Wesley Sinks on wesleysinks.comhttps://wesleysinks.com/Recent content on Wesley Sinks by wesleysinks.comHugo -- gohugo.ioen-USTue, 21 Jul 2026 18:03:12 +0000E-Primehttps://wesleysinks.com/til/e-prime/Tue, 21 Jul 2026 18:03:12 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/e-prime/TILWriters who employ E-Prime avoid all forms of the verb “to be”, including be, being, been, am, is, are, was, were along with their positive and negative contractions (isn’t, we’re, etc.) Proponents of E-Prime suggest that its use can strengthen writing and clarify thinking. Chiefly, writing in passive voice using E-Prime becomes quite difficult.Goofy Mantrashttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/goofy-mantras/Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:43:55 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/goofy-mantras/Blog PostI’ve spent years dabbling in the kinds of things that make you sound a little unhinged at dinner parties: mindfulness, affirmations, sigils, orgonite — the whole hippie-nerd crossover catalogue. I’ve gotten real benefit from some of it and had a good laugh at the rest. But one simple practice stands out: a daily mantra I say to myself. It doesn’t sound profound. It lacks polish. It feels a little goofy. And those qualities makes it work.Building for the Webhttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/building-for-the-web/Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:51:11 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/building-for-the-web/Blog PostI have spent thirteen years building for the web, and most of that time I have not known what I was doing. The useful thing I learned wasn’t how to stop feeling that way — it was how to stop pretending I didn’t.Flow Disruptors: How Dreams and Daily Choices Reveal What Mattershttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/flow-disruptors/Mon, 29 Jun 2026 20:15:37 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/flow-disruptors/Blog PostDreams can be a window into our deepest feelings, helping us make sense of what lies beneath the surface. But sometimes, they also reveal the hidden distractions that pull us off course in life. Reflecting on my dreams from last night, I’ve decided to call these distractions “flow disruptors.” (No, not the medical devices.)Wordpress 7 Gallery Lightbox Breaks Bootscore-Based Themeshttps://wesleysinks.com/til/wordpress-7-gallery-breaks-bootscore-based-themes/Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:39:47 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/wordpress-7-gallery-breaks-bootscore-based-themes/TILThe new gallery lightbox navigation↗ added in WordPress 7 is super cool! However, when a lightbox is opened in WordPress 7, it adds the inert attribute to all direct children of the <body> element. At UF, we used a Bootscore-based WordPress theme (a boilerplate Bootstrap CSS enabled theme), which wraps the site content in a <div id="page" class="site"> (see header.php↗), causing the entire site to go “inert” when the gallery lightbox is opened–not ideal.Gravity Forms Image Aspect Ratio Validationhttps://wesleysinks.com/til/gravity-forms-aspect-ratio-validation/Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:16:42 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/gravity-forms-aspect-ratio-validation/TILDespite giving very specific instructions, sometimes users don’t follow them. By default, Gravity Forms does not offer image aspect ratio validation on a file input field, so I had my n8n WordPress code chat agent generate this. I have not tried using the code, and this was for a specific form, so it would need to be modified and tested before use.2026https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2026/Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2026/Archivewinget: A Native CLI Package Manager for Windowshttps://wesleysinks.com/til/winget/Sat, 25 Oct 2025 13:10:02 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/winget/TILBeing a Linux-lord, I’m probably late to the party, but WinGet is the commandline utility for Windows (introduced in Windows 10) to install and manage packages, similar to a Linux or Unix environment. This makes Windows vastly more useable for developers. Here are some of the main commands that might be useful when working with winget. I used this tool today to upgrade my version of Windows PowerToys.Extract Last Names (Full Name with Suffix)https://wesleysinks.com/til/extract-last-names/Sat, 04 Oct 2025 20:58:06 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/extract-last-names/TILSome last names in our directory of faculty end with suffixes. This adds a level of complexity to extracting and sorting by last name without a custom field. A custom JavaScript function could be constructed to handle this, provided you know all the possible suffix variations.Modern Methods of Showing or Hiding HTML Elements with JavaScripthttps://wesleysinks.com/til/modern-methods-of-showing-or-hiding-elements/Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:52:23 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/modern-methods-of-showing-or-hiding-elements/TILDifferent options available to show and hide HTML elements using JavaScript in 2025, including my preference.Customizing a code-server Docker Imagehttps://wesleysinks.com/til/customizing-a-code-server-docker-image/Wed, 06 Aug 2025 20:30:55 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/customizing-a-code-server-docker-image/TILThe Problem: code-server docker container comes with 0 binaries, so you have to set it up to your specific needs in a Dockerfile to include the binaries and packages you need for development