Die smiley, die!

[al_Alamm]

Maybe it's just me, but these smilies are really annoying
They're too cute and retarded for a board like this, or is it some kind of ironic message?

Come on, just look at this dude:


Don't you just want to punish him for merely existing?
I most certainly do

[Spotbowserfido2]

Pardon my impudence, but this one is really impudent:

Three wags of my expressionless tail,
Rover

[Dr. Bantham]

I used to detest smilies and dismiss them as trite rubbish. When I first ported TLO to an interactive board, I recall that I used skulls - thinking of them as more appropriate. But then I realized that they glared back at me with an awkward contrivance that stung like a gaudy tattoo. Considering the broad range of expression within this site, from dry humor to stark despair - and often within the same post, I'll have to say that I must rely on them as cues to inflection and intent at times. If you see them enough, they become translational masks that smudge out an existence in much the same mode as an exclamation point or question mark. They have their purpose. Besides, I think the square smilies I selected have their own sinister bend in the end. If you look close enough, you might find that they mock the very emotion they convey. Which makes me wonder - should switch all of the smilies for previous posts to invert the intended emotion? Would the effect be a bipolar switch between the conscious and subconscious interpretation? Or perhaps the greatest question of all, why am I so compelled to tackle this issue with so many pressing philosophical threads begging for me to jump in the fray? I dunno. Maybe I'm just a happy-go-lucky guy. Maybe smilies are expression by proxy which I would never allow face-to-face. Maybe the smilies are a masochistic beacon beaming out of a desire for recognition of some measure, regardless of medicine. Why are you so intent on punishing yourself with by acknowledging their existence? Have they forsaken thee?
;)

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Bleak&Icy]

I, Bleak&Icy, am very fond of our smilies. On the average day, such as today, the most I can manage is a steely grimace. I've heard it said that it takes twice as many facial muscles to form a frown than it does a smile. Personally I think that's bollocks. I frown quite a lot, and hence my black sense of humour, in real life, is often mistaken for bitter and unprovoked antagonism. But here on TLO I can add a little , or perhaps a ;), or if I'm feeling particularly zany a , and my fellow members know that I am a friendly bleak and icy being, and possibly more than a little drunk.

(Come to think of it, Dr. B., why don't we have drunk smilies? A little square face with a goofy expression and bubbles circling around his poor wine-addled head. Drunken smilies!)

And I think you will find, after a few months of involvement with TLO, that these peculiar square smilies take on strange qualities; somehow they seem "not quite right in the head," if I may put it that way. They seem to be mocking me. , Damn you, it seems to say...

And let us not forget that certain TLO members have taken emoticon usage to previously unexplored heights of expressiveness. Who among us has not been stunned by G. S. Carnival's innovative use of the "tripple EEK" (I meant triple, or though he does like a tipple, from what he has told us) , , and . On more than one occasion I have been tempted to go for the "quadruple EEK," yet I have shown admirable restraint in that regard.

Despair--a continual sense of personal dejection and cosmic hopelessness--often forces a man to develop a sense of humour, albeit a bleak one.

The smilies stay!

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[paeng]

I remember using smileys way back when BBSes were still being used. At the same time, we'd also remind ourselves that "It's just a hobby. It's just a hobby."

[bendk]

I cast my vote in favor of the smilies. I think Bleak&Icy's idea for a drunk smiley is excellent, and very funny. Even though I haven't had any alcohol in almost four years now! + .

[G. S. Carnivals]

Quote Originally Posted by Bleak&Icy

And let us not forget that certain TLO members have taken emoticon usage to previously unexplored heights of expressiveness. Who among us has not been stunned by G. S. Carnival's innovative use of the "tripple EEK" (I meant triple, or though he does like a tipple, from what he has told us) , , and . On more than one occasion I have been tempted to go for the "quadruple EEK," yet I have shown admirable restraint in that regard.

Thank you, Bleak&Icy. The conception of the "tripple EEK" (whose actual name, by the way, is "Still Life with Commas, Conjunction, and the Innsmouth Look") was in response to the "Patricia" business, if I remember correctly. A "quadruple EEK" seems superfluous and ineffective, much like directing a flamethrower at a house which is already engulfed by fire.

A drunken smilie is most desirable. Since Dr. Bantham has nothing else to do, a specialized group of smilies depicting various potables might be created and offered. Beer, wine, absinthe, etc.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Odalisque]

Quote Originally Posted by Spotbowserfido2

Pardon my impudence, but this one is really impudent: Three wags of my expressionless tail, Rover

That's why I incorporated that one into my signiture.

I love the tile smilies (which I haven't seen anywhere else).

This will be my 42nd post. Given that 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything, this must be an enormously significant post.