Given my last blog before the podcast disaster, it seems I wouldn't be getting to it until next week.

Well, that's all changed. No, it's not because "omg I just couldn't wait". Actually, I probably could have - for a little bit. I mean, after all, I anticipated playing it next week - I was in no huge rush. But I was informed by deepdiscount.com that my pre-order was not coming: the bundle was out of stock and it was estimated that it wouldn't even be in stock until November 8th. At that point, they would start shipping out units. Given that I used free shipping, it would take between 5 to 10 business days - but according to deepdiscount.com's own information it "may take up to 15 days" once every so often.

The most hopeful estimate would be Thursday, November 15th. Well whoop-de-damn do - guess what: I'm trying to be ready for my GMATs so that I can take them either right before or right after Thanksgiving, and that weekend is going to be prime time for studying. Also, Rock Band comes out at around that time. I'd like to have had somewhat of a fill of Guitar Hero III before Rock Band ended up on store shelves.

That's also the most hopeful estimate. The pessimistic estimate, assuming that it ships out on the 8th like they say? Five plus five... carry the one... plus five... OH. November 29th. How's that for a slight delay? Yeah, I can wait - but not a MONTH.

I preordered for two reasons: 1) so I wouldn't have difficulty getting stock; 2) so I could snag that tasty discount. However, that huge delay that buckled my expectations isn't worth the savings. I ended up using a $60 gift card I got for my birthday and paid $40 for the bundle at a local Gamestop.

Do NOT get me wrong: deepdiscount.com looks like it has some nice deals, and I'd definitely go to them for stuff that's non-preorder; that is, things that I don't necessarily expect to have on my doorstep at a certain time (like some cheap games or DVDs that I was interested in but never got around to buying). I'm certain that this isn't their fault - the game probably sold out really fast, and my $84 deal was formerly a $77 deal that loads of people clawed to get. So they probably simply just didn't have enough stock. Still, it's irritating.

Anyway, I just passed that Aerosmith song in the 4th tier on Expert. After work I'll be slowly progressing through to the end in between bouts of studying, podcast editing and gym time.