assuming you’re using the built-in terminal and proxied port forwarding, etc. The Solution: Write a Dockerfile.Hugo Content Adaptershttps://wesleysinks.com/til/hugo-content-adapters/Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/til/hugo-content-adapters/TILI read briefly about content adapters↗ for HUGO today. This is an exciting way to pull in data from a remote source in JSON or XML format and cache it on a site build. This could be a handy way of grabbing data from other sources and providing a really easy directory. I am not sure how I would use this just yet, but it could, for instance, replace the video section of LinuxCreative.com↗.Starting a TILhttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/starting-a-til/Tue, 05 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/starting-a-til/Blog PostWhile thinking about moving Soloist Systems to a personal blog, I came back around to the idea of the digital garden, a personal online space, similar to a blog, but with a focus on the ongoing, iterative process of learning and knowledge building. I want to leverage the way I have been using LogSeq to save personal notes about technologies and philosophy in a way that I can share to benefit others.2025https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2025/Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2025/ArchiveBrand Awareness: Stop Wasting Money and Time on Failurehttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/brand-awareness-stop-wasting-money/Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:45:27 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/brand-awareness-stop-wasting-money/Blog PostWe need to talk about how you’ve been justifying your marketing budget. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but if your brand awareness campaign isn’t converting, you aren’t accomplishing your marketing goals. Sure, there are companies that can afford to inundate the public with their brand, but I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, you don’t have that kind of budget.Competitive Analysis: The Wrong Anglehttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/competitive-analysis-the-wrong-angle/Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:04:40 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/competitive-analysis-the-wrong-angle/Blog PostThe longer I conduct business, the more obvious it seems that running a business is not, in fact, a competition. And if business is not a competition, competitive analysis is rendered an utterly pointless pastime of the entrepreneur.Creativity Matters: Today's Urgent Need for Meaningful Contenthttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/creativity-matters/Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:04:10 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/creativity-matters/Blog PostIt goes without saying that technological advance and modern conveniences have changed the way we live dramatically in the past couple decades. With so much of our capacity for creativity now freed up by these conveniences, it would be logical to conclude that society is capable of more creativity than ever. Unfortunately, logic has no horse in the race when it comes to creativity. Therefore, creativity is still a relative rarity. Take it from me, a self-proclaimed creative, professional marketer, and musician since age 9. What you’re looking at might not be “creativity”.2024https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2024/Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2024/ArchiveThe Deceitful Difficulty of Simplicityhttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/the-deceitful-difficulty-of-simplicity/Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:57:26 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/the-deceitful-difficulty-of-simplicity/Blog PostAs a creative problem solver by trade, the golden goose I find myself chasing time and time again is a simple elegant solution that seems so obvious, it’s surprising that nobody thought of it first. I’m a creative person: I know this because people have told me so my whole life. So why is this simple, elegant solution I seek so impossibly unattainable? The answer is perspective and time.Do You Need a Website?https://wesleysinks.com/blog/do-you-need-a-website/Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:48:52 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/do-you-need-a-website/Blog PostDo you need a website? Of course you don’t need a website. You need 2 things in business: something to sell, and someone to sell it to. Chances are if you’re reading this, you already have a bit of both, but if you’re just starting out, here’s what that means:Marketing: Moving the Needle is Not Your Jobhttps://wesleysinks.com/blog/moving-the-needle-is-not-your-job/Wed, 20 Dec 2023 23:28:53 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/blog/moving-the-needle-is-not-your-job/Blog Post The Role of Marketers as Scribes # As a marketer, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you have the power to single-handedly propel a product or service to success, a.k.a “move the needle” if you’ve been talking with business executives. However, a seasoned marketer knows that this perspective can be misleading, and downright dangerous. The key to effective marketing lies in understanding that products and customers tell the story, while the most skilled marketers invest in understanding and documenting that story to engage with others.2023https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2023/Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://wesleysinks.com/archive/2023/Archive