Well, thanks; but I must say, any thanks should really lie with those inspirational smilies. I'm rarely that lucid on my own. Or cliched for that matter.
That post took a good few minutes to orchestrate; I almost wish I'd resisted the urge to click the 'More' button and see which other faces I had at my disposal...
Y'kno, personally, I find these smilies more intuitive; I certainly use them more. They're also very widely supported; and they degrade well : they'll look acceptable on any system with a screen really:
^_- wink
^_^ bigsmile
-_- leave me alone
O_o eh?
O_O OMG
>_> err...
>_< grr..
of course... they look optimum in Courier/System..