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 use the Previously Awarded Sites link on the right side of my page, you will notice a sizeable increase in the amount of links this week. The reason is that I have redone the Diabetic Recipes site, done away with dead links that were there, and added quite a few new diabetic recipe links. As always, when a page is used on my site it gets added to the "Previously Awarded Sites" link. If you know of someone with diabetes, please pass my page on to them. It may help.

Speaking of health issues, the BBC - Health site, which of course deals with health programs the BBC airs in the UK, has some great links dealing with all kind of health issues. You, or a member of your family or friends, may find it of use in explaining what a particular condition is, how it affects people, and how it can be treated.

There are blogs dealing with all kinds of subjects as you know. One interesting one I recently came across is the Worldtrains.comblog. It deals with all manner of trains and railroad stories. If you share a common interest with these folk in their love of all things rail oriented, have a look and join them in their discussions.

Cosmetics are something that few males understand, yet some of the largest names in cosmetics are indeed, males. Having said that, they also can be horrendously expensive for what they are, and if you find that to be true, you may well enjoy the Beauty Recipes at MakeYourCosmetics.com site. Who knows how much money you could save if you do it on your own? Enjoy.

One of the heartwarming things about the majority of children around the world is that they tend to try and help each other. To my way of thinking, that is as it should be and adults should be doing the same. To that end, you might be interested in having a look at the Free the Children - children helping children through education site. It really is children helping children. If you have children of your own, it might be a useful idea to enlist their and their classroom's aid in this project.

If you are a fan of televised cooking shows you will no doubt know Jamie Oliver, aka "The Naked Chef". Jamie has had his share of ups and downs but he always seems to ultimately bounce back and continue with what is one of the great recipe shows on TV. You must admit, most of the things he makes are reasonably easy, and fun as well. Great site for new ideas.

As you will know, there are various charity organizations around the globe that deserve praise for their sterling efforts in the aid of those in need. One such organization that also deserves praise, but that you may not have heard of, is the Feinstein International Famine Center which was "established in 1966 to improve humanitarian relief and refugee efforts in times of famine, war, and complex emergencies". Now that's not an easy task to take on, but you'll notice that their site is housed at Tufts University in the US, so it's not just some fly by night organization. Have a look. I was impressed and think you might be as well.

One of our grandson's favorite characters is a fellow who dresses up in a pair of coveralls, with a toolbox and hammer and saw at the ready (like all Big Guys do) called Bob the Builder. If you have a youngster around the 1 - 7 year age group, you might already know about him. If you don't know about Bob, you and your child should. His favorite saying? " Can we fix it? Yes We Can!!" Now that's a positive attitude.

When speaking to various groups interested in utilizing the net to good advantage, I try to stress the fact that the Internet is really like any other community or society we chose to participate in, and, that it does have its own "rules" that one should try to adhere to. Those, for the main part, are called InterNetiquette meaning Internet Etiquette. Yes, it exists and yes, if you are going to be a part of this community you should know what it is and abide by it as you would in any other community. Have a look and you'll see what I mean.

One of ©Microsoft's most well known and most widely used business programs is Excel, their superb spreadsheet. A spreadsheet is primarily used to crunch numbers. You already have seen the result of one in use if you receive a monthly bank reconciliation statement from your bank. That was done on a spreadsheet. Some folk spend their lives literally "living inside a spreadsheet" because of their job or because of general interest. The Microsoft program itself is so vast that you simply can't know it all. Thus the Learn Excel from Mr Excel - Learn To Use Excel Efficiently site is not only a wonderful place to pick up the odd trick or two, his book is well worth the price as well. You'll also find that you can subscribe to and receive the book, chapter by chapter for free here. That has to be a real service to the Internet community. While that is a great idea, do support the author by purchasing the book as well. This man is literally the Microsoft Excel Guru and his book is a 'must have' if you use Excel regularly.

If you're running Windows XP as your operating system, and would like to find fixes and tweaks for it, to help it run more efficiently, then hop over to the Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP site and have a browse around. It's full of interesting and useful things to try. Just remember, ALWAYS back up your registry before doing anything like this *smile*.

Over history, the sun, and plotting its rise and fall, has played a large part in mankind's efforts at trying to understand our place in the universe. There have even been ancient observatories built to study just that, the rise and fall of the sun. Some of those can be seen on the Traditions of the Sun Ancient Astronomy site. It's amazing how many different cultures built structures to study this.

Now I know I find things that, at times, even I scratch my head about because they seem pretty far fetched. But this one is apparently entirely true. Hop over to the site from Greenpeace International called Monsanto files patent for new invention - the pig and read all about this. Does it make sense? Well, maybe not common sense but hey, you have to give them marks for trying don't you? *chuckles and goes back to surfing the net for more interesting stuff.*

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. ;-)