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.

Did you know that in this Gregorian year of 2006 that the Chinese New Year starts on the 29th of January and lasts for 15 days? Indeed, if you are not Chinese yourself you, like me, probably know little about this world wide celebration. In that case hop over to the Chinese New Year - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia site and find out all you can about this important festival of celebration. And to one and all, a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I love it when different cultures and religions, etc. include children in their festivities. Thus, the Kids Domain - Chinese New Year site gets a special Pick of the Week mention as it not only is fun but also shows things that can be done by the young to incorporate things about a holiday that their culture finds significant. Might I suggest that it is also a great site for non-Chinese children to visit as well, as I feel the more all of us know about, and participate in, each others celebrations, the less likely we are to come to misunderstandings as we become older. Why not have your young family members do one of the projects here and present it to a Chinese family of your acquaintance? A nice way to say Happy New Year.

They say that travel broadens the mind. I actually agree with that and thus the blog known as Right This Way...The Fodor's Blog, which is a blog about travel around the world, is a great read. Yes, it's put up by a commercial site, but at least it does describe travel in places around the globe that you might consider visiting one day yourself. Have a read and enjoy.

It isn't often that I come across software that I am particularly taken with. Maybe it's old age (chuckles). However, I just this past week came across one of the nicest and most useful pieces of Freeware (which means you never have to pay for it) I've seen in a while, and it's found at the Desktop Sidebar Home Page. Desktop Sidebar is a utility that fits nicely at the side of your screen with one click methods of using many programs you already have on your computer. For instance, it will give you a glimpse at your email, it will give you a slide show in miniature of all of the images on your computer, it will show you stock reports, news, local weather, and the list goes on and on. If you want to give it a try, when at their site, scroll down to the bottom, click on "download", then click on the latest beta version. I've personally found that to be the best one. In the mean time, after you've downloaded it and installed it, just go to your start menu and click Desktop Sidebar and it will load for you. As most things, it won't suit everyone but for general ease of access to a lot of programs you have (and a few you don't have) I think it's a great piece of software, and you certainly can't beat the Freeware price. Enjoy.

There are many commercial companies that not only have sites that are showcases for their products, but that also offer some useful addition at no charge to the Internet community. Thus, the MASTERFOODS BBQ Recipes site is certainly worth a look. Yes, they talk about their food products, etc, but they do have some tasty sounding recipes for you to try on your BBQ this summer. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, give them a try now. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, your turn is coming *smiles*.

There is a particular site that has a bunch of tricks that could be useful for you to try, with a very strange name of 43 Folders. Where the name came from I have no idea, but the point is that this site is a site that just keeps getting better and better. It contains a bunch of tricks, hacks, and other cool stuff, that might change your life online. Have a look and bookmark this one to check back on every now and then.

There is something about archeology that stirs most folk into a brief look into the past. Some archeological sites seem to drift out of the mainstream and then all of a sudden they are back in the news again. One such site deals with the ancient city of Sagalassos, and is called the Interactive Dig Sagalassos City in the Clouds site. Some of the things found at this dig are amazing and hard to understand. For instance this city was once apparently known as the City of Fairies. Have a look and keep up with what's happening here. The frescos alone are worth a look.

How fashion conscious are you? Most folk are somewhat conscious of what they wear, but how does your fashion compare with, say, that found on the streets of Helsinki Finland? Well, one intrepid reporter goes out into the street and photographs styles and then publishes them on the net for you to see. Do have a look at the HEL LOOKS Kari (28) site. HEL LOOKS is selected street fashion from Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The pictures are taken in the streets and clubs of Helsinki from July 2005 onwards. Just click the next at the bottom of the photo and you'll know what fashion can do even if it looks bad. And yes, some of it does, but hey, some looks pretty good as well. An interesting look into another way of seeing culture.

One of the better known courts in the world is the Supreme Court of the USA. Their decisions impinge on court decisions that interpret US law in ways that at times, is hard to understand, but interesting none the less. Thus the Landmark Supreme Court Cases - HOME site makes for an interesting read. Have a look.

If you're a gardener of any kind, a full time horticulturalist or indeed, a backyard weekend digger and planter of soil, you're going to enjoy having a look at the Ohio State University WebGarden as it contains all sort of useful things. It even has a plant specific search facility attached to it, so you can find what the odd plant in your backyard really is. Have a look. You might find things here that will make your own garden grow more abundantly.

As frequent long time visitors to my site will know, my family and I spent over 30 years in New Zealand, the beautiful country where Lord Of The Rings was filmed (along with many other award winning films). If you've ever thought of making a trip down to the South Pacific, hop over to the Virtual tour of New Zealand and indeed, have a browse around. And of course, when you make that trip to this part of the world, you might also consider hopping across the Tasman Sea to the Gold Coast of Australia, where I presently live. Both places are worth a look.

"All online gamers are kids with too much time on their hands" right? Um, apparently not. If you hop over and read the news story on the BBC NEWS In pictures Online gamers unmasked site you might just get a bit of a surprise to see who is behind some of the better known masks in some of the more popular online games. Hopefully not everything learned in some of the games will be used in business, but it's worth knowing that some of the more powerful business people in the world are gamers as well. Have a look and "Happy Gaming".

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. ;-)