So I go to EBGames at my local mall, like I usually do when I take my son walking in the evening. The clerk asks me if I'm looking for anything, and I'm really not, but just for the sake of it, I ask to look at the SFIV fightpad. I want to look at it up close, and I hear that the PS3 one takes AA batteries. What the?! While I'm looking at it, I jokingly ask, "You don't have any of the fightsticks, do you?" The guy says that they just sold their last SE stick, and asks the other clerk, "We don't have any of the TE sticks, do we?" I think this is a real naive question to be asking. The guy must have just started working there and really know nothing about games,but then the other clerk says, "We have one." I ask, "How is that possible?" It turns out that someone had pre-ordered the TE stick and then changed their minds. So, I have the rare opportunity to get a TE stick right then and there at retail price with no concern about pre-orders, shipping costs, shipping times, or further inflated prices.

The thing is, I wasn't planning on ever getting a TE stick. Figured it was way out of my league, and that a Hori FS3 would be more than suitable for me. But, I figured, this was a rare opportunity. I was in a unique position. And I was sick of using my PS3 controller! So, I bought it. I bought it under the pretext that it was both a father's day gift and a birthday gift from my wife, and that I wouldn't spend money on anything videogame related for at least two months (unless WipEout DLC is released!). And now I have a TE fightstick.

And now I gotta practice like crazy to unlearn the 40+ hours during which I got used to playing SFIV with a DualShock!