Formant Blog

My friends! Full-Stack, Admin-App Blog post Success!!

May 19, 2025

I've officially launched the Formant Admin App, a personal tool built with React Native to manage blog updates, media posts, and future features directly from my phone. No more relying on third-party platforms or being locked out of my own content. This app is the first step toward building a complete backend ecosystem for formant.ca. I'm aiming to make content management smoother, faster, and completely my own. More to come soon, including image uploads, post scheduling, and cross-platform integrations. This is just the beginning! Formant.

The Website Just Got a Major Upgrade – Now Running on Firebase

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

I've recently finished migrating the entire website to Firebase, and it's already opening up new possibilities, like this blog! With Firebase under the hood, I can now build faster, more dynamic features across the site. This blog is just the first step, there's a lot more on the way as I continue evolving the platform. Stay tuned for updates, dev logs, behind-the-scenes notes, and experimental stuff I'm working on. It's all happening here.

Finally, Some Relief! My Hip, FAI, and the Cortisone That Helped Me Walk Again

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

After months, honestly years, of bouncing between specialists, MRIs, and vague diagnoses, I finally got some real relief. For a long time, I’ve been dealing with chronic pain in my hip and leg. It got to the point where walking felt like dragging a dead limb around. I was told different things by different people, but one diagnosis that always made sense to me was femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). It was first confirmed by a sports medicine doctor back when I was in Calgary, but more recent doctors seemed to brush it off. After pushing through, I was finally referred to another sports medicine clinic where the doctor actually listened. He didn’t dismiss my past scans or symptoms. Instead, he took action and gave me a cortisone injection right in the joint. The relief was immediate. For the first time in what felt like forever, I could move without grinding pain. My hip didn’t feel like it was catching every time I tried to sit, stand, or walk. It’s not a cure. I know that. But it’s the first step in what I hope is a more stable path forward.

Now, I’m waiting for an MRA (magnetic resonance arthrogram) to get a clearer picture of what’s happening inside the joint. That should finally confirm the real damage and help guide the next steps. Whether it’s physical therapy, more targeted injections, or eventually surgery, I just want a plan that gets me back to strength, especially while this cortisone window is open and I’m not constantly fighting pain. If you’re reading this and dealing with similar issues, don’t give up. I’ve gone through six doctors to get here. Advocate for yourself. Keep records. Push for the imaging. And when something works, even if it’s temporary, take the opportunity to build momentum. This post is a thank you to the specialists who didn’t dismiss me. And a reminder that healing isn’t always linear, but it’s possible. Tyler/Formant

Testing, testing!!!

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

Ayye!! Stoked to be back on the app again. Quick progress update from the Formant studio! The mobile app is steadily coming together. I’ve finalized most of the frontend structure and connected it to Firebase for real-time updates and authentication. The goal is to centralize all my games, music, and blog posts in one place, with daily login perks and a smoother experience across devices. Next steps: refining the UI/UX, adding a live leaderboard for Hemi’s Chicken Hunt, and starting internal testing. Launch is inching closer — thanks for following along! Stay tuned, Tyler Johnston-Kent / Formant

I wish people understood what I have built.

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

So it seems a lot of people are under the impression what I have built is simple or not what it is. I really would dare anyone with my level of educational background on paper, create what I have created here in 6 weeks. A fully contained and cloud managed firebase blog, that is managed from my own self designed plugin using React Native. I believe people charge roughly anywhere from 500–3000 USD for services like mine. This isn’t a SquareSpace or Wix website. I have control of everything that happens here. A pretty astronomical level work for a single individual. I hope some day people will be more understanding of what I have created. On paper I have no education. No degree. No certificates for software. That’s not an easy feat for most people in my situation. Tyler Johnston-Kent / Formant

The absolute worst blogger 🤣

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

Hello! So friends, whoever actually lurks the page and checks up on me. I am finally healing. Cortisone shot has gotten me moving finally and I can feel it, another 2 weeks and I should finally be free of my cane!!!! That is something great to finally believe in again, that I can actually snowboard in the future. Life has taken a turn for the better. My partner and I have just gone on a long drive to my reservation, Sagkeeng today to see how it is. The fires up north have completely smogged the area. I hope everyone was able to evacuate safely and the fire bros are doing well and keeping cool. I saw something today, or felt it. My home is some of the most beautiful land in the world. The potential for a place such as that, is limitless. In the future I am hoping my services can be used to, establish infrastructure online as well as locally, to bring more business and wealth to the community when the times come. There is so much to be done and such little time to do it. I hope to finish my educational career and do good work in the future. I feel it's time to get to work on that front. In other news, got into some weird argument on LinkedIn with some PlayStation publishing veteran, guy blocked me of course. 🤣 I have a lot of plans that I will be updating on the page here in a bit, including adding my project portfolio to the work lists and modals, fix up the games in the game section there, as well as update the blog here. There is the other thing I must do, ads. You can block em I don’t really care, but when the ads come, 🫶 goodby plz. Any support in that regard, hand hearts to everyone. I don’t like asking for anything really so this would help when the time comes. I appreciate anyone who enjoys and follows my work. Tyler / Formant

Mount Royal University's Institutional Failures: An Indigenous Student’s Experience

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

Since 2016, I've been trapped in a relentless cycle of neglect and bureaucratic erasure at Mount Royal University. What started as clerical mishaps turned into years of dismissed credits, missed opportunities, and silence from the very people who were supposed to help. The Iniskim Centre, meant to support Indigenous students, offered nothing when it counted. And Steve Kootenay-Jobin, who was MRU's Housing Director and is now at SAIT, chose to block me instead of acknowledging what happened.

