A Unique Shorthand If You Need To Quickly Jot Down Information To Dispatchers In Case Of An Active Shooter Situation

When an active shooter is in your vicinity, we all know time is very essential. Writing down full words on any piece of paper to try to tell dispatchers your exact location when an active shooter incident is happening nearby before the police or other authorities arrive not only can be a waste of time - it can also be the difference between you living through this very scary situation - or you being shot and.or killed!

From Laurie Dann - to Eric Klebold - from Winnetka, IL to Littleton, CO - active shooting incidents make us wonder what we need to do so we can survive the next active shooting event.

With all of this in my mind, I am trying to make my own shorthand that you can use when jotting down information on the active shooter or shooters on paper to emergency dispatchers. This will be revised as much as possible so that anyone inside any building - not just schools - can use so they can save lives of themselves and others.

The shorthand I am trying make up focuses on four main parameters........

Descriptions of the Weapon (s) The Shooter (s) Used
Number of Shooter (s)
Number of Shooters
Description Related To The Shooter (s)

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WEAPON (S) THE SHOOTER USED
AK47 - AK47 Assault Rifle
AR15-AR-15 Rifle
auto - Automatic
Bush - similar to AR 15 (short for "Bushmaster")
bd amr - Body Armor
bpk - Backpack
clp - Clip
cvr - Cover (an army cap usually used by soldiers)
ex mgz - Extra Magazine
flk jkt - Flak Jacket
hgn - handgun
mgm  -  Magnum
mchn g - machine gun
mgz - Magazine
pas - Pump-Action shotgun
pstl - pistol
sem auto - Semi-Automatic
sgl st - single-shot
sgn - Shotgun
slnr - Silencer
uz - UZI semiautomatic gun

NUMBER OF SHOOTERS
1S - one shooter
2S - two shooters
3S - three shooters
4S - four shooters
Svl S -several shooters

DESCRIPTION RELATED TO THE SHOOTER (S)
bdna - bandanna
Bl -Black (skin description)
bs v - bass voice
bge - beige
bld - blond
blk  - black
bprf - bulletproof
bprf v - bulletproof vest
brd - beard
brn - brown
Ccsn- Caucasian
cflg - camouflage
fc - face
ft - fat
grn - green
hd  - head
hr - hair
Hspan - hispanic
m - man, male
ME - Middle-Eastern (in appearance)
mstch - mustache
obs - obese
org - orange
pur - purple
pnk - pink
r       - red
sld - slender
st -   short
tl - tall
tt - one tattoo
tts - multiple tattoos
v st - very short
v tl - very tall
vlt - violet
vst - vest
wte  - white

LOCATION OF THE SHOOTER (S)
atc - attic
btrm - bathroom
bsmt - basement
clst - closet
cm ara - common area
cnf a - conference area
cnf rm - conference room
cls rm - classroom
ctr - center
crdr - corridor
dn a -dining area
dn rm -dining room
gf - ground floor
hw, hwy - hallway
ev sht - elevator shaft
ext - exit
extr - exterior; outside
fac lge - faculty's lounge
in - inside
intr - interior
kchn - kitchen
l - left
lw fl - lower floor
m - middle, midway
mn flr - main floor
ofce - office
out - outside
r - right
rf - roof
rst r - restroom
s bsmt - sub-basement
strs - stairs
strwy - stairway
tch l - teacher's lounge
up fl -upper floor
wg - wing
vcn, vcny - vicinity
1f - first floor
2f - second floor
3f - third floor
4f - fourth floor
5t - fifth floor

Saturday, September 17, 1983—The Date That I Witnessed The White Sox Clinching Something Big

      I realized what was going to be big about the White Sox game against the Seattle Mariners as I was glued to my TV set.

     Jerry Hairston, no. 17 who had already had 15 pinch hits, comes up to bat for the Sox. He had a batting average of .297, with 5 homers and 22 runs batted in. He reminded me of Reggie Jackson, for he seemed to have worn some sunglasses, but I think it was a mirage. Then, I see Julio Cruz is on deck. I saw that Jerry Hairston’s first two swings are strikes, and then, there was a ball. And then he drives a line shotto Seattle’s Reinecke (no. 21) to first base for a quick putout.

