hemifacial spasms and stuff

Thanks to Shel for the suggestion that some eyelid twitches can be attributed to hemifacial spasms. What are those you ask?

What is Hemifacial Spasm?
Hemifacial spasm is a neuromuscular disorder characterized by frequent involuntary contractions of the muscles on one side of the face. The disorder occurs in both men and women, although it more frequently affects middle-aged or elderly women. The first symptom is usually an intermittent twitching of the eyelid muscle that can lead to forced closure of the eye. The spasm may then gradually spread to involve the muscles of the lower face, which may cause the mouth to be pulled to one side. Eventually the spasms involve all of the muscles on one side of the face almost continuously. The condition may be caused by a facial nerve injury or a tumor, or it may have no apparent cause. Very commonly, hemifacial spasm is caused by a blood vessel pressing on the facial nerve.

I hope to hell that my eyelid twitch is due to caffeine (though I don't drink much) or something less scary.

In less disturbing news, Simon's floating head photo was actually used for his passport, it came in the mail today. He actually sent another set of photos where he is not wearing white in case the passport people rejected his bodiless (is that a word?) one. I guess the folks at Canada's passport office thought it'd be funny to make all the airport security people see the floating head pic instead.