- published: 02 Apr 2011
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Austin (/ˈɒstɨn/ or /ˈɔːstɨn/) is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation from 2000 to 2006. Austin has a population of 790,390 (2010 U.S. Census). The city is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan area, which had an estimated population 1,783,519 (2011 U.S. Census), making it the 34th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.
In the 1830s, pioneers began to the settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River. After Republic of Texas Vice President Mirabeau B. Lamar visited the area during a buffalo-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital then located in Houston, Texas, be relocated to the area situated on the north bank of the Colorado River near the present-day Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge. In 1839, the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital (the republic's seventh and final location) and was incorporated under the name, Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas" and the republic's first secretary of state.
One way Austin is unique is his ability to be creative. He can turn the most boring projects, activities, games, etc. into something fun. He sees every situation as a chance express his feelings or personality. When he is assigned a project in school, he puts way more effort into it than most people would. He uses symbols to represent words or objects, such as using crosses for “Ts” or baseballs for “Os”. He creates acronyms that nobody even thinks of. He uses really cool pictures, hand-drawn or copied from a computer or book. He makes lots of “graffiti-style” letters and pictures.
Austin is also creative on the computer, more than anyone I’ve ever seen. He puts together slideshows that look almost professional. He includes pictures from his favorite music groups, sports teams or players, food, and pretty much anything he thinks of, he makes it fit. He always adds music that fits the pictures. If he has lots of “crazy” pictures, he will have rock or rap music playing in the background. He adds captions to all of the pictures as if he’s going to present it to someone at a business meeting. Some of them are funny, some are informative, and some are just there to let you know who’s in the picture. The transitions and movements are perfect, he never makes a mistake. He can change the pictures to make them look however he wants them to. He makes them look 3-D, blurred, torn, he can even make them look neon. He can do anything he wants to when it comes to making “art” on the computer.