RedNotebook is free as in freedom and free as in lunch. It keeps a word cloud, but what would probably be more useful to you would be that you can tag words, such as names, in the entry for later reference. The entries are also organized primarily by a calendar.
As an aside, it also supports rich text so your journal entries look pretty and you can back up and export your journal to different formats like HTML and PDF.
I use rednotebook (it's in AUR).
What I like with this one is that you can add tags in the documents you write and then you get a cloud of tags to easily browse the different notes.
What I don't really like is that you are not actually editing documents, but each day (there is calendar on the side) has notes. So you have notes per day. It could make sense for your needs.
As for the format, not sure it is exactly Markdown, but there is basic things for formatting, including images, and stuffs.
http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net/
I use rednotebook for my journaling for anything I do. Supports exporting to xml if you need to upload to a wiki.
Ultramon to manage monitors on windows: http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
I am not sure if this counts as unusual, but it is definitely underused: Org-Mode for Emacs: http://orgmode.org/
I use this for notes and everything involving a to do list. I use this separately than rednotebook for task orientated stuff.
RedNotebook is probably what you're looking for. Organized by calendar, comes with an "insert" menu, Date/Time is one of the options. Can "tag" things with #, search by those tags or by words in posts.
I think a journal program would suit your needs better.
Check RedNotebook. It's free, with a portable version if you don't want to install it and (among many features) it has tag support
Also tried a variety of tools, but ended up keeping a simple mediawiki alongside other projects on a cheap host, but it would work as a local install too. It's simple, accessible from anywhere, and I'm quite fond of the syntax.
My second best option was RedNotebook, still used to record meetings, fully offline but the syntax is poop.
I'm very fond of the organizational structure described by http://thesecretweapon.org
Rather than Evernote (being cloud based and therefore a no go for you) you could use http://rednotebook.sourceforge.net
I've never had that problem with Zim Notes, but I also like RedNotebook. It is a note-taking/journaling program with a Markdown-like formatting system, and it saves files in plain-text.
For my life review system, I write in an e-diary once a week making an account of what I didn't do(and some of my interesting experiences too) and then read them when I have to review(reading those interesting experiences is fun too!). But for the past few of my reviews I have been thinking of ways for a more efficient(time saving) review system. What would you suggest Grey - Should I collect my daily checklists every week and make a separate list of what I couldn't tick in them, notice patterns during my review and change accordingly or should I just continue with my diary thing?
PS:- I am also a checklist person and I am also inefficient from 1:00pm to 4:00pm everyday! Guess what.. even if I try to work I feel so sleepy after lunch!!
I've been really happy with RedNotebook. It's probably the best journaling software available in the Linux world. There are Windows and Mac versions too, but I don't know how well they hold up.
Mozilla Firefox, CCleaner, Revo Uninstaller, Winamp, Media Player Classic, 7-Zip and uTorrent are all a must to me.
I also recommend MP3tag as a way to organise your music library, and EaseUS Recovery Wizard to recover deleted/lost files. It's reliable and you can apparently recover things from formatted hard drives. Works better than Recuva in my experience. Faster, too.
Speccy is a very good program to show your computer specifications and temperature. In fact, I like it especially because of the ability to show your computer temperature as a tray icon. There are other programs that show the same thing, though, so if you don't like Speccy, HWMonitor is a relatively good alternative.
I also like instant messaging. However, your needs are probably different than mine, so it's better if you search for the programs that suit your exact needs. There's Pidgin, Miranda, ICQ, AIM, etc...
The Journal is great for journaling.
EDIT: Seems like it's trial version now. There's an alternative called RedNotebook. Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Now about browser add-ons, I can't stay without Adblock Edge. It's basically the same thing as Adblock Plus.
Adblock Plus is very controversial. Here's a thread on Reddit if you want to know a bit more.
Hola Unblocker is also spectacular.
Hiren's Boot CD is very helpful in case you have computer problems.
RedNotebook Totally free, written in Python, a journal app. I only wish I had found it in 2008 when it was first written. Entries stored in plain text on your home partition, so you can do what you like with them. Open source so nobody can install a back door.
I'm just waiting for some genius to port it to Android, so I can take it out and about with me.
And most of all simple, so even your grandmother would find it easy.
I use RedNotebook every day as my daily journal at home and I really like it, but I'm not able to use it when I'm out and about on my Nexus 7. It is written in Python and is open source, so should not be a great deal of work to port to Android, for someone who knows what they are doing.
Regards Peter.