     Then, I observed Julio Cruz, no. 16 ,coming to bat. He walked and scored, and bounced to second base as I saw Rudy Law is on beck.

    The commentators told me that 45,646 was the paid attendance, and they reached the 2,000,000 mark in paid attendance in 1987.

       I then saw 3 straight balls at Julio Cruz. Then I saw ball four and Julio Cruz walks to first. Del Crandell was the Mariners’ manager who comes up at the starting pitcher for a time out, and then he goes back to the dugout.  Next, I saw Rudy Law had a batting average of .288, with 3 homers and 30 runs batted in. He was 1 for 4 with a single. And I found out that Sox’s Julio Cruz had 52 stolen bases with 63 attempts at that time. Then Julio Cruz successfully steals base no. 53 and I see him do a belly-flop slight almost like Pete Rose would do.

       Afterwards, I saw that Law ends up with a good count with 3 balls, and Caudill, no. 37, is the pitcher. Then Seattle’s Caudill walks Cruz. Bill Caudill is his full name. At the time he walked Cruz, I learned that he had two walks and no strikeouts.

      Then I saw an important Sox player come to bat--here comes Carlton Fisk, no. 72. His batting average is .291, with 25 homers and 81 runs batted in. His first pitch at-bat is a ball. Then Carlton Fisk check-swings at strike three and the Seattle catcher throws at third base as Julio Cruz tries to steal third and the home plate umpire calls strike three, but the home plate umpire wants an appeal to the third base umpire----and the third base umpire says NO SWING! The White Sox get second life and that was a very close call I felt.

      Then, I lamented slightly as Carlton Fisk is waved off and Harold Baines will be the pinch hitter. Then Bill Caudill is eventually ordered to leave the game by the manager. As the pitching change happens, I hear the crowd in the stands chanting “Runaround Sue” with the help of Nancy Faust.  I then saw relief picture Ed Vandeberg has 2 wins, 4 losses, and an ERA of 3.54, warming up on the mound.   

      I then looked at the TV cameras at Ken Harrelson is in the White Sox clubhouse awaiting a possible clincher celebration if the White Sox win this game. Later on, as Harold Baines takes the first few pitches, I hear Nancy Faust play one of my most-beloved old-time songs, “Hava Nagliah” to rally the thing, Harold then hits a sacrifice pop-up to the Seattle center fielder, and the fielder catches it, and I see Julio Cruz tag and run for his life towards home plate. The throw is delivered towards home plate but it is too late and I went to the bed and fell down on the mattress, realizing that the Sox got what they wanted—an American League Western Championship clinching!!!

      The celebration immediately after the final out was a bit like the 1973 celebration of the world series championship clincher by the Oakland A’s as they finished off the Mets. Just like what happened at the Oakland Coliseum on that moment, some of the fans stormed onto the field at Comiskey Park, the Sox gang-banged themselves around the infield as the exploding scoreboard set off its short, big flurry of pyrotechnics, and organist Nancy Faust wailed “Na Na Hey Hey Good-bye” in grand fashion. Then the Sox stormed into the dugout and into the clubhouse for the big celebration that involved a lot of champagne drinking—and of course, spraying. At one point, the catch phrase used by the Sox—“Winning Ugly”—I did not mind it or who coined that term. But still, I was a bit glad that the Sox would really be in the post season. The Chicago Cubs – they would get their turn next year, but for the time being, it was, for me, a time for the White Sox—and its fans—to celebrate a clincher like this.  

