hey!
okay after some random clicking, i found the "open dictionary" menu item in the script editor. and turns out, there is an unread message count property.
i managed to write a script that displays the total number of unread messages.
now the question is: how do i call that script from processing?
do i do one myScript.execute() per line? or do i cram it all in one line? and where does the result (x) go?
here's the script, i just need to cram it into processing now 
tell application "Adium"
   set x to 0
   repeat with theChat in (every chat)
      set x to x + (unread message count of theChat)
   end repeat
   say "You have " & x & " unread messages"
end tell
i'll look into that flickr group as well, thanks hehehe