Modifying list_cats and get_archives

Hi all,
I’m having some problems modifying the links, archives and category listings.
By default, WP uses

• and

, I just want or
between each link, archive and category.
I’ve looked for list_cats, get_archives and get_links in wp-links/links.php and b2-include/b2template.functions.php and tried to adjust the “before” and “after” values accordingly, but they don’t seem to be parsed correctly. Could someone please lend me a hand here before I go completely nuts? ??