 

ASIDE: A Look Into One of my Freeform Electroacoustic Pieces: "Drums Only"

Inspired by the avant-garde composer that I never met, Salvatore Giovanni Martirano, I had decided on a free-form work that used my Kurzweil PC-88 synthesizer and used the "Kurz Clean Kit" as my drum palette for all of its 88-keys. I called this piece "Drums Only", and I had intended to dedicate the piece to Salvatore, but

regrettably, I was unable to do that--he died of ALS in 1996, so I was thinking of dedicating it to the

surviving members of the Martiranos, particularly Dorothy Martirano.

Here is the breakdown of the sections of this and thanks to my autism that caused me to fall in love with

the drums again, I think I felt a lot better as I tried to become the best composer ever in the

avant-garde music world....

2:07        acceleration

2:20        train effect (very fast)

2:42        cymbal crash

2:45        cymbal crash

2:48        cymbal crash

2:50        cymbal crash

2:51        cymbal crash

2:57        full series of cymbal crashes

3:08        slow-down

3:29        change to swing rhythm with cymbals

3:55        swing rhythm (more cymbals)

4:06        drum fill

4:08        cymbals

4:15        cymbals (ride/swing rhythm)

4:30        snare drums added to swing rhythms

5:01        hockets in snare drum

5:08        bass drum attacks

5:14        transfer to Latin (whites, congas, timbles)

5:44        claves and cymbals added to Latin rhythm

6:14        syncopated timbale rhythm (3:2 son clave)

6:43        full merengue rhythm and salsa rhythm (combined)

7:07        drum fill

7:08        full merengue rhythm and salsa rhythm (combined)

7:18        cymbal crashes (continuous) in merengue rhythm

7:55        tremolo and the slow down using all the instruments in Latin

8:15        change to rumba rhythm (contemporary)

9:10        cymbal crashes again (Latin triplet-style swing/blues

9:49        Ride and crash cymbal crashes with regular rhythm

10:11      crashes of cymbals in syncopation

10:26      change of rhythm--cymbals

10:35      disco/Latin fusion/Goin' guidance happy feeling

11:22      disco/Latin fusion/Goin' guidance (continues)

11:36      disco ends

11:40      new rhythm

12:00      big cymbal crashes

12:02      change of rhythm with bass

12:18      salsa

12:40      timbales added

13:00      drum fill

13:07      cha-cha rhythm (guaracha)

13:32      claves added to cha-cha rhythm

14:05      full cymbal crashes

14:28      rock rhythm

14:42      16th notes continuous bass or snare

15:00      accleeration (bass/snare/tom-tom)

15:14      fast snares (short rolls)

15:38      cymbal crashes and bass hits

16:00      tom-tom hits and slow down of bass drum

16:15      swing rhythm with tom-toms and snares only

16:38      big cymbal crashes

17:10      DISCO AGAIN!!!!

17:30      5 cymbal crashes in basic disco rhythm

17:54      claves and bells

18:02      house sounds and horn sounds

18:38      running 16th notes Latin style

19:28      running faster and faster

19:42      slower, and accelerating, still in that Latin rhythm

20:00      alternating rhythm of Fast Latin

20:10      no bass line

20:46      merengue again (with claves, no. 1 and no. 2)

21:24      claves

21:33      a la Tito Puente (Timbales!)

22:22      cymbal crashes

22:32      crash and hi-hats

22:42      slowing down again with claves (and grinder)

23:02      slow down again

23:21      acceleration

23:38      full acceleration (with bass, a la Buddy Rich)

23:59      cymbal crashes

24:04:00                cymbal crashes

24:40:00                raking tom tom

25:01:00                snare trum flams/flam taps

25:24:00                swing rhythm comes back again

25:39:00                swing rhythm with cymbals and snare

25:57:00                crashes

26:00:00                back to rhythm

26:10:00                Djembe rhythm

27:28:00                Whistle in the djembe

27:42:00                house drum hits in djembe

28:06:00                Chinese style with house and grinder

28:40:00                cymbal hi-hats and cymbals (still in djembe)

28:55:00                CHANGE OF RHYTHM

29:00:00                Ride cymbals

29:36:00                big cymbal crashes in djembe again

30:00:00                whipper snappers'

30:20:00                snare hits (rim shots)

30:47:00                Chinese sound goes back again in fast swing

31:11:00                change of rhythm

31:22:00                SAMBA!!!

