I was always a bit disappointed that bash history saves  to disk only the session that is closed last.
Turns out there is a way to fix that:

vi ~/.bashrc
export PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a; history -r'

(http://northernmost.org/blog/flush-bash_history-after-each-command/)

I have a vmware ubuntu 11.04 (natty narwhal) setup.
things I investigated today:

• screenlets and digitalclock (“dark clean” theme)
• digitalclock appears glitchy — artifact of vmware?
• themes for the cairo-clock
• http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xsortmode=high&page=0&xcontentmode=1861
• http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Japanese+Theme+Cairo-clock?content=91147
• equinox set of themes
• elegant-gnome theme (was not able to get this to install) http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Elegant+Gnome+Pack?content=127826
• wallpaper-clocks http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclocks/browse.php
• http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclock/?northern_lights
• http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclock/?robots_in_love
• orta theme http://mygeekopinions.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-install-orta-theme-pack-in.html

Currently settled at Dusk with transparent menubars