#1

RPG – I'm currently playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s exactly what I needed at the end of the year. It’s beautiful, it’s beautifully written, the difficulty is well balanced, the actors are fabulous, and above all, it’s confirmation that RPGs are made for me.

My first attempt at RPG was disastrous: I spent several hours (5 or 6, without any exaggeration) before the first game preparing my character, in collaboration with the GM, who helped me choose the right stats, perfect the background, etc. All this only to have him kill my character after 1 hour, forcing me to reincarnate myself in a cutout character he'd created in a hurry and which had nothing to do with what I wanted to play. Strangely enough, I didn't continue the campaign after that 🫠 Baldur's Gate 3 makes me want to try again, this time with a less catastrophic GM !

In any case, if you're on the fence about playing Baldur's Gate 3, I can only recommend it 💚

#2

Féminicides – Throughout 2023, Les Jours has devoted a series of articles to feminicides. Each month, two articles : one, listing the previous month’s feminicides, and a second investigating a particular aspect of these murders. It’s a difficult read, but a necessary one.

« For a long time, we talked about ‘crimes of passion’. Then society gradually came to understand that there is neither love nor passion when a man kills a woman. »

#3

Sex Ed – After a long phase of listening to a lot of podcasts a few years ago, I moved away from it a bit, for several reasons. Redundancy, first of all, especially on feminism and sociology, because I consume a lot of content on these subjects, and I often prefer an article or a book if I can. But there's also a certain unease about the place given to the people concerned, who are asked by the presenters of the podcasts - often white, cisgender, straight and able-bodied - to reveal their personal lives while they act as the « &expert » guarantor of the subject. The unease intensifies when you consider that the podcasts are monetised (while the guests come free of charge), and sometimes monetised a second time in the form of a book.

That explains why it took 3 different people telling me about ‘C’est quoi l’amour, maîtresse?’ by Lolita Rivé for me to give it a go ; and I don’t regret having done so for a single second.

« Since Lolita Rivé became a teacher, she has often been confronted with sexist remarks, homophobic insults between pupils, and even assaults. She has also noticed that her pupils are fairly ignorant about their bodies and how they function. To try to remedy this, she set up and recorded education sessions on relationships, emotions and sexuality with her CE1 class.

In ‘C’est quoi l’amour, maîtresse’, she investigates: what should education in emotional life look like for children aged 7 to 8? Why do so few pupils receive sex education in France, even though it has been compulsory from CP to Terminale since 2001? Why is there so much resistance?

Lolita Rivé has given the floor to those who are completely opposed to this teaching in schools, as well as to shrinks and researchers who explain why offering comprehensive education in relationships, emotions and sex could change our whole society… »

It's a very important subject, and it's well covered here. I highly recommend listening to these 5 episodes.

#4

Music – My discovery of the month, Lawrence, a band whose « acoustic-ish » versions I particularly love :

Their live shows seem completely mad, and I'd love to see them on stage :

#5

Housing – Associations are fearing a social clean-up of the homeless in the run-up to the Paris Olympics. The toll of these Olympic Games is getting worse by the day.

#6

Argentina – A very interesting summary of the situation in Argentina by Paloma Moritz and Salomé Saquet for Blast. They give a brief history of the country (which I really needed 😅), introduce Javier Milei and his plans for the country, and then put things into perspective with the rest of the world. It’s the best I’ve seen or read on the subject so far, by far.

#7

Game – Less fancy than Baldur’s Gate 3 but as addictive, I feel into Little Alchemy again, and I shate it with you because there's no reason why I should be the only one to fall.

#8

Architecture – I discovered the YouTube channel Le Nouveau Programme completely by chance, and it’s a crush. I won’t wait to watch their other videos.

#9

Incest – Édouard Durand, the guest on this programme, is a juvenile judge and co-chair of Ciivise (Commission Indépendante sur l’Inceste et les Violences Sexuelles faites aux Enfants — Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Violence against Children). In this interview, he proposes solutions that are not individual but collective, and explains what policy(ies) the government could put in place to identify victims, and above all to help them once they have been identified.

The subject is very difficult, but the interview never veers into inappropriate pathos or voyeurism. Nor is it cold or distant. I don’t know how to put it, but this interview touched me deeply, and gives me hope that one day victims of incest will be better protected and treated by our society.

#10

Taxes – Despite the clickbaity title which almost put me off watching it, this video is very interesting. Gabriel Zucman explains tax evasion, what has been done to limit it and what could be done to really reduce it.