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 us 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.

I love good food. And I'm not alone in that quest for interesting and good tasting food. Many are like me in that regard. However, how much Favorite Spanish Food Recipes have you ever tried? I'm not talking about all hot chilies either, but a mix of delicious sounding things to try. Have a look and fire up those taste buds (yes, pun intended). ;-)

If you're a music buff, you will enjoy the AMG All Music Guide site. They have various artists, albums, songs, styles etc for you to see and browse though. Nice site actually.

How about having a look at something really innovative? There is a robotic newsreader on the net you really should see. In fact Ananova, (yes, that's its name) is even in the Guinness Book of Records.

I know men can't multi-task like women, but even I had to chuckle at the Dull Men's Club site. Yeah, guess we're dull all right. Now, where is the Nascar, rugby, golf, cricket, and baseball schedules for the weekend? ;-)

You've noticed that I have a blog for those who don't have the time to read what I say about the sites I pick for that week, but want to know what I've found for the week, and that I've also found other blogs that I share with you. Well, isn't it time you started your own blog? If you hop over to the Free blogging, journaling, publishing at Blog-City.com site you can do just that. Come on now, isn't it time you joined the revolution and started yours today? Who knows? You might find many others who enjoy reading your thoughts as well.

So, you have a bit of the Blarney Stone in your shoe do ya'? Then it's time to hop over to the CELT The online resource for Irish history, literature and politics site and have a wee bit of a browse around I'll wager. I can even hear my own ancestors wondering why it took me so long to catch up. Enjoy.

Many folk enjoy gardening, my wife being one. I, unfortunately, am more the type who enjoys walking through them rather than digging in them. A woman in the Pacific Northwest of the North American continent enjoys it and apparently is very good at it as well. If you hop over to the Elisabeth C. Miller Library Home Page site you will find that she enjoys working with gardeners in her area of the world, but also has some useful tips for those of us living in other parts of the world. Outside of the types of plants used, most gardens have, as their basis, reasonably similar techniques. Have a look. You might start looking at your patch of ground with new interest again.

Search engines are all well and good, but you do know that doing all of your searches at only one search engine is a recipe for not finding what you seek. However, when someone comes up with a multi-search site like the Queryster.com site, where you search 10 search engines at the same time, then you raise your chances of finding that elusive site you need. Enjoy, and add this one to your bookmarks (favorites) for future use.

I'm a music nut. Yes, I enjoy instrumental classical, small combo jazz, old hard rock, and the odd country piece (don't tell anyone - chuckles). I recently found an interesting site called the InfoChopin site. Events, places, organizations and music of Frederic Chopin can all be found here. He was such a prolific composer that it amazes me his large body of work is not more well known. Have a look. You might find some favorites you didn't know he wrote here.

Here in "The Land Down Under" we do tend to do things differently. For instance, there is a federal election looming on the horizon, and to stir things up a bit, one of our national television channels, Seven.com.au - channel 7, and in particular, the morning breakfast show called "Sunrise" decided to hold a contest where listeners from each state wrote in and sent in a video saying what they would like to work toward if they were a member of the Australian Parliament. The station would then select two or three finalists from each state, and the listeners would then vote who would be sponsored in each state by the channel to the tune of $10,000 toward an election campaign. Well, talk about throwing a hen among the chickens. The political parties were in an uproar, but being the Australian consumers we are, they weren't going to get away with that. So, yes, this week sees the final tally of votes for one candidate from each state to run for national government. My feeling? Well done!! A pity other television channels in other countries didn't do the same thing. That way maybe, just maybe, the people's voice actually would be heard for a change. Have a look and see what you think.

There is, as you may well know, a plethora of new web browsers available for you to download and try out. One of the newest is one called NetCaptor and it can be downloaded and installed from this site. It is a tabbed browser, i.e. it opens each new web site in a new tab. You can then flick back and forth between tabs if necessary. Personally I like that, and hope that MS gets the hint and incorporates it in their next version of Internet Explorer, don't you?

When speaking with folk on the net in various places around the globe, one subject that often springs up is what the weather is like where I live. Well, the place is called the Gold Coast in the Australian state of Queensland, and the particular place is known as Surfers Paradise. If that doesn't give you an idea of what it's like here, hop over to the WRL Coastal Imaging Home Page site and look at the various cameras located on the Gold Coast beaches. Oh, just a note: we only have one spare bedroom *chuckles*

You know by now that there are interesting sites, educational sites, recipe sites, informational sites, and some sites that are simply strange. There is even one known as Emily the Strange. Ok, maybe it's not all that strange, but in some ways it is. She is 13 years old, and by her own admission is "She is anti-cool, a subculture of one, and a follower of no one but herself". I think she is also something folk her age would like to see, so here she is.

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. ;-)