Jef·frey Har·gar·ten

noun

1. a data journalist standing on the intersection of news, coding, and design with deep interests in elections, criminal justice and cybersecurity.

2. a freelancer with very reasonable rates available for hire on design and web development projects. Send inquiries.

3. someone seeking a career where reporting, writing, data and coding skills can be used to promote an informed citizenry, as currently exists as a data-driven journalist for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

So you’re here. Okay.

If you’re perusing through this disconnected mess of content, it’s very possible you may want to know more about who put it together.

For some ungodly reason, if that describes you, then I’ll give you enough to go on so more of your precious seconds on Earth aren’t completely wasted clicking around aimlessly through this labyrinth of subpar creativity. Then maybe you can get back to doing something more productive, like sleeping or streaming shows.

I’m Frey. Some call me that, others call me Jeff, particularly if they work in or read the news. Others call me Jeffrey, but those people are related to me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

I’m someone who has the urge to create. That doesn’t mean that I’m a good creator, or even necessarily creative – just that I make things.

The things I make cross a broad swathe of different mediums and subject matter.

As a journalist working in the mainstream media, I report, write and visualize data-driven news and information. I do this because I get paid for it (I also enjoy it, but money matters too).

As an artist, my focus is on drawing, digital painting, writing scifi/fantasy and cobbling various noises together into some resembling music, I guess. I have no idea what I’m doing with any of that, but I keep doing it, maybe in hopes that I’ll strike on something genius sometime. Not really expecting that, but I’m also not quitting anytime soon.

My brain is full of thoughts and a lot of them are pretty stupid or irrelevant, but if I don’t write them down my mind feels like it’s being consumed by flames, and that is very distracting. It seems that screaming them into the digital void relieves the pressure.

I’m also way too interested in how life works, particularly my life, because that’s the only one I’ve got, so I analyze the unholy hell out of it. So there’s lots of self-anthropological analysis of what things I do, where and when (notice the glaring omission as to why because I have no clue).

One of those things is travel. We only know of one place in the universe where there’s life (so far). At the moment, we’re pretty special, at least until that inevitable moment we find the billions of other intelligent species from far-flung worlds that are better than us. In the meantime, I’ll try to trek every inch of this blue and green rock before we manage to destroy it and become refugees on Mars.

Also, I operate in Minneapolis. This cold little city is fine as a base of operations, for now.

If you need to get ahold of me, there’s literally nothing to stop you from harassing me on nearly every digital platform currently in existence. Pick one and try to make it interesting.

God, this was stupid. But then again, most things are.

Anyway, I hope you’ve at least found some diamonds in all this desolation.

Good luck,

-Frey Hargarten

everything

Frey Hargarten 2019