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 Monday 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.

If you've ever seen someone on television fold a tee shirt in one simple move, normally so fast you actually can't see how it's done, and wished someone would show you how, then hop over to the How To Fold A Shirt - Stop For Nothing Funny Videos and Stuff site and prepare to learn. It looked so good on TV but no one would do it slow enough for this old timer to get how it was done. This site does, plus it has a lot of other things that might be useful as well. Now, don't hesitate, go watch how to fold those shirts then ... go tidy up your room. *chuckles*

You've heard me go on and on about blogs and most likely have heard others do the same. If you've thought to yourself "Hey, I could do that" and then not found where to start, hop over to the Weblogs.us - free Wordpress blog hosting site which does just what it says, helps you write your own blog and then will host it for you as well. Go on - you can do it, and if it's family friendly send it along to me. Who knows, you might become a Pick of the Week yourself.

Some of the people I admire the most are those involved in the education of children or adults. I've been there, done that, and though it can be interesting and rewarding in some ways, it can also be darn hard work. If you think it's easy, consider bringing home an additional two hours work with you to do every night, unpaid. Therefore I suggest that anyone involved in this profession have a look at the Education Atlas® - Online Map to Education, Online Degrees and Distance Learning which was sent to me recently and is full of useful info, even lesson plans, for various subjects at various year level students. If it helps to make your life easier, then you deserve it. Enjoy.

If you have younger members of your family close enough to see often or visit with regularly, then when gift giving time rolls around you, like all of us, are probably stumped at trying to figure out what toy to buy them that they actually might play with longer than they do the packaging. Well, the FamilyFun website shows you the top 10 toys as voted for by kids in 2005. This group does a massive test of toys each year, simply by putting children in a room filled with all the latest toys, and then watches, over a period of time, to see which ones they still play with over and over again. Armed with that kind of info hopefully your toy selection job just got a lot easier. Guess where I'll figure out what my grandsons will get during our gift giving time this year? *smiles*

Like most folk you probably use Google as your favored search tool. Nothing wrong with that but do try your search on other search engines as well. They don't always have the same things. And, to find out which ones there are to do searches on, do a search for "Search Engines" on Google (with the quotes attached) and it will show you the other ones *smile*. But, back to Google. If you are armed with the Google Guide Quick Reference Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet), and yes, I would advise printing this one off and keep it handy to the computer, you'll find out how to make Google work even more for you. It's actually much more than you think a search tool normally could be. Have a look, bookmark it, then print it off and go searching.

Most of you know I love good food. Indeed, for dinner tonight we're making our own pizza dough in our bread making machine, and then constructing pizza exactly the way we want it, not how someone in a shop we don't know thinks we want it. Anyway, there are so many recipe sites online that each week I try to find a different one for you to look at, and the US Television channel, TheOmahaChannel.com - KETV 7 - Amy Schmid's Friday Recipes will show you what Amy Schmid has come up with this week. To be frank most of the things she has sound pretty good to me. Have a look. It might spark something new for you to try as well.

Ok, hands up all those who have young children, in particular young female children, in their home? Those of you with your hands up know how difficult it can be to find a website with things that are safe and are oriented to them in particular. Well, take them to the Diva Starz site (note: Take them, don't 'send' them) and you might find it's just what you were looking for. Everything from Doggie Daycare to Furryville, and Barbie to The Kelly Club are right here. Now that may not mean much to me but it just might to your younger family member. Enjoy it with them.

One of the things that is easy to obtain anywhere in the world is a bad credit history. In fact, you don't even necessarily have to do anything wrong to get one. But, if you have one, then your chance of getting a fair deal when you do need financial help might be severely limited. One site, that unfortunately I've only been able to find in the USA (what's wrong with your own government ensuring the same is available for you?) is called the Credit Scoring site. You not only can find out what your score is, but also what to do to change it. Great idea and I suggest we all should have such a help from our governments as well, don't you agree?

If you've ever had the misfortune of needing to boot (turn your pc on - not throw it out the window) a computer that doesn't want to start, then you know how frustrating it can be. However, if you have a bootable floppy disk (you made one when you first got your computer ... right?) or if you don't have a floppy drive, at least a bootable CD, then you're fine. Um, you don't have a bootable CD? Then hop over to the Emergency Boot CD Homepage site, read it, then do as it says, and you'll have a bootable CD in the format you now have, as this site will help you create one. Hooray for those who want to help the rest of us. These folk do. This is a well done site and worth passing on to all of your friends and family as well.

Folk all over the globe have opinions on things. The problem is that most of us never really get to hear what someone thinks from another country or another culture than our own. The Global Voices Online site is composed of normal people like you and I talking with others via blogs etc from around the world about things that affect us all. And yes, there are things in this world and on this planet that affect us all and maybe, just maybe, someone else from another country or culture might have an answer that might help you and the rest of us. Very interesting site, but take your time and read and listen to what others think. You don't have to agree with everyone, but at least hearing their point of view is helpful.

Most males (yes, me included) never figured out why some people simply seem to crave different foods. I know, the hormone thing plays a big part in pregnancy but what about outside of that? If your body craves some particular thing is it trying to tell you you're deficient in something? The folk at the Naturopathyworks site seem to think so and their site is interesting to say the least. Maybe it means that our bodies actually do try and let us know what they need. Maybe - but I'll let you make up your own mind. Now, where did I put that extra dark chocolate bar?

If, like many around the globe, you enjoy firework displays, then you'll love the site made by, of all people, the folk who make the most popular crayons on the planet, called the Crayola® Creativity Central Fireworks Spectacular site. Just read the directions and follow them and you'll create your own fireworks display right there online. This is a great "what will I do while having coffee" site. 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. ;-)