Nearly a decade later, I’m making their failures impossible to ignore. I’ve documented everything at formant.ca/MRU-staff-in-trouble — including how the Iniskim Centre ignored their own mandate:
MRU Iniskim Centre Mandate

And the same Steve Kootenay-Jobin now works at SAIT:
SAIT Directory – Steve Kootenay-Jobin

I built my own platform, earned grants, and refused to be erased. This isn’t just my story — it’s a call to hold broken systems accountable.

They got my email!!

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

So I sent a mass email to the staff directory of Mount Royal University the other day, just to make sure my message actually got seen. Wasn’t sure if it went through or if it just got filtered out somewhere. Then today, someone on Reddit straight up asked, “Are you the dude who mass emailed almost the entire staff directory?” I replied, “Yup lol. Glad to know that it was actually sent out.” That’s all the confirmation I needed. Even if they’re ignoring it now, at least I know it reached them.

Idk what to say MRU..

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

If anyone affiliated with Mount Royal University is currently scanning my website for vulnerabilities, please understand: I have the logs. My Cloudflare and Firebase services are actively tracking all suspicious activity, including repeated access to JavaScript function paths, IP metadata, and high-frequency requests that match automated scanning behavior. If this is being done in retaliation for my public reporting or whistleblowing efforts, it could constitute targeted harassment or an abuse of institutional power.

This platform exists to document and expose what happened, and is still happening, to me as an Indigenous student and advocate. Attempting to silence or undermine that through covert technical interference only strengthens my case. I’m not intimidated. I’m documenting everything.

27 attacks mitigated over the past few days

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

So guess what, weirdos? There's been so much VPN and bot activity on my website, you actually crashed my Cloudflare account. And that’s never happened before. I’ve hosted formant.ca with the same setup since around 2015 — no issues, no major spikes. On a good day, I’d get 10–20 visitors max. But after emailing MRU staff and sharing my story publicly? Nearly 200 users a day. Almost 100,000 requests. 69% of it cached — meaning people are obsessively revisiting the same content.

This isn’t organic traffic. It’s TOR, VPNs, incognito — the whole cloak-and-dagger routine. But here’s the thing: Incognito isn’t invisible, and VPNs don’t erase patterns. Cloudflare now reports 27 active attacks blocked — after years of showing zero. There’s nothing to hack here. It’s a static HTML site. If you want something taken down, take me to court. But with a week’s worth of logs showing digital harassment and probing attempts, that’s going to be a hard sell.

Go check it out, https://formant.ca/MRU-staff-in-trouble
Tyler Johnston-Kent / formant

MRU Denies any accountability for the issues in their halls.

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

Chris Rogerson Chris Rogerson, Ed.D. Associate Vice-President - Student Experience and Success crogerson@mtroyal.ca | 403.440.8895 office

So this guy has sent an email stating that my “grievances” were too long ago and I am unable to report the situation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand or want to recognize the fact that he responded, the school responded, and tried to deny the facts, instead of maintain any accountability.

It’s just sad to see an entire school’s faculty deny this happening to a student. We have the records and I have come back to the people who’ve paid for everything and I don’t believe this will be flying. If all that stuff works out the way you wanted, sure. But unfortunately you also tried to deny me my right to communicate with accessibility services knowing I’m neurodivergent.

That’s a new different set of human rights issues you just opened up and directly admitted to in your emails. That thing you just did is actually what’s considered, legally actionable now. And we have you doing it through email so you can’t deny your actions here. Once I confirm a few funding options available you’ll see how you’ve really made a bunch of awful decisions defending institutional racism.

Tyler Johnston-Kent / Formant

Blogs pretty bare, hey?!

By Tyler Johnston-Kent

So, sheeit guys. This blog system is pretty bare. I should probably bring it to a solid level. It needs picture and video support, and maybe live streaming. I am sitting here in the yard, wondering what I could do to make it better. There are lots of options, but the simplest features like, pictures, and social media sharing, are probably where I should be taking it too next.

Also, game development program at Red River college, I was technically selected (Portfolio ranked 10th) but they pushed me out of the program due to some unexplained international student which reduced the seats from 10, to 9. It raises some concerns. Go check out my portfolio submission at https://formant.ca/rrc-submission

So according to them, I guess every prospective student makes their own full stack applications and web systems. Tom Lepp, some media director and chair seat said that to me on the phone. I don’t really believe what they say on that, I’ve even gotten confirmation from another applicant their portfolio was nowhere near the complexity level so, there is obviously a bias the school is not discussing with the public.

But my work’s all public there for the world to see. Check it out and let me know what you think!! Tyler Johnston-Kent / Formant