come on guys, give me at least a little credit... all those shorts he pointed out have been scratched away, and tested with my multimeter..

i looked at it again quickly (while i was stopped at a red light), and i think the diode is the right way, but i did just notice i have a 470 ohm resistor instead of a 4.7kohm. could be part of the problem!!! stupid colour codes... too many different ones!!!