obsession of the day: growing plants indoors using LED lights. it all started after i watched a DIY video clip of somebody creating an USB-powered greenhouse using a detached LED flashlight head for lighting. does that really work? that got me thinking and i went online searching for a source of LED grow lights. using just blue and red LED's (the colors plants use for photosynthesis), it's entirely possible to grow plants using less energy than conventional methods like fluorescent or high-intensity discharge (HID) lights. however, since LED's are so faint, their power is very limited and their effective range is very small. an array of 272 LED's can only light up a square foot (about 14 watts). maybe with more high-powered LED's the range can be increased, but probably at the cost of even more power consumption (thereby defeating the purpose of going LED in the first place). the technology still seems to be in its infancy, but worth further investigation. with at least 2 more months of winter still left, i sort of want to try starting a garden indoors to pass the time.

my back seemed to be a lot better this morning. i was testing my affected leg throughout the night, and was happy to be able to move it without feeling any pain. it was still stiff though, and occasionally a bit painful, but nowhere as debilitating as yesterday. i made it back to belmont for some dinner, put some ben gay on my lower back which made everything feel a lot better (i love the tingles). once i returned home, i took a hot bath to soothe my back and sprayed on some yunnan baiyao (a chinese medicine version of ben gay). i was surprised when the stiffness pretty much disappeared a short time later.

unable to sleep and feeling a bit hungry, i got out of bed and had some korean instant cup ramen. outside the steady sound of rainfall distracted me. weather report said we might get as much as 10" of snow, but there's going to be some explaining to do monday morning when i don't see any white stuff on the ground.

i also just now realized today was my mother's birthday and i totally forgot.