Being a QA wiz with over 20 years of experience, I’ve started to see how defects and bugs show up in real life.

I am trying to write about defects, but the only thing I can think about is how I don’t know the difference between a defect and a bug. Should I look it up?

Here is what AI spit out: In IT and software testing, a bug is a coding mistake found during development or testing, while a defect is a broader term for any deviation from product requirements.

Honestly, can’t say I understand it.

Bug. I often use bug, so let’s go with that instead.

Bug—not like that creepy thing that will make most women jump out of fear and scream in a shrill voice, OR like the animated bugs in A Bug’s Life.

The bug I am talking about is the Sunday blues.

I know it’s not just me who has to return to the real world after two days of great rest and enjoyment with my imaginative and inquisitive side. We go back to the mundane, boring work that keeps spinning. It’s cyclical, like the Tao or the yin-yang flow.

But why the hell do we only get two days of rest while we have to work five days? I know there are those who work many more hours than me. I wish I knew how they did it, because I can’t manage the normal 9-to-5 grind.

Anyway, the bug in this flow is not valuing ourselves and instead doing what is needed for the greater good of society.

Am I not being clear? I am being sarcastic here.

This weekend, I thought about yin-yang, flow, and the movement of days into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.

How many more years can I stand feeling unhappy with work and whining about it?

I have made it into a bug that doesn’t need fixing because the developer said it is working as expected according to the requirements.

But damn it, Developer, fix the bug.

Dev: What are the steps to reproduce it?

QA: I can’t reproduce it.

Dev: Come back when you can. Until then, no fixing. Not a bug.

Do I truly enjoy finding bugs in software that I don’t have a care in the world about?

But the money—it helps with bills, living under a roof, and retirement.

All well and good, but can you promise retirement will be all joy while I am busting my ass off now?

Promise me it will be trips to the places I want to visit with friends and family. Promise me it will be daily walks with friends and family. Will it be seeing the brighter, deeper side of life? Will I get to practice yoga or even become a trainer?

Sure, I can guarantee that.

Yup, yup. I can predict the future.

I think this is the bug in the system: I am waiting for 65 to come so I can begin to enjoy my life on my terms.

Hah! Those terms have already been partly defined for me by society, including the age at which I’m supposed to retire.

I wish I could come up with another story that basically says: Enjoy NOW! NOW, damn it. Forget 65.

It’s a bug.

See the bug.

The developer will never fix the bug. Because why?

It’s not in the requirements that you should be enjoying yourself at work at 45.

There is some if/else condition missing in the software that determines when you can truly enjoy yourself—without worrying about saving enough vacation time or having enough PTO or sick days.

But seriously, if you dislike your job so much, go write or something.

I ask: Where is the escape button for this bug? How can I close it and start testing some new functionality instead of repeatedly testing the same functionality in software that is never fixed?

Who wrote this software, damn it?

It was humans, wasn’t it?

Why do they simply accept a bug as a bug instead of screaming in a shrill voice?

Fix it! Get rid of it! Take action!

I wish I could.

Is my writing good enough for me to make a living out of it? I don’t have a formal education in writing. What I did learn in college has evaporated from my mind.

Now I just write as thoughts and ideas come to me. I don’t like processes for how to set up a story. So I write what comes to me, and I enjoy it when I am in the flow of it.