You're dead meat.

I have been staring blankly at my inbox (which contains 305 emails) and the project management list for about two hours this morning. Sometimes I take a break and look at my super long list of deadlines. Then I'll drink some coffee in hopes that motivation will come flooding out of the cup. It's not happening. Instead I lament with the department about how unfortunate it is that the lights don't work, but our phones and computers do. And most importantly, I wonder where the word deadline came from. Will someone really die if I don't reconcile my budget or solve the online registration process today? Maybe. Maybe they will. Then, the deadline will become a headline: Man Dies From Incompetent Coworker.

Anydamnway, if you are curious, the origin of the word "deadline" did come from a real line drawn in the dirt or a fence restricting prisoners during the Civil War. They were warned, "If you cross this line, you're dead." So it's a boundary. A death boundary. In business, the failure to meet a deadline could result in consequences even scarier than death. I shudder to think what could be worse, especially considering the reward for meeting said deadlines is sitting in a dark office with other prisoners.

I pledge to never draw a line so serious that someone dies from it's implications. That said, I better get to work so poor Catherine doesn't get shot later today.