Emoticons

These clever little pictures, made from conventional symbols could be considered a sub-genre of text speak, or an art form in themselves.  Even emoticons are subject to the vagaries of nationality - Western emoticons need to be looked at with the head tilted to the left, while the Japanese use emoticoms that can be viewed straight on:

:D
implies great joy

:-(
implies the opposite

:-)
to remind you that something is a joke

:-/
means the sender is sceptical about something

;-)
a nudge-nudge-style wink, meant to soften the impact

B-)
wearing designer sunglasses and therefore cool

8-l
wearing nerdy glasses and therefore uncool

(:3=
is to suggest that the sender is a walrus

@-_-@
Japanese emoticon for Star Wars Princess Leia

<o)))><
Japanese emoticon for a goldfish

Here's a full list from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons