Pre-germination sunlight?

[attml]

Greetings,

This is my first year growing my plants from seeds. I will be planting my seeds in another 2-3 weeks for this season. I took a couple of Matina seeds last weekend and just put them in a cup of Miracle Grow potting soil which I watered to see if I could get germination. I covered the cup with some plastic wrap and set it in the window sill. As of yet I don't have germination. We keep our house pretty cool during the winter 68-70 degrees so I don't know if that is possibly slowing the process down? I was reading some posts in the seed starting forum last night and I saw that one person puts his seed on his cable box because it says warm. My question is if I do the same thing does it need to be in the sun prior to actual germination or can it be in a room that just has some (a little) ambient light but not direct sunlight? I also threw a couple Sungold F1 seeds in a wet paper towel in a ziplock last night and put it on the cable box. Do I to wet that towel periodically prior to germination? Thanks!

Mark