Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites may be search engines, medical resources, household hints, educational resources, recipe sites, sites I call "head scratchers", and/or new sites dealing with all kinds of things of use to the general internet community. To find the criteria I use, simply click on the "Why and How Info" link on the right side of this page.

This page is updated on a weekly basis, each Tuesday evening Australian (Queensland) time (GMT + 9 hours according to the world clock). Please come back and visit often.

Important Note: If you are returning to my page, welcome back! Please click your "Refresh" or "Reload" button on the top of your Internet browser to ensure you are seeing the current week's page of my "Picks of the Week". Also, I would love for you to make my site your home page. Simply click on Tools - Options in Explorer, or Edit - Preferences in Netscape, and click Use Current and it's done.

Note: From today you will also be able to search Google for anything you wish from the bottom of my page and still remain here to do it. Also remember you can search my site by using the pico search just above the Google one. A special thanks to the folk at Google for allowing me to add this function to my site. Enjoy.

Folk from all over the world seem to love the game called Scrabble, where one takes tiles with letters on them and places them on a game board to make words which count as score. Sometimes, when playing that game, you can end up with some pretty strange letter combinations and think there is just no way that you can make a word out of those. That's where a site like SCRABBLE HELPER - Word Plays Interactive Word Games is a great help. This site also shows other word games that scrabble players may enjoy challenging their intellect with. Have fun.

Most of us are concerned at times about what our children or grandchildren may find on the net. Fortunately some librarians are equally concerned and have come up with the KidsClick! Web Search site. This site is made especially for kids by librarians, to help them enjoy the net, learn how to use it responsibly and have fun with it as well. Well done side to take the younger members of your family to.

You may know that I enjoy watching and reading some blogs on the net. However, even I find it difficult at times to find a good blog that is both entertaining and interesting as well. The Blogging about Incredible Blogs one does just as it says, and shows all kinds of interesting blogs to take a look at and many that I never would find otherwise. If you enjoy blogging or reading a good blog, then have a look here. I think you'll enjoy it.

You'll know how I love good food, and how I enjoy finding interesting recipe sites. I came across one recently that, though they would like to sell you their book and go to great lengths to do that, also offer some lovely recipes if you scroll down the page. The site not only has some great recipes for you to try but the name, shiokadelicious!, might take a bit of getting use to. Has anyone seen Austin Powers recently? *chuckles*

Here in Australia (and New Zealand) there are a few sports that really grab the general public, including yours truly. One is called Rugby League, a different form of Rugby, the other form being known as Rugby Union. In Australia one of the annual event series that engenders the most patronage and rugby furor is known as The State of Origin series. This brings rugby league players, who may well play for teams in States they didn't come from, back to their home State to play for that States side in a national competition for State supremacy. If you hop over to the National Rugby League Season 2005 site and have a browse around you will no doubt be able to keep up with the play, and even watch footage of some of the games. Enjoy.

Have you ever considered writing poetry? Sometimes poets, and songwriters for that matter, find it difficult to find a term or word that rhymes with what they already have. Thus, An Online Rhyming Dictionary for Poetry and Songwriting is a site that could help when needed, and maybe is one you might like to bookmark for those times when the muse takes your fancy and you need help. Great idea.

Diamonds may well be a girl's best friend, to coin a phrase, but if you don't know much about what color means in each of them you may find that the ones you like really aren't all that good. To find out and become educated on the color of diamonds hop over to the Color Diamond Encyclopedia and have a read. Interesting stuff.

You may or may not know that I've just completed a three week course in pain management at the Wesley Hospital in Brisbane. As I have Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, which is a chronic condition (it doesn't ever get better) this course was necessary to try and help me find ways to cope with the pain I have. Indeed, I must say that I've learned a terrific amount about this condition and have improved my own physical fitness and have discovered ways to reduce and better manage the pain medication I was taking in the process. If you are afflicted with chronic pain of some sort (pain that lasts longer than 12 weeks) then talk with your doctor and have him/her refer you to either a pain clinic in your area, or, if you are in Queensland Australia, have a look at the Welcome to Wesley site, then scroll down to Pain Management Program and read that and get enrolled as soon as possible. It isn't easy, but the folk there, one and all, are truly professional and do help in managing that pain. Thank you all at the Wesley who helped so much over the past three weeks. You really are a great team and you help so many.

If you have a family who use the net for school or educational purposes, or simply for enjoyment, you naturally are concerned about what they do, where they go, and what types of information they may be exposed to. I would like to suggest that you, as a family, visit the SafetyEd International site and help your family learn about safety on the net. Everyone can become embroiled in sections of the net that may be less than useful, so why not learn how to not have that happen? Have a look and I think you'll find this a useful site for the whole family to see.

You have no doubt used a map at one time or another, to find your way in a strange place. Making maps is not only an art, it is also a science, and the site known as Oddens' Bookmarks delves into the fascinating world of maps and mapping. If you've ever tried to find make your own map for others to understand you'll have some idea what I'm talking about. Have a look.

Will the net ever get tired of spam enough that we see the end of it? I doubt that will ever happen. The reason being that, as much as we all complain about it, it still is effective advertising and many hapless internet users do click on the stupid things. As long as that happens the advertisers will continue to use this intrusive method of dragging you to their clients sites. One way to learn about this scourge of the net and what to do about it is to visit the Getting Rid of Spam and Other E-mail Pests - by Randy Cassingham site, reading it, and putting it into practice. Randy has been around a lot of years and he does know what he's talking about. Have a read of his site, friends. It will help with your own understanding.

I seem to remember as a child, seeing the joy my father got when, at Christmas or on his birthday, someone gave him a box of good cigars. My mother would complain but he would smile and put them away for special occasions. I also remember that some of those boxes were decorated with some impressive paintings and artwork. Now folk have collections of nothing more than Cigar Box Art and some, like this site, let you see what the fuss is about. I must admit this brought back some memories. The artwork was really quite good, especially seeing as it ended up on cigar boxes. Enjoy.

Rebecca Game of "Digital Women - Women with their modems running...", is a graphic designer who is superb to say the least. Rebecca designed this "new look" web site specifically for me, and I can't praise her work enough. Her site, dedicated to women on the net, is worth seeing and bookmarking for future reference. If you are looking for links of interest to women, please visit her site. And if you need the best graphic designer on the planet, I seriously can't recommend her more highly. Oh yes, and when you visit her site, tell her Mac sent you. Thank you Rebecca. I am eternally grateful for your assistance and expertise. ;-)