Texas, TX

Texas is a state located in the southern and southwestern regions of the United States of America.

With an area of 261,797 square miles (678,051 km²) and a population of 23,507,783 (based on a 2006 U.S. census bureau estimate) in 254 counties, the state is second-largest in both area (behind Alaska) and population (behind California).

About half the state's population resides in either the Dallas–Fort Worth or Houston metropolitan areas.

The state's name derives from táysha, a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai, which means "friends" or "allies".

Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and existed as the independent Republic of Texas for nearly a decade.

n 1845, it joined the United States as the 28th state. Texas is internationally known for its energy and aeronautics industries, and for the ship channel at the Port of Houston—the largest in the U.S. in international commerce and the sixth-largest port in the world.

The state is home to the most Fortune 500 companies in the United States and has the second-largest economy in the United States, behind California.

The Texas Medical Center in Houston contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions.

Geography

The geography of Texas spans a wide range of features and timelines. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico.

It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest.

The Rio Grande, Red River and Sabine River all provide natural state lines where Texas borders Oklahoma on the north, Louisiana and Arkansas on the east, New Mexico on the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south.

By residents, the state is generally divided into North Texas, East Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, and West Texas, but according to the Texas Almanac, Texas has four major physical regions: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and The Basin and Range Province.

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Texas".

Highlight Your Vacation With Photo Books

by David Dobson

Taking a vacation can be a wonderful thing. It's a real breath of fresh air. It lets you relax, unwind and forget many of your cares and worries. One of the nice things about it is that, when it's over, you're likely to still have many photos to remember it by, too. So, why not preserve those photos in photo books that highlight your vacation memories?

Digital Photos:

One of the great things about the latest technology is that people can now use digital cameras any time they want. In fact, many of them are pocket-sized, or even built into cellular phones. Those photos can quickly be moved to any computer and preserved permanently, unlike old fashioned photos, which could get destroyed much more easily.

Out Of Sight:

There's an old saying that goes "out of sight, out of mind". Well, unfortunately, that does tend to apply to digital photos. Although they are preserved on the computer, they're also easy to forget about. That's all the more reason to both keep them on the computer and put them into great photo books to share with friends and family members.

The Printing Process:

Having copies of your photo book printed is easy. Just send the file to your print company and tell them hiw many copies you need and in what sizes. You can create books in many sizes, in fact, including 5" X 7" which is small enough to be mailed to relatives easily, or larger sizes, which look great on coffee tables or bookshelves.

Creating Your Book:

When you're creating your book, you need to decide how many photos you want to include. Chances are that you'll have many extra photos from your vacation that won't fit, but they don't need to. Many might be similar to each other and there might be some that you just feel are uninteresting.

You can even ask friends and family to pick out their top 5 or 10 favorite pictures. Once you have their lists, just combine them to find the pictures that most people agree upon. That way, you'll have a book of everyone's favorite vacation memories.

Remember, it's easy to rule certain pictures in or out. So, just pull out duplicate images, pictures that didn't come out properly or pictures that you just plain don't like. Then, what's left should be great pictures. As long as you choose from those, you can't go wrong.

Creating Themes:

When you set up your vacation photo books, you should have certain themes in mind. Obviously, vacation would be the theme of the book itself. However, the pages will need themes. For example, you might ahve one or two pages represent each day of your trip or you might devote certain pages to animals you saw or specific places you visited. In any case, you should do what sounds good to you. After all, it is your vacation book. So, you should like what you make.

About the Author

David Dobson, Manager Digital Print Australia

At Digital Print Australia we specialize in Personal and Business Printing.

For more information on Photo Books be sure to check out Digital Print