32:20:00                whistles and Chinese hits in samba

32:48:00                slight changes in samba rhythm

33:12:00                change of percussion but still samba

35:10:00                house sounds in samba rhythm

35:36:00                end of samba

35:38:00                RUMBA

36:02:00                slight slap

36:11:00                PASO DOBLE

36:52:00                highlight cymbal crash (paso doble)

37:10:00                claves added to paso doble rhythm

37:44:00                finale of paso

37:51:00                back to the swing thing

38:21:00                big cymbal crash

38:30:00                5 cymbal crashes

38:48:00                house music

39:06:00                Chinese sound goes back in house music

40:00:00                little change in house rhythm

40:40:00                bass, bass and more bass (3-son clave)

41:00:00                running drum fills

41:22:00                hi-hat mainly solo

41:42:00                full fills

41:53:00                real cymbal crashes (continues)

42:10:00                running, acclerating tom toms

42:48:00                final flourish

43:12:00                end

List of Details on My Ragusa-Ibla Trip on July 2001

Facts on Ragusa-Ibla From My Experiences

1.       Like  Paris, you face aggressive bus drivers and motor scooter and moped operators going

down the narrow streets. Sometimes some of those vehicles are pretty loud even though their engines may be small, so I had to prepare to hear backfires from some of the engines.

2.       Also like Paris, Ragusa-Ibla have international signs, especially for driving.

3.       Their local bus is almost always orange.

4.       Unlike Paris, Ragusa-Ibla’s sidewalks do not incline at the street level at all for people with

disabilities.

5.       Also unlike Paris, Ragusa-Ibla’s square have overhanging floodlights that go on at night.

Facts on Our Room In The Hotel (the L’Albergo Raphael)

1.       A very long, brown, sun-blocking curtain is at the window.

2.       The floor is tiled in a scale pattern with a lavender color

3.       There is a brown refrigerator, with the brand name called Elektrosuisse.

4.       There were two nightstands, white with pink trim, on the sides of the double bed.

5.  Since no laundry facilities for the public exist in the hotel, you do laundry in the bathroom on

your own, and at your own risk.

More Facts on Ragusa-Ibla

1.       The Scotch masking tape does even have a brand name labeled on that in that Italian region. The top roller sometimes gets stuck and sometimes the cutter does not cut the tape clearly.     

      

   

   2. The brand name of chewing gum there is Brooklyn, and I found that the spearmint flavor variety was the best kind.

3.       One bank has a closed-circuit magnetometer on its entrance doors to thwart bank robberies.

4.       When you get on the local bus, you put the white-green bus ticket into the fare stamper on

the “Lato Obbligatrice” side.

5.       At the Hotel Montreal, the breakfast area near the Via San Giuseppe closes at 10 a.m. to prepare for lunch.

More about the Pianos at the Hotels

A.      THE PIANO AT HOTEL MONTREAL

The notes on that piano only went up to an A8, and not to the highest notes, B or C. The piano

itself was about 10 feet by 11 feet range and had a tilted floor.

B.       THE PIANO AT HOTEL RAFAEL

        The piano was a black-colored studio upright, called Burger and Jacoby, of Biel. The keys

        on the piano were slightly rusted-through.

Broadwood Pianos on display at the Falcone – What I Saw

1.       The Broadwood spinet, one of the pianos that I saw at the concert hall, had two pedals. Its keys were rusted, and the black keys were slightly smaller. Upper part had a red curtain cover over the hammers, and its skin was dark brown, and the piano had a music stand. The pitch range of that piano was from an F1 to F8, something like in the period when Ludwig van Beethoven lived (1770-1827).

2.       Another Broadwood which I saw, which had a clavichord-like keyboard design, had the same range as the other Broadwood, with no pedals, and also had the music stand.

Its keys were rusted also, and the piano was on four legs.