u/Obvious-Sell-7974

Annihilation blew my mind; it was perfection, and everything about it matched my taste exactly. It's definitely in my top 3 books.

That being said,
I did hear that Authority has a different vibe and that it wasn't praised as much as the first book. I wasn't surprised by the vibe/pace change.

I'm currently 153 pages in (almost 50%), and I'm struggling (I'm currently at the part where Control confronted Grace over the mosquito in his car).

I'm not struggling through the book as in 'this is bad', it's more of a 'I'm halfway through and the more I learn, the less I know' .
I'm guessing it's intentional, but it doesn't make it any easier to read.

I had to write down all the characters, their professions, and the kind of relationship dynamic they have with Control and who was there for what, lol.
There were a few moments where I was almost done with the chapter and had to go back because I got completely lost about where the characters were located at that moment, or a character Y would mention character X, but the whole time through the conversation I thought Y was X (sometimes they call each other by names, other times by job titles).

I'm enjoying the office environments and bureaucracy; they remind me of Control (the game). I loved the whole mouse and plant in the drawer mystery; it felt like things were starting to pick up. So there are definitely things I love about the book; I'm just exhausted by all the puzzle pieces I have to constantly hold without placing them anywhere.

My hypothesis right now is that we are intentionally being kept in the dark since Control, although holding the title of a director of the facility, also has 0 clue what is going on. Everyone underneath him, no matter the position, knows more.

Don't get me wrong- I love a good mystery, but I feel like I've been bumbling through the dark for days now. Like, give me something.

I feel like with every chapter I'm just introduced to more things that I have to remember, yet nothing is being explored deeply enough to get any sort of understanding.

As of this moment, I feel like I have 0 concrete information except for the parts I know from the first book (the fact that there is an area X, there is a team researching it, etc).

I am definitely finishing this book, but I'd love a push from Southern Reach fans- tell me that this bumbling through the dark will be worth it and that my mind will be blown by how everything comes together.

If there is something great coming, please don't spoil it for me by saying it outright.

Thank youu

Recently, I had a negative experience with a client on Upwork.

I left a negative review, briefly explaining the situation (I gave the client 2 stars).

The client contacted me after seeing the feedback and asked me to at least edit their name out of the feedback because it's part of a copyright.
They told me that they decided to ask me directly, and if I refused, they would just contact Upwork to do it.

The name in question isn't anything unique. It's along the lines of Sarah, Mariah, that type of common name.
Not really something you could Google, but even if you could- are clients allowed to hide their reviews from the public like this?
What, just make a profile under a fake name and treat freelancers however they want?
This doesn't make much sense to me, so I would like to hear other opinions.

I didn't quite get the whole 'copyrighted first name' thing, nor did I ever hear about the rules on using the client's first name in the feedback. Then again, this is the first straight-up negative review I ever posted.

Thoughts?

EDIT: To clarify- I don't mind changing the name; it's just never heard about the copyright and ToS around the names?

This shit ruined my already shitty month.

This person kept hiring me on Upwork for years. The job was always cleaning up their sketches and doing full color + rendering.

I wouldn't care much since it's still their sketch and concept, but my jaw dropped when I saw a reel of them with a printed piece I did digitally, pretending to color it with markers! Like, coloring an already digitally colored piece.
What the actual fuck?

Another reel- they're signing a piece I cleaned up, colored, and rendered, with text over it like 'made art for xyz person'. 0 mention of the piece being a collaboration with anyone.

The worst part is that I wouldn't even find this out if the client wasn't haggling with me and dropping the budget per piece to fucking $10, so I googled them.
We are in the middle of a disagreement where they're actually trying to avoid paying me for that last batch (yes, I was that dumb and desperate to accept that shitty contract; it's a dry season for most artists due to AI, and I didn't want to lose a long-term client).

This person is living a lavish lifestyle, while I'm in a position where I dropped so low as to accept a $10-per-piece contract.
Nowhere on this person's page do they EVER mention that the pieces they're posting aren't fully their work.

Their page is not strictly art-related, but this still feels extremely dishonest to me. They're still using the pieces to promote their business by showcasing their creativity and abilities?

