Emoticon

Emoticons or "smilies", are textual context tools for indicating moods or expressions in email, irc, instant messenger, or other real-time chat communications. Their use is particularly helpful when trying to convey an idea by sarcasm, laughter, cynicism, or any other mood that relies on auditory voice inflextions to indicate their presence.

List of "basic" emoticons

Laughing:	:D, =D
Crying:	;(, =`(
Smiling: (or happy)	:), =), :]
Surprised:	:O, :o, =O
Confused:(or tongue-tied)	:S, =S
Frowning, or sad:	:(, =(
Extremely sad:	:<, :[
Kisses:	:*, :-*, =*
Silent (or mute):	:#, =#
Sneaky/tricky (derived from anime as in the "sneaky cat" face):	:3, =3
"Giving the raspberry":	:P, =P
Sarcastic or jokingly "giving the raspberry"	;P, ;-P
Anger or disappointment:	>:(, >:|
Very angry:	>X-(

Style variations

Emoticons can be made using the entire range of the ASCII character set, granting quite a number of variations of theme. For example, if a user wears glasses he or she may substitute an 8 for the "eyes": 8). Certain other facial features are also optional: hair (e.g. @:-) ), the nose ( :-) vs. :) ), or any feature above or below the mouth ( :-)~, indicates that someone might be "drooling").

Advanced Emoticons

Big Cheesy Grin Smiley	{:-D
Don King	===:-D