Emoticons

Some people feel that textual communication is very limited, that it lacks a robust range of expression due to the difficulty of conveying such emotions as sarcasm, humor, anger and such. I for one do not believe this must be so. I'm sure you've heard such nuggets of information as "Facial expression and body language play important roles in communication" or some such at some point in your lives. True, text doesn't normally allow for these additional facets but here is where emoticons come in.

While most of you will think of something like this when I say emoticon: :-) The 'smiley' that started it all. I actually do not like what I call "sideways emoticons". Doesn't it feel a little odd to you reading this sentence horizontally and then an emoticon like this D< popping up?  That's an angry one, for you emoticon-illiterate types. As a result, my emoticon-ing exclusively deals with horizontal faces, save for this one: XP. The good old tongue sticking out emoticon does not have an easy horizontal equivalent and I'm not so blindly fanatical that I would ban myself from using it.

Bridging the gap between cold pixels and the person behind the keyboard, I present to you my personal favorite emoticons.

The happy

(^_^) (^ヮ^) (>ワ<) (≥ヮ≤) (º▽º) ( ' ◡ ' )

The angry

(ಠ▂ಠ)凸 (ಠ_ಠ) (òmó)9

The Y U No

(سಥ益ಥ)س

The shocked

(⊙Д⊙)

The sad

(ㅎ︿ㅎ) (。。__) (T﹏T) 囧興◄Is a turtle

The carefree

╮(╯ヮ╰)╭ ( ￣____￣ ) ( ^^.)~~♪ ♫

The approving

(O◡O)-b

The disapproving

(O︵O)-p

The suspicious

(⌐⌐__) (__¬¬)

The injured

(#▂><) (✖__%)

The undead

(FÒmó)F

The table-flip

(ノÒ_ó)ノ ╧╧"


The exasperated

(__´ゝ`)

The fop

_███_
(ಠ_ృ) <"Pish posh!"