Azraele, in regards to this:
<< If you want my personal preference, I can easily say that I wouldn't choose Texas. I lived there for a year (Arlington), and it just wasn't the state for me. The hot weather and pollution made me miserable. >>
That is easy to explain. You weren't in the right part of Texas. It is a commonly held belief by those of us who weren't raised in "North Texas" aka Dallas county and southern Collin county area that the area you are refering to is not a part of Texas. It is commonly refered to as occupied north Texas. This area has a very high number of imigrants from the New England area and that affects the area tremendously. You want to see true Texas, go to Tyler, Amarillo, Odessa/Midland, Big Spring, etc. Go to the smaller towns, or even San Antonio (Houston and Austin are almost as bad as Dallas, at least thats what I've heard). So, on the part of Texans, I apologize for your bad experience.
By the way, I have nothing wrong with anyone from New England. The people from there who live in Texas just have a different way of doing things that don't reflect the way the majority of the state do. Not necessarily wrong, just different. Then again, Texas is so big that it is basically five or six different regions all doing things their own way. Makes for a nice hodgepodge of experience, which is one of the reasons Texas is such a great state. 😀