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 a focus on the family as a whole, 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.

If you're a frequent visitor you'll know I love good food, and not only that, good sites with recipes for all of us to try. You'll also know that I'm a fan of blogging, so when I visited Anne's Food blog I feel I found something unique. Anne is quite the young woman, who travels and even blogs while on her travels. Have a look. It might inspire you to cook something and/or start a blog yourself *smile*.

When introducing the younger folk to the net, primarily so that they can complete homework assignments and get reliable info, it's often hard to take them to one of the major search engines, simply because there is no parental control over what they look up. However, if you take them to the Kids Search Engines site you'll find links to ChildAware search facilities. Why not bookmark these in their own bookmark folder for future use? I'm confident they will use them again and again as they progress through school.

Having said that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with following the Step by Step Eurekster Swicki Tutorial - Make Your Own Search Engine sites instructions. You'll end up with a search engine designed by you for your own purposes. How cool is that? And - you don't have to be a computer programmer to do it. It's really quite simple. Have a look. You could become the next Google *chuckles*.

As all of us progress through life we tend not to continue taking care of ourselves as we once might have. Thus, the E-Fitness Exercises - Australian Personal Fitness Trainers site actually has some good sound advice about exercise, and, it also gives you specific exercises to do on your own. You don't like going to gyms with all the svelte young things? Here's the answer, in the privacy of your own home. Go for it. What do you have to lose (outside of a lack of fitness and maybe a few pounds) ???

When something untoward happens to you, a member of your family, or a friend, you would most likely like to know what it's all about. The HealthAtoZ - Innovating Consumer Health site has a good listing, A to Z of just about all of the normal medical conditions. This one is worth a bookmark because you never know when you'll need to access it.

Spotback - Personal News is one of those sites that you could make into your homepage, and that would contain all the news you personally wish to see. When you go to the site it will ask you to enter up to 4 topics you wish to keep track of. Keep in mind however that you can't use more than 2 words in each category. Then, it will find you sources that show those types of stories. When you click "next" the page is produced for you, and you can join (so it remembers what news you wish to see), modify your choices, and even make it your homepage. For some, this is a great way to keep up with the latest news. It's certainly worth a look for everyone.

If you teach English as a second language you have a particularly hard task. And, if you are trying to learn English as your second language you have a difficult task before you. English, sorry to say, is one of the most difficult languages to learn that there are, and therefore sites like the Free English teaching materials for ESL site can get bogged down in traffic at times, but they are worth the wait if you are in either of the two categories above. Yes, this is a busy site but if ESL is your interest it's worth its weight in .... well, you know what I mean.

Did you once have a site on the net that no longer exists? Did you know that someone may possibly still have it available? That someone, more often than not, is the Internet Archive site. I was amazed that they even keep some VERY back weeks of my site when I was still living in New Zealand. That was over 6 years ago now, and some of these sites go back farther than that. Have a look and if you remember the name of the site, enter it in and see if you can find it. My site was still called the same as this one, but the address was http://www.2x2.co.nz/picks/ . *smiles* Does that ever bring back memories *smile*.

Need to use a dictionary to define a word? Online dictionaries are good and easy to access sources of information, and the OneLook Dictionary Search site goes that one step further in that it searches many dictionaries at once. Now that has to ensure that you get the right meaning and spelling of the word. Well worth a bookmark.

I've recently seen some shows on television that dealt with The Roman Empire and I have to say it's a fascinating subject. If this exciting period in history interests you, have a look at this site. Let's say it's becoming a Wikipedia of the Roman Empire, and doing a very good job at it.

You use the net otherwise you wouldn't be looking at this page, but how good is your typing? Does it maybe need a brush up? Why not hop over to Peter's Online Typing Course - Online Typing Lessons for Everyone! site and have a look? It can only improve your typing and thus your net experience. Give it a try if you're just a tad rusty in the touch-typing field.

Everyone knows how important exercise is, and it's almost a given that net geeks like me and those I know, should get more of it. Well, the Exercise At Work site will show you how to exercise and not strain your poor overworked body in the process. No pain, no gain? I don't think so. Have a look and you'll see how easy it is *chuckles and ducks from all the emails this will generate from friends*. Thank you Barb, my lovely wife. I've done my exercises for the weekend. *smiles*

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. ;-)