I've had face-to-face encounters with three other [CK]arsten's ('K' is the usual German spelling, 'C' is more typically Danish). I realize that this is pretty boring for a lot of you with "normal" names, but it's always been an interesting diversion for me.

The first was while working at the UC Santa Barbara library, wearing a nametag labeled 'Amy' (I hate nametags, picking a female tag seemed less likely to falsely incriminate anyone). A very German-accented patron said "that's not your real name". I replied that it wasn't, "my name is Karsten". His jaw dropped. Number two was a response to a housing add "hi, Karsten, this is Karsten" said the voice on the phone. "Hi," I said, bored. He was crushed. The third time was the charm -- traffic school (not my fault, honest <g>). At the beginning of the class, everyone relates their name and life of crime . Guy before me has a familiar name. I start "this is a little unusual, but my name is also..." I've heard of worse traffic school experiences -- this was not too bad.

So, if your name is Karsten Self, and this page doesn't look familiar, you're probably me with a bad case of amnesia.