An explaination of smilies

You may notice that I like to use smilies during texts, blog posts, or other forms of writing. I do this because I try to show you when I smile in my own writing. Sometimes I cause myself to chuckle when writing... this can be expressed with a ":P". This same smilie is used when I think I am being cleaver or funny (which is not always the case in others opinions... but that doesn't stop my smilies), also it can show for a funny face which I use when I am being serious but need a little relief from doing such to break possible tension.
I often use :) which can at times be =) when written on paper. These are for when I smile for another person. :D can be used as well but should have greater impact as the smile is bigger with an open mouth smile which shows teeth.
Anyway, I think I started this more so when my brother Aaron mentioned how much he loved my illustrations which I provided him when I wrote to him on his mission in Portugal. I hope they can be appreciated for what they are and that they can some how fill the void which is absent do to the fact that facial expressions are not possible to convey otherwise in writing.