I still have all of their commission messages and layered PSD files. We must have worked on over 150 pieces over the years.

I genuinely feel sick and at a loss for words.
I'm keeping it intentionally vague since everything is so fresh and I want to think this over before I decide what (if anything) to do.

For now, just venting about it helped a lot.
I was already planning to leave art as a career, but this just brought everything to another level.

Side note- it does feel kinda shitty posting about this here because in just a few scrolls on this subreddit I saw hellish situations people are currently in. Wishing everyone going through stuff strength and healing.

I'm so tired of listening to screaming from 8 in the morning to 10 at night. It's constant.
I can't even open my windows because I hear them through my noise-cancelling headphones. It's that bad.
This is some Havana syndrome-type of mental warfare.

At first, it was 3 of them, and it was bad, but my headphones could drown them out. But now, they installed the pool, and all the kids from the neighbourhood + their relatives are there all the time.
It's not even regular 'kids playing' sounds; it's constant fighting, growling, screeching, and yelling. Even when they're standing one foot away from each other, they are yelling at each other.

I think other, 'new ' kids are picking up that trait, so even the ones that were speaking normally before are adapting to the yelling.
I really want to stress that I'm not exaggerating the noise- when I'm having a conversation with friends or clients on the phone, the question about the background noise would always pop up (with doors and windows closed).

Even though my main complaint is the noise made by the kids, I 100% blame the parents. The parents are also constantly yelling, no matter how far they are.
They are sometimes outside with all the kids (Yes, 10 kids under 10 are most of the time all alone, fighting in the pool. Great idea, what could go wrong /s), and I don't think they shushed them once.
Not even when 6 of them made a competition to see who could scream a word the loudest or who could hold one note the longest.
So the kids definitely have no idea how insane their behavior is, and all of my anger is on the parents.

I felt alright for the first month and a half; I found it absurd, but in a funny way (like complaining to my friends, 'haha look how mental my neighbours are'). But now we are finishing the third month, and I'm so exhausted and at my wits' end with constant noise.

When they go indoors to eat, it's like when you have a headache, and painkillers finally start to kick in. Instant bliss and gratefulness for life. Follocking in flowers or tampon commercial type of vibe.
Then they return, and it's once again like living next to an AI data center- wasting water while creating constant noise.

This whole summer, I complained only once about the noise (they barely heard me over the screaming match the kids had at that moment).
I don't want to be that 'karen' neighbour who complains about the kids, and I definitely don't want to ruin summer fun for them, so I'm venting here to, well, get it off of my chest.

The parents find my annoyance hilarious; now when they see me, they laugh and say shit like, 'you must be going mental, two more are coming today hahaha'. They think it's so quirky how loud they are.

We live in a city where there are kids' parks, a zoo, an aqua park, playrooms, and anything else that kids can find fun, so it's not like they don't have a place to take them from time to time.
I only need one day a week where I can get 3 continuous hours of silence to restore my batteries. Please, lawd, that's all I ask.

I was thinking about buying them a PlayStation or phones with bad batteries, but that was in a moment of desperation.

The only thing that's keeping me from ripping my hair out is the fact that the summer is almost over and that the pool (with the kids) will be packed up.

On the positive side, I became mentally bulletproof when a kid is throwing a tantrum, crying and screaming in the supermarket/restaurant- at least it's just one.
My heart goes out to all the teachers. I could never.

As the title suggests, my widgets are gone.
They were there yesterday evening when I filled up the list with my reminders for the week.

I'm using the latest update of Mozilla on Windows 11.

I tried both recommendations from the forum (switching language and 'allowing Firefox to improve features, performance, and stability between updates').
Other than that, I don't see any options regarding the widgets in the options.

Any ideas on how to bring the widget(s) back?
Thanks!

Conspiracy theory (no flair for it, take what's coming with a grain of salt)

What are your thoughts on the idea that her team and family are allowing her to hit rock bottom to place her under conservatorship?

If enough people are commenting on how ill she is, wouldn't it be a perfect opportunity for someone to swoop in and take over her estate 'just until she gets better'?
A lot of people are placing blame on her family/team, so getting her Britneyd would start a wave of praise to whoever does it (at least at first).

Am I insane? Let me know!