I like to keep the emoticons conversion on my blog as a whole but there are occasions in which specific strings should not be converted to emoticons. The most recent instance on my blog came in a comment.
Found the answer here:
WordPress – Prevent Smileys In Code Quotes
One method is to use spaces, but extra spaces are distracting. So, the best way is to replace the parenthesis with its ASCII code: “& #41;” (without quotes or space).
A bit hacky, but useful.
Disparate 
LOL! Literally.
You can turn off conversion for your log as a whole. But I prefer leaving it on.
Thanks needed this. Although I’ll miss the smiley-face version of the proposal I posted 😛
I guess the trick is to search and replace everything before pasting… but it’s still not ideal.