It sounds to me like Tomboy would definitely do the job.  Excerpt from the website:


  Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application for Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X. Simple and easy to use, but with potential to help you organize the ideas and information you deal with every day.
  
  Notable Features
  
  
  Highlighting text
  Inline spelll checking
  Auto-linking web &amp; email addresses
  Undo/redo
  Font styling &amp; sizing
  Bulleted lists
  Note synchronization across several computers 
  


Emacs-style binding can be used, and it has several plugins.  As for the list without need of opening the notes, all notes can be exported to an HTML page.  This whole thing may however be too fancy for your needs.

Take quick notes without interrupting current activity
I have a jailbroken iPad 2 (A1395) running Version 5.0.1 (9A405).

If I update to 6.0.1, can I jailbreak untethered?

Will I have to re-install all my Cydia apps &amp; settings, or do they get backed up and restored?

Confused by too many Google results!
