@ robtillaart - I don't really need any logging function (though I might in the future). So I was thinking of just hard-coding the events into the code rather than a text file.
@ PeterH - So here's why I don't want a smartphone app: 1) This will not be carried around with me, this will reside at my workstation where I am at most of the time. 2) A smartphone app is rigid. Say I develop an app for a pill-reminder system (I'm sure there out there), ok now I want to change it to a website traffic display, I have to recode an entire app and ui just to do this? Setting aside the fact that a website traffic monitor is not feasible with a smartphone app, with a general purpose notification system, you just reload some new code to the arduino and it does what you want. 3) A smartphone app is a one-hit-wonder. Yes I can find an app that reminds when to take a pill, an alarm when to move my car, etc. But can it do them all? I have to now run several apps/alarms just to get a twitter feed, a website traffic monitor, a pill-reminder for something the arduino can do all at once. 4) It would be VISUAL. This is a big one for me. I just want to shift my eyes right and see a heads-up of important info. I don't want to open 3 things on the computer that will be covered over with other windows, I don't want my phone to vibrate every 10 minutes and then have to check to see what of the 10 things it is notifying me about. I just want a visual command center that I can see across the room and have a proper assessment of what's going on. Think of it as blink(1) on steroids:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thingm/blink1-the-usb-rgb-led
A phone app may work for some people, but it really wouldn't work for my needs.