A generic monitor applet like the genmon found in XFCE would be great. It basically takes the stdout of a script or command and puts it in the status bar. The applet gives you the option to format the text (font and size) and the period in which it runs the script.

Another nice option would be the ability to display a selectable bitmap dependent on the output. For instance if the output was less than a number it would display a tiny bitmap of a red dot and if the output greater than a number it would be a bitmap green dot.