Free Mac video editors, clickity-clickity, Office alt, Windows 10 privacy settings tweaks
There are some good free video editors on the Mac, you don’t have to pay for high-end software if your needs are mostly to trim clips, assemble clips into a storyline, lay over music or other audio, correct colors, or insert transitions between clips. Various ones to look at include: Davinci Resolve 12.5 at https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve (the Studio version costs nearly $1,000 so go for the free one), OpenShot at http://www.openshot.org/ which has a PC version also, Shotcut at https://www.shotcutapp.com/ also with a PC version, and there is always Blender at https://www.blender.org/ though geared towards 3D creation can handle video editing.
Some day you might want to see how much information a site can collect from you and your mouse pointer. When you are ready, visit https://clickclickclick.click/ (yes, that domain really does end with dot click, it is one of the many top level domains other than the dot com) Run it for a bit, switch away to something else, move your pointer around, and read what they are finding out using JavaScript. The only real way to stop this data gathering is to block scripts and then you may find out how many sites lose functionality.
If you don’t have to have Office or don’t want to get caught on the subscription treadmill called Office 365, you might want to check out a few other free office suites. Anyone with a google account should try Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to see if their word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation needs can be met right there. It works best if you have an internet connection. If you would rather run the software on your computer, install LibreOffice from http://www.libreoffice.org/ There are Mac and Windows versions reminiscent of the layout of older editions of Microsoft Office. A final online collaboration oriented suite is Zoho Docs at https://www.zoho.com/docs/ and if you are careful you should be able to find their free plan, good for up to 25 users.
On a Mac, you might decide you want to hide that big banner of an OS update to Sierra. Simply right-click or hold down the Ctrl key and clicking anywhere in that banner and regular click or left-click on Hide Update.
I waited long enough, now a great online paid course on dealing with procrastination is free and on Youtube. Rather than put that really long link here, I would suggest you search on Youtube for “how to stop procrastinating full design” and make sure the video is by “Successful by Design.”
In Windows 10 there are many privacy related settings scattered around in different settings panes. Luckily, there are some 3rd party apps to help manage them. Spybot makes Anti-Beacon at https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ good on Windows 7 through 10, to pull many settings together. If you want to work with XP or Vista you should look at Windows Privacy Tweaker from https://www.phrozensoft.com/2015/09/windows-privacy-tweaker-4