ok, i'm sure i'll only be earning my geekyness moreso by defending this, but who cares. First, it's not just the movies, it's the books. Second, i'm not learning the language, just copying the alphabet that is used (for several languages, actually) over the english equivalent keys (though i am learning some of how the alphabet works WRT vowels and stuff). as said above, modding is geeky. spiderman is geeky. hl2 is geeky. i don't see you spamming other threads with how geeky they are.
it is, however, a phonetic language and an english mode has been developed (see the transcriber linked in my project log) such that only a few letters aren't from the original alphabet. for example, the tengwa for X is K and S combined, which makes sense because the sound is similar. besides, i can touch type well enough that the only keys to really trip me up will be numbers and the symbols above them. the only time the letters will be confusing is probably in photoshop or games with shortcuts, but i'll live
And to further the geekiness... Elvish wasn't just used in the books and movies. Remember that Tolkien was a professor of English at Oxford, and counted among his hobbies such things as language study. He not only used Elvish for his story, but he developed the language as a whole. It isn't quite as complete as, say, English or French, but is developed enough that anyone could take the time to study it enough to hold a conversation. Tolken was, in short, a master linguist. Depsite the fact that the Tengwar alphabet was developed for a finctional story, it is legitimate enough for a fan to use on a keyboard. As PsychoI3oy stated, Tengwar is a phonetic alphabet, just like any other alphabet in the world, our own included. I think it's a great idea -monkey
On the idea of refiling a cartridge, i tried that with glow in the dark stuff, and watering it down makes the problem worse. it doesn't work well.
heh, if i still had my wife's old crappy hp printer i'd be tempted to try stuff, but as it is I don't want to find my barely-a-year-old $100 epson printer spewing assorted gold inks all over itself because I did something stupid. The other problem is that the gold paint pen i'm using is permanent and not waterbased, so i'd have to dismantle the printer and clean it all out with paint thinner after printing up my decals. anywho, the tengwar on the keyboard is all but done, i repainted the black on a handfull of keys and will be redoing the lettering on those, then reassembling everything. I changed the LEDs, a pair of (really frickin bright) white 5mm ones from the shack of radios (only a little filing necesary to make it fit) and a pair of 3mm (not so bright) bl00 LEDs from an antec fan. Should look quite good. the mouse is itching for it's mod (other than the bl00 led already in it) which i might do this weekend.
thanks to all that voted for tengwar, i finished it http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=626737#post626737 don't bother voting, it's really a moot point now
