Conky is an awesome way to add some nerd bling to your Linux desktop. Conky can be started by adding it to System->Preferences->Startup Applications. But in some cases, mine included, Conky won’t draw properly. In my case, Conky was appearing as a window over the desktop, blocking part of the panel. To correct this, you simply need to create a script that delays Conky startup until after the other Gnome components are loaded. The script below will delay starting Conky for 20 seconds:
#!/bin/sh
#Delay conky start for windows to be drawn
sleep 20s
conky &