Hello , I'm Daniel ,
Thinking about forming a team and building a craft , well there are a few things you should know about Kinetics .
First thing , it has a tendancy to take over your life .
It has no regard for your well being , financal situation , or any personal relationship you may be about to destroy .
The best thing to do is to let your boss and/or partner in life think it was their idea to enter , there by cousing your obsession to seem like you are suporting them to the fullest exstent of your endurance .
It would also be wise to pay your rent and other bills fully , in advance , through the chalange before you start the craft .
And Give some cash to your mother or other trusty soul ,(not on the team ! ) , so you have food and rent money after the madness ends and while your looking for a new job .
The best teams are TEAMS ,
find out who can do what , and (with help), let them do their stuff !
Don't be dissapointed that the craft and your image of what you wanted aren't the same , your building a vehcle by hand ,which takes Detroit two years to do with unlimited resources .
It took three years for us to get our first craft to survive the first two miles of the course and four years to finish after extensive changes to the machine .
We have made two new crafts since then , the TDA #3 and the TDA #10 , at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars , and we would have made more if resources allowed . The 3 took four years to finish the details and the 10 has more to go still , so remember to accept the delays and frustrations with the nessesary humor and don't take it out on the other team members !
It's so tempting to want an automatic machine , pull this and push that button to switch from land to water and back . I'm still trying to figure out where the cd player goes and how to power it , but it's more weight .
And you have to move it , and lift it , and float it and the craft has to support it , which means it's stronger and heavier , so it must be stronger therefor heavier so stronger ..... get it ?
It's amazing how some teams have made huge sculptures that wieght very little .
It's Also amazing how meny crafts get smaller as the course eats them ... providing they didn't sink in the first thirty feet !
( remember to tie a rope on a float to your craft in a way it can unroll to the surface when the craft finds the bottom , that's how we got the first one back when it almost made it across the rez . )
So if you enter , remember your new hand made child is going to have a hard life , or a sudden death , and you'll have another year to revive it for the next challenge !
And you will , about twenty four hours after you swear you will never do this again , the ideas for modifications will sneak in , "yeh , if we just move it like this , and something like that would be great ! "
It's a sickness and incureable I've had it about twenty four years now ,
and it's contageus ,
and if you've read this far ,
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-_A_BRIEF_TEAM_HISTORY_-
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-_BOULDER'S_KINETICS_-
-_THE_KINETIC_RULES_-
-_WHAT_TO_BUILD_-
-_KARLS_WORDS_OF_WISDOM_-
-_WORDS_FROM_DANIEL_-
-_SEE_THE_TDA-3_-
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