Help a noob understand first part of interface

Hello,
I am trying to learn Blender to try out the fluid simulation. I have been reading trying to read tutorials and watch videos but I keep getting lost on the most basic steps.

I cannot figure out why when I add a new object, such as “Add UV Sphere”, I see a totally different dialogue on the left of my screen. It has ‘segments’, ‘rings’ ‘size’ etc as well as “Location” and “Rotation”. Now all I want to do is figure out why this location option goes away as soon as I add something else or do anything.

First, if I right click to select different objects, this “location” does not change which confuses me. Shouldn’t this be the selected object? But if I left click on my newly created object, the menu goes away and get replaced with a “Translate” box that has 0, 0, 0 for “Vector” xyz. I do not understand why this is relative to where I placed the sphere initially. How do I simply keep viewing and modifying the world space location?

Also I really do not like how when I left click anywhere in the viewport it draws some weird white circle with red dots and it doesn’t go away when I hit escape. This is really annoying to me since escape is the expected way to deselect things.

Now all I want to do is figure out why this location option goes away as soon as I add something else or do anything.
Those object initialise options are only there when you add an object. They set the added initial object parameters

To see the selected object properties look in the object properties panel or at the top of the properties panel (N)

Also I really do not like how when I left click anywhere in the viewport it draws some weird white circle with red dots and it doesn’t go away when I hit escape. This is really annoying to me since escape is the expected way to deselect things.
That is the 3d cursor and does not go away. It is used with certain tools and is the location new objects are placed

Go and watch the ‘Get Started in Blender’ tutorial at the top of the forum

Blender’s interface is confusing at first, but getting to know it is important to knowing how to do things. It will become easier over time. We all struggle with it at first.

The dialogue on the left of the screen that you see after creating a new object is only there until you do something else, soi you have to get used to accessing those features as soon as you do. They are additional parameters that define the object you just created. For instance, when you create a UV sphere, you can change how many rings and how many segments it should have. The dialogue is not really part of the tool menu above it, and changes depending on what you’re doing.

I don’t worry about the location/rotation/vectors dialogues in that area. Normally, you deal with those values elsewhere, either in the sliding panel on the right of the 3D viewer (use N to open and close it), or in the Properties window on the far right of the screen. Or you can just move your objects around by hand and the values will take care of themselves.

The little white thing with the red circle is important. That’s your 3D cursor. It can be placed wherever you want (I put it down in the corner when it gets in my way), but you need it for special actions that have to do with setting locations. It helps to set the view position in the 3D viewer as well as to direct where new objects will appear, etc. It will become very handy to you in short time.