ha! with my greatness i found a replacement
so, i made my custom emoticon this >
< and then i changed my nick to blank using /nick2 alt-0160 (ctrl-k character)0 [maybe not needed]
then i send:
the odd characters behind things are ctrl-o [go back to original format] and it works, BUT, to make it useful, you should use spng, and have bigger emoticons, you keep the man the same size, but you allow some blamk parts to the top and bottom (notice how mine werent exactly equal)
I know making your name blank is a pain, and if they're smart they might know, but heh, its worth a try