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.

That time of year is upon us again. I'm sure that you are aware that the Jewish celebration of Hanukah (or Hanukkah, or Chanukah - how ever you spell it when you use the term) starts on the 8th of December and runs until the 15th of December this year. To see that things are planned for the children to celebrate about this festival, hop over to the Hanukkah Crafts - Kids Hanukkah Craft Ideas and have a browse around. Of course, the Christain celebration of Christmas is also on the 25th of December this, and every year. And to see what those children have in store, though not only from a child's perspective, have a look at the aptly named Kids Domain - Christmas site. At this point let me send my family's best wishes to you all, no matter what particular holiday or religious festival you may be celebrating at this time.

Of course, with celebrations in swing, food is a major part of each one of them. Thus, a look in at the iChef.com Free Recipes - Cake Recipes Fudgy Hanukkah Cake site and also at the All Recipes Christmas site could prove interesting and possibly entice you to try these yourself. Happy eating *smile*.

Keeping track of the various religious holidays or celebrations can be a daunting task. However the INTERFAITH CALENDAR does an excellent job of trying to remember all of them, so that no matter what religion you may be, you'll find this calendar of events worth a bookmark.

I was recently shown a wonderful site by the site authors, and since at this time of year, the theme in the northern hemisphere is cold conditions, I wanted to share this site with you as well. The site, Bryan and Cherry Alexander Photography - Arctic pictures, Antarctic pictures, Siberian photographs, Polar bear photographs is, admittedly wanting to ensure you know about their book and wonderful photography for sale, but it also gives you a glimpse into the absolutely fantastic people behind these amazing photographs. These photos, taken by Barry and Cherry Alexander, are nothing short of fantastic. My hat goes off to them for putting up with unbelievable cold conditions to get these amazing photos. You think you have it cold during winter? Have a look and see what real cold is all about. Wonderful site.

No doubt, whether you've seen his work or not, you know about Michael Moore. Love him or hate his work, you still know he's there and doing what he considers to be the right thing. I am not going to go into the debate about his work, but I will point you in the direction of his blog. You can see it at the Michael Moore.com Mike's Message Blog site, and catch up with what he's doing at present.

Search engines have come a long way from the original ones. Search engines such as WebCrawler and Yahoo are still there of course, but if you're slightly vision impaired, there are times when you wish there was one that would help you as well. The Speegle Speak Perfect Web Search. site has gone one more step to make a good search facility that not only finds quality sites, but reads the returns to you. You pick the female or male voice, and enter your search criteria, then settle back and listen to the returns. So, turn up your speakers, hop over to this relatively new search facility, and try it out. I think it's one of the more innovative things I've personally seen in a long time. Well done.

You may well have heard recently on the news of the rocket powered plane that can travel to the edge of space and then fly back to ground again. To find out more about this exciting prospect for travel to the edge of space, hop over to the Virgin Galactic site and browse around. The folk at Virgin Airways will most likely be the first to offer this flight in future, so why not start looking into it now? Wow, what a holiday gift idea that would be. *smiles*

My admiration for some teachers and their ability to teach our younger folk is boundless. Those individuals who really want to teach, who become innovative in the methods they use to get ideas across to the young ones is fantastic. And, to help make that job even easier and more productive the TeacherNet site is a must see site. If you are a teacher, do hop over and join other teachers from around the world to make your own efforts in education that much more productive.

Many folk collect things. Some collections are a little harder to understand than others, but the Glass Museum site isn't that difficult to understand but still remains fascinating. Hop over, click on their logo and have a look at this wonderful art form. Well done.

Being that time of year when people spend money on others, even online, you must still use the same caution about purchasing things online as you would in real life. However, even then you can get scalped by unscrupulous traders on the net. If you feel you've been done over by someone, report them to the Welcome to NetScalped.com site. They describe themselves as "Your Source for News & Links about Internet Fraud, Scams, & Hoaxes!". Here you will also find good info on what to watch out for, as well as a facility to blow the whistle on wrongdoers. Good site to have a read over before you make those online purchases. Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is *smile*.

Some folk have used, and even purchased, an email program (alternative to Outlook) called Blomba. If you are one of those, you should read the Stata Labs - Blomba Announcement as soon as possible. In essence, Stata Labs, the producers of Bloomba, has been bought by Yahoo, so if you are using it as an email client, it might pay to watch this site for details of what will happen to it next . I think I'll stick with Outlook.

If you come to my site on a regular basis you'll know that the last item often is something a little different than normal. This week's site isn't really so much strange, as interesting. Hop over to Melvyn Wright's World of Vintage Slot Machines - pennyslots.co.uk and have a browse around. You have to admit, it's quite a collection. And the good part? It's reasonably difficult to lose money to yourself *smiles*. 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. ;-)