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 know anything of the Hawaiian Islands you will know that the island of Hawaii is also known as "The Big Island". It also has many top class restaurants focusing on local produce and local seafood. Thus it would come as no surprise to find a site called Big Island Chef where you can view some taste tempting treats for you and yours to enjoy. Have fun, and Aloha.

If you are a frequent visitor you will know that I enjoy making various things about blogs a pick of the week. If you're still a bit baffled by this terminology and use of the net, you might do well to hop over to the essays weblogs a history and perspective site and read a very good history about blogs and how they began. This is a real source of good info for those who wish to know the background of blogging.

How good is your health? Is work - family - lifestyle draining you of all the energy you once had? What about the food you eat? Is it the right time to try and regain some of that vigor of yesteryear? If so, hop over to the littleguru online magazine site and have a read of their excellent publication. It's worth keeping up with the latest thoughts on regaining your life.

I am one of those who always want to know what's new, what's exciting, and what is just around the corner. Looking at the net, which grows at such a fantastic rate daily, one could become swamped with knowledge, much of it useless. Not so the website known as KenRadio Broadcasting as it is a radio program about tech and net stuff from a techo newscaster. No, it's not too "geeky" for you to understand and it does give you a fascinating look at what is coming soon.

How well do the younger members of your family know about being safe online? For that matter, how much do you know about it so that you can teach the young ones how to use the net and be safe doing it? A hop over to the Cybersmart Kids Online site will show you that it is, in their own words, "A young person's guide to surfing the Net, using email and chatrooms, the smart way" and that "parents can learn important tips on safe ways to enjoy the best of the Internet, whilst protecting children from the worst" plus "Teachers can use the lesson plan, online teaching resources and homework tips to help kids be cybersmart.". That has to be good. Have a look and put it into practice at your place.

My family and I love going to the movies. However, we have been known in the past to probably ruin some films for others by pointing out some of the clichés and silliness in some films. Thus, The Movie Clichés List is a site of great joy to us, simply if only because it shows us that we're not alone in picking out some of them. For instance, did you ever notice that"All members of alien species wear the same outfits, including clothing, hairstyles, and jewelery"? We have, and so have those who wrote this list. Maybe you can submit some of your own to help this list expand *smile*.

With the price of petrol skyrocketing recently, a look at the Cars - MSN Autos site might just be a peek at the future of your own transportation. I personally favor the hydrogen powered alternative to the internal combustion engine. After all, here in Australia most of us can use all the water we can get, and these cars produce just that rather than noxious fumes. See what you think.

We are indeed fortunate to live in an age that has so many Great Men and Women of the World, and also that we have a website reminding us of who they are. There are more great minds alive now than ever before. Maybe there is hope for us all yet.

You will no doubt know that there are many different browsers beside Internet Explorer to look at the web with. I personally favor Firefox as a useful alternative, and at the mboverloadPAK site you will also find all kinds of plugins for Firefox to make it an even more useful browser. Have a look and give Firefox a try.

Are you a news gatherer? I suppose in many ways, I am in that I follow certain stories or subjects in various news sources. Thus, the NewsGator Online site, which allows you to create your own online news source to track your favorite subjects, is going to be a real help to people like me. Try it. You may like it as well.

If you know me or know anything about me you'll know that not only am I a fan of good jazz, but I'm also a died-in-the-wool Sinatra fan. Thus, the site named The Sounds of Sinatra with Sid Mark, which is a US radio show that features all of his work, and the work of those who backed him in various ways, is a great site to lose yourself in. You can even listen to the show online (if you can work out the time difference) and, if you like The Chairman of the Board's music, this site will bring you as much joy as it does me. Enjoy.

There are some innovative blogs out there to be read, that's for sure. One of the cleverest is called Sam & Susie's Blog and you could be forgiven for thinking it is simply one done by two people, that is until you find out that it is a dog and his owner who purport to write the blog. Fun, even if a little strange. *smile*

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. ;-)