VSCode: is it possible to easily format/color my own "language"?

Question

I'm using VSCode on a linux machine, but I used to use Notepad++. with windows, and within Notepad's language options (to color and format the code as java, php, c#, etç), there was an option to create your own custom formatter, and I used this option to create my own "Diary language", example:

• If I start and end a line with *, it formats the line with black and bold.
• If I start and end a line with #, it formats the line with red and plain.
• If I start a line with > and end it with <, it formats the line with blue and underline.

I know that I can develop my own plugin for vscode, but that is not easy and definitely not fast, is there an option or plugin that allows me to do this?

Yes, I can use some software or app to remind me some stuff, and I am using some, but it would be nice to have my annotations colored inside my text editor.

It's not a duplicate of Customizing syntax highlighting in Visual Studio Code since I'm not creating my own language. This is the point of my question, I do not want to create a whole new language pack/theme, I just want some coloring, like the notepad++ option.

Answer 1

The second question on the page https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/overview#_common-questions seems to answer this

Q: What if I don't want to create a full language service, can I reuse existing TextMate bundles?

A: Yes, you can also add support for your favorite language through TextMate colorizers. See Themes, Snippets, and Colorizers topic in the Extension Authoring section to learn how to integrate TextMate .tmLanguage syntax files into VS Code.

Which points to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensions/themes-snippets-colorizers, which shows you how to more easily intergrate custom colour and theme rules.