Show amount of words published this year in the admin bar. Pat yo'self on the back,

admin-bar-word-count.php

<?php
/*
* Plugin Name: Publish Count
* Plugin URI: http://zao.is
* Description: Check year-to-date published character count
* Version: 1.0
* Author: Justin Sainton
* Author URI: http://zao.is
*/
class WP_Word_Count {

	public function __construct() {

		if ( ! is_super_admin() || ! is_admin_bar_showing() ) {
			return;
		}

		add_action( 'admin_bar_menu', array( $this, 'admin_bar_menu' )  , 999 );
		add_action( 'publish_post'  , array( $this, 'invalidate_cache' ), 999 );
	}

	public function admin_bar_menu() {

		global $wp_admin_bar;

		$wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array(
			'id'    => 'wp-word-count',
			'title' => $this->word_count_message(),
			'href'  => false 
			) 
		);
	}

	private function word_count() {
		global $wpdb;

		$word_count = wp_cache_get( 'wp_word_count' );

		if ( ! $word_count ) {
			$word_count = $wpdb->get_var(
				"SELECT SUM( LENGTH( post_content ) - LENGTH( REPLACE( post_content, ' ', '' ) ) + 1 ) 
				FROM " . $wpdb->posts . " 
				WHERE post_type = 'post'
				AND post_status = 'publish'
				AND YEAR(post_date) = YEAR(NOW())"
			);

			wp_cache_set( 'wp_word_count', $word_count );
		}

		return apply_filters( 'wp_word_count', $word_count );
	}

	private function word_count_message() {

		$single = 'You have published %s word this year.';
		$plural = 'You have published %s words this year.';
		$count  = $this->word_count(); 

		return apply_filters( 'wp_word_count_message', sprintf( _n( $single, $plural, $count ), $count ) );
	}

	public function invalidate_cache() {
		wp_cache_delete( 'wp_word_count' );
	}

}

function wp_word_count() {
   return new WP_Word_Count();
}

add_action( 'plugins_loaded', 'wp_word_count' );