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.

Blogs are happening all over the world. If you're interested in seeing what your British neighbors are saying, then the British Blog Directory - BritBlog is one site you may find helpful. Remember, blogs are utilities, like published journals everywhere, that you may find agreement with, but you may find them disagreeable as well. The thought here is to become exposed to different thinking. Interesting site.

How personalized is your computer screen? Does it reflect you as a person, your likes and/or dislikes, or does it simply advertise software, or indeed, look at clouds? MikeBonnell.com - Computer Wallpaper, Backgrounds, Screen Savers and Ecards - THE FREE SITE is a site that, as it says, has all kinds of things for you to download and install for free. A nice way to personalize your computer.

We love helping our children learn, and we also love seeing them happy and playing. Ideally those two things should be intertwined but more often than not, are separate things. The science toy maker home page is a site for kids and those who have kids, from Exploratorium, that combines fun and science in one package. I think this is the type of thing that my grandson could use. Can yours?

I know you'll remember how to remove chewing gum from your carpet (an ice cube rubbed over it will harden it enough to remove it with a stiff brush) but there are many other things that you could do around the house if you knew how to. One of the sites that may help with hints that could be helpful around the house is the Household Tips & Other Good Ideas site. Browse around it and see what other useful info you can find. It's well worth a look.

I had some interesting chicken this weekend when dining with friends, that was chicken cooked in a coconut milk and shallot and rice sauce. And yes, it was yummy. However there are some recipes on the Southern Recipes site that sound interesting as well. For instance the crab and corn chowder with fresh crab and fresh corn and no curry powder but capsicum instead sounds right up my alley. Sorry, I can't handle curry in any form. Hop over and see how you might change some of these to suit your own taste.

One of the things that we all need is a way to keep our brain ticking over. Mankind, in general, works better solving problems than at any other time it is in use. Thus, the Braingle Brain Teasers, Puzzles, Riddles and Games site should provide you with enough material to keep yours ticking over as well. Enjoy.

On the recent Pain Management course I took for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy at the Wesley Pain Management Program (scroll down their page and click that name) we learned that one way to combat pain is to relax and shift your attention onto something else. I then found the Ambient Water Video Aquarium DVD , which is much more than just a fake aquarium on your TV, it is one of the most relaxing DVDs to look at while trying to get your mind off pain I've ever seen. Yes it's a commercial product and no, I don't make anything from it, but if it helps you as it's helped me (while entertaining my grandson as well) then it's worth the small price. Have a look and see what you think.

Most folk reading my site would know that the name of Barbara Walters is synonymous with good interviews of many of the people we have heard about in the news. However, did you know that the folk at About.com has a site called Barbara Walters Honors 100 Women which shows the top 100 interviews she has done with women? It's a great site and if your system is up to it, a wonderful way to see a top knotch interviewer do her thing with some of the best loved and most influential women of our time. Have a look. You won't be disappointed.

Most folk are conscious of ecology in one sense or another. We all know that if we are not ecologically minded then our environment is not going to survive, for ourselves or our children or grandchildren. Thus, sites like the EPOW Ecology Picture of the Week - ARCHIVE by Date site constantly reminds us that we have an obligation not only to future generations but to our own as well. Have a look and sign up. It may be just the impetus you need.

As you may or may not know, the OECD makes assessments of the economies of many of the world's countries. The Economic Survey of Australia - 2004 shows you what we here in Australia were like a year ago. It also postulates, based on those figures, where we may be headed in the future. The OECD, or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, usually aren't all that far off on their predictions, whether governments like it or not. Interesting read.

If you're a business who still uses fax machines ( I refuse to but that's a whole other story) then you'll know that you occasionally get advertising faxes as well, junk faxes in fact. It you want to find out who is sending them, hop over to the How to determine who sent you that junk fax site and read up on how to track then down. Then - go get 'em.

You'll know that there are apparently many things that each of us should do before we move on to the next stages of development. However, did you realize that most of us are the same in what we want? Have a look at the 43 Things that people want to do with their life site and see what you think of the list so far. Remember, you too can contribute to this level of understanding. So the next question has to be, "What do you want to do with your life?" You might find inspiration here.

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. ;-)