BUCS
University competitive pool — team event.
Beyond the Screen
A page about the things I spend time on when there isn’t an IDE open.
Pool & snooker
I spend a lot of time playing and practising cue sports, particularly English 8-ball. It isn’t something I only play socially — it’s an activity I’ve deliberately practised and worked at improving.
That includes university and competitive play — BUCS and Southern 8-ball competition.
Southern 8-ball
Regional 8-ball competition.
What I enjoy about it:
Geometry
Precision
Planning several shots ahead
Consistency
Decision-making
Managing risk
Concentration
Performing under pressure
There’s a contrast with programming worth noting: software usually
lets you undo something, rerun it, or debug it. In pool, once the cue
ball leaves the cue, the decision has already been made.
My pool story, in the form of a book
Take a Break (And Break the Pack) is a short book about mental health, told through pool. It came out of the same habit as the rest of this page, pointed at something more personal.
View on AmazonPrecision, strategy, small improvements
The appeal is the mix of geometry and nerve — reading the table, committing to a line, and getting a little more consistent each time. Progress is incremental and mostly quiet, which suits me.
Currently pulling my attention
The English Open
England's Ali Carter won the English Snooker Open in style with a 9-6 victory over Mark Williams in front of his home support in Brentwood.
GPT-6 Astra
I have seen this model do crazy things. Only time will tell what's next.
Internship season
Internship season is about to start getting hectic. Calm before the storm.
Crypto
The rise of meme coins has proved to be an immense double-edged sword. I'm checking out the hype.
Graduate Programs
Most graduate programs are opening, and I am currently working on applying to some of the best institutions on the planet. Wish me luck!
This years BUCS 8-ball
Kings did not participate in 2026's BUCS 8-ball tournament. Such a shame. This year, I am planning to change the scene.
Things I’ve built for no real reason
Outside of formal work I like poking at ideas to find out whether they can actually be made to work. Some of that has turned into small products — Cuey and Rackem, both of which came out of the pool habit — and a lot of it stays as half-finished prototypes, which is fine.
Cuey
A small experiment that grew out of playing too much pool.
Rackem
Another one — same habit, different itch to scratch.
Assorted prototypes
Things started because I wanted to know if they’d work.
Right now
- Playing
- English 8-ball — working on positional play.
- Reading
- Large Language Models — Stephan Raaijmakers
- Learning
- Efficient token usage in Claude Code and Codex
- Building
- The first version of Renovate's iOS application
- Thinking about
- OpenAI's involvement in the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem