.

The things I do for you people.

Actually just trying to embed this YouTube video. My old ones are all broken.

Is this thing still working?

I see that my embedded videos no longer work, so that sucks.

Brief update on equipment plus an average game of practice one-pocket.

Clearly, I was bored.

I videoed a match of myself against myself in a race to 3 playing banks.

It seems like I just got done saying that I can't write about my practice sessions at stupid Jack's. But it was almost a month ago, so maybe you people forgot.

One of the guys I play is, by the standards of that place, pretty fucking good. I think he's the second best player in there. He probably thinks that I'm the second best player in there. He's wrong if he thinks that, but he's entitled to his opinion, and it's pretty close anyway.

We usually play one-pocket, breaker gives up 11-7. Most of the time, like maybe 80% of the time, that means that the non-breaker wins. It's a tough spot against an almost equal opponent.

I truly believe that, over that last several months, I have a slight winning percentage. Like maybe 55-45. Not much, but enough to be proud of against a good opponent.

Tonight, in one of the games, I managed to make a ball on the break, and then run 10 more balls to win the game. That's the best I've ever done off the break in competition, and that's the reason I'm bothering to write this entry.

So there.