When I started to write this blog, I used to abbreviate the names of my co-workers with random initials. However, this is awkward when reading and writing, so I decided to use pseudonyms. To better keep track of the names I have invented, here is the complete cast of people mentioned in this weblog.

Chicks

• Nadine: A friend of Zola. Not as fat as her. Tried to get me to bed once or twice. Good friend, but a little…. much at times.
• Zola: A fat, turkish chick who tried to pick me up at times. However, I have no interest in her.
• Wilma: A former girlfriend. Chinese-Malaysian.
• Dara: Old female friend of mine and former love interest. Hates men now and doesn’t want to be contacted. Ever.
• Min: A Korean friend. Purely platonic.
• Giselle: A friend from the Caribbean who once proposed to marry me.
• Nina: African chick that I had a HUGE crush on some years ago.
• Mariah: Ex-girlfriend, from an African fringe country. Lived in France and Brussels. Twice our pathes crossed – wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t all.
• Chanya: Chat-friend from Kenya. Would love to move to Germany, I guess.
• Bahati: African friend of mine. Known her for about five years now. She’s trying to get me to agree to a relationship ever since. She is smart, cute, sexy, funny and really, really nice. Unfortunately, also way too far away.
• Sako: Japanese woman who is in my Tuesday language class.
• Anya: Russian friend of mine.
• Kya: Best friend of my ex-girlfriend Mariah.
• Shakina: A girl from Ghana (but with German citizenship) whom I dated for a few weeks once before she disappeared without a trace for a couple of months.
• Carina: Female World-of-Warcraft geek from Norway.
• Sarah: Very pretty girl who lives on the Bahamas. Originally from Tobago.
• Yunru: Chinese girl who studies in Japan.
• Azizah: Malaysian Internet friend from several years ago.
• Samantha: A former girlfriend.
• Jessica: A friend from Kenya.

Chums

• Rover: Buddy of mine from Portugal, now Ireland.
• Lund: Long-time friend from my old hometown, IT freelancer and politically engaged leftist.
• Marcus: Friend of mine from back home, a fellow geek and an entrepeneur.
• Alfred:Friend of mine from the Netherlands.
• Mike:One of my best friends from my hometown.

Coworkers

• Alfred: Freelance contractor, windows-focussed
• Hans: Aka “co-worker H.” – Paperwork-coordinator, supposedly a technician, but has no clue what he’s doing when it comes to tech but good at negotiations. Big words, big life, big paycheck.
• Jane: Female co-worker. Project leader. Loud and very able to get others to do what she wants. If needed by shouting at them.
• Marianne: Totally incompetent woman in another team. Knocked up about once every two years.
• Paul: Aka “co-worker P.” – engineer like me. Very good at what he does, but can be an ass at times. Still my favorite co-worker though.
• Poldi: Team leader of our Hungarian operations team.
• Ingo: Employee working in our Hungarian operations team
• Gaby: Strong-willed project leader, originally from eastern Europe
• Sven: External co-worker who sits next to me in the office.
• Petra: Transgender technician. Used to be a guy, now is a girl. And it does show.
• Matthew: Young tech guy. Nice person, a little confused and likes to play the clown. Maybe a bit inexperienced. Likes to play Tetris on his PDA in team meetings.
• George: Contractor.
• Roger: Our new intern (autumn 2006).
• Alexandra: Our secretary. Easily one of the hottest chicks in the company. Charismatic. Friendly. Nice. And, unfortunately, not only out of my league but also married.
• Tom: New co-worker that we took over from a different department. See Mark.
• Mark: New co-worker that we took over from a different department. See Tom.
• John: Co-worker who killed himself in 2007.
• Andrew: Contractor. Always grinning in a really strange way. Also very obviously gay, not that this has anything to do with anything.
• Harry: Another contractor. A favorite of Gaby.
• Mr. Witts: Arch-enemy of our team; works in an application team in another city.