Most of us in this Jeep hobby... at least most of us old-school, CJ-brained type of people have a similar bent. And that's getting things to work or work better.

 For many of us it results in unique solutions, inspired ideas, or shear determination when it comes to the Jeeps we happen to be working on (fighting with) at the time. But sometimes, and we all get there at some point, we need to lay down the wrench and do something else. My two other releases for that "make-it-go" gene are either "clean dirt" or "whirligigs".

Before I had my license, and thus my first Jeep, I spent years in the high school wood shop building all kinds of cool things- among my favorites were a knife display case that replaced a closet door, making a secret storage area, and a pair of high-end knockoff speaker enclosures out of 1 1/2-inch red oak. I call woodworking "clean dirt" because while you can get covered in saw dust, often a shot of compressed air has you as clean as you started. Sometimes it is nice to not have to scrub with a Brillo pad.

The "whirligigs" on the other hand typically are more of an electronic nature. From a "shock box" to RC car racing, to CBs, car stereos, and other electronic stuff, to cell phones. Anything that is something you might find in Dr. Emmett Brown's place and isn't critical to the Jeep running can be a whirligig. To me, its just tinkering with something and seeing how it works, and maybe how to make it work better.

Well, since we finished production last week of the September issue, I've been back tinkering on my phone. I haven't gutted it, like the other guys love talking about me doing, I've been doing software tinkering. ROM swaps, Radio tests, and even installing a new program or two. To me, its therapeutic. As long as I can go back to what I had there is no pressure to get it done in a timely manner, or at all, and so if it doesn't work, no sweat off my back. Recently, I got Garmin working on my phone. I didn't really need it, as I've already got a Garmin Nuvi, and a couple of Tom-Tom units, but I like the idea of having the GPS in the phone, and Garmin has great topo maps available (which is the real reason for trying it in the first place).

So, anyway, I get the Garmin working and play with it a *** I'm kinda disapointed by the on-road nav, so it'll take the back seat to the Tom Tom or the Nuvi, but it worked, and that was the point. Then, I decide my ROM is sucking too much power, and I re-flash later the same day I got Garmin going. Lo-and-behold, no more Garmin working... I just got done re-installing the Garmin and it works again, but I probably blew like 5 hours today doing what I did 2 days ago just 'cause. Ah well, its still therapeutic, and its a clean way to tinker.

Here's a shot of xda-developers, IMO the best site for someone like me, and Garmin running on my 2-year old phone.