Mac's Picks is a collection of family friendly interesting and useful sites, updated weekly. These sites are family friendly, and cover subjects dealing with search, internet, internet radio, news, health, medical resources, household hints, education, educational resources, recipes, food, strange, different, help pages, homework, kids, diy, 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 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.

New Things

Two things have recently happened that you may well be unaware of. They are as follows:

1. If you look near the bottom of this page you will see a poll dealing with the categories of sites you might like to see more of. I don't collect personal data from you at any time, but do ask that you take a moment and let me know, by clicking on your favourite category, what type of site you would like to see. If the category is not listed, then please email me with that information (see the right side of this page for the "Contact Me" link) and I will try to add that as well. You have, by your regular weekly visit to my family friendly category site, made this site into one that receives over 500 people per day at times, so why not have your input into what I show as well? Please also read the "Why How Info" link on the right side of this page to see the criteria I use. Thank you in advance for your help.

2. I recently attended what is known as the Winter Sun Festival held here on the Gold Coast of Australia and on that link you will see some of the photos I took of the restored and/or modified cars that attend that annual event. The festival is really built around 1950s - 1960s Rock and Roll, including the dancing which goes on all week long, and this fantastic display of motor vehicles that accompanies the festival. This must be the largest display of hotrods in Australia so if you like interesting vehicles, have a look. Likewise, if you had a car there and/or know someone who did, let them know that their car may well be on this site too. Enjoy.

You most likely are aware that there are numerous sites online that have good looking wallpapers you can download and install on your desktop to make it more personally your own. Of course, you could do the same with a high resolution digital photo of your own as well. There is a blog that has wallpapers that the blog writer says are women-friendly wallpapers. I'd have thought that they were simply friendly wallpapers myself, but if you hop over to the Rupr.com site and have a look (and maybe download a few of the wallpapers that are listed there for your own use) you can then make up your own mind on the subject. Worth a look.

Do you use spices in your cooking? Of course you do. But how much do you really know about spices in general? The Epicentre Exotic Spices site not only contains the Encyclopaedia of Spices but also recipes so that you can try many of them out. This site is certainly worth a bookmark so you'll always know what goes with what, and why.

You'll notice that I've taken up digital photography as a bit of a hobby recently, as evidenced by the photos on the Flickr site I've put u of the Winter Sun Festival here. However, were you aware that Photoblogs.org - The Photoblog Resource site will also show you how to turn your own photos into what is known as a photoblog? Have a look. It's could be an interesting hobby to say the least.

Moms, especially those on their own bringing up families themselves, certainly deserve a lot of credit and some help as well. That is why I found The Mom Pack Moms Promoting Moms through creating Mom Packs = FREE Advertising For Moms site of interest. They state that they "are a group of moms in business who work together to build our businesses". Sounds worth a visit to me. Have a look and join them in their efforts.

The folk at TechCrunch have a site devoted to comparing online "To-Do Lists" and showing you that if used properly, these online collaboration sites can help you save time and organize your workload, at times in conjunction with others. Hop over to the TechCrunch " Do More Online To Do Lists Compared site and see which ones they suggest are five of the best. This might help you in your workday as well.

I love finding sites for our young folk that are interesting, safe, and make learning fun. That's the case with the Planet Ozkids - A world of learning, fun and games for kids site. To quote them, "Planet Ozkids, a safe environment where children can satisfy their natural curiosity and sense of adventure". Nice to see that it's an Australian site as well.

I recently heard about a new service from Microsoft in the security area, where they will scan your system online and quite possibly find things that even your anti-spyware and anti-virus may have missed. I took up the challenge, went to the Windows Live Safety Center Free online scanner for PC health and safety site, and let it do it's thing and though it is slow, even over cable broadband, it did indeed find some things that my anti-virus and anti-spyware had missed. Those things are now dead (thankfully) but it's good enough that I think you should give it a try as well. It's easy to do but plan on letting it do its thing for a few hours. Having said that, it's well worth the effort and a brilliant piece of online software.

This next site is a little hard to classify in that it's a tribute to a subculture that, if you've ever spent hours of your misspent youth in smokey, well kept, quiet pool halls as I did, will bring back a flood of memories. The standard motion site is a group of photos taken at "The Golden Q" in Woodside Long Island New York (where my wife was born). The photos and explanation on the left (click the thumbnails above the explanation to see all of the photos) certainly portray a dieing culture, and make no mistake, it once played a very big part of American culture. Memories of bygone felts and friends who were hustlers flood this Old Guys mind (and yes, I can now honestly call myself that as I turn 65 tomorrow) though I was never much good at the game. 125 Straight? Sure. I'll break - Cue off the top rail - 15-10-6-3-1 combination,1 ball two cushions in the left side pocket. All bets down?

I've used Microsoft Excel since finally changing from the then king of the hill, Lotus 123, because Excel could do things that Lotus couldn't, at least not as easily. If you use Excel, why not hop over to the Microsoft Office Training Get to know Excel Enter formulas site and see what you can pick up? It's a great program and not many I know, including me, even scratch the surface of its potential.

Ever thought of making a video? I mean one that you might put up to see if someone at the Top 100 - Google Video site might nominate for a larger audience? If you have some time to spare, have a look (and bookmark it to return to) as it normally contains some amazing videos for your enjoyment. I especially recommend the one titled Amazing Juggling Finale by Chris Bliss. That one in particular is worth the trip. However, unlike that particular one, be aware that not all of them may be appropriate for younger viewers.

A dear friend of mine, and my golfing partner for almost 30 years in New Zealand always felt she really was born in the wrong century. In some ways I agreed with her and thus, the Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1895. A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895 site will appeal to anyone who is interested in that particular era. Gill, enjoy.

Optical illusions are things that have always fascinated me. I can remember a real world one my family always enjoyed visiting on trips to Canada, called "Magnetic Hill" outside the city of Moncton New Brunswick from memory. However, we now have them online as well. An amazing one can be found at the Optical Illusion - Big Spanish Castle site. Let it load, then stare at the dot (it's small but it's there) for 30 seconds. Then, without moving your eyes, move your mouse over the image. It will look like it's in colour - until you move your eyes. Now that's strange.

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. ;-)