[TimothyFitz]

Cool! Do you mind posting your PS1 so other people can try out your config?

[arjunnarayan]

Here's the PS1:

  PS1="\[\e[32;1m\]\[\e[37;1m\]\`if [ \$? = 0 ]; then echo \[\e[33m\] :\)\[\e[0m\]; else echo \[\e[31m\] X\(\[\e[0m\]; fi\`\[\e[32;1m\] \[\e[32;1m\](\[\e[37;1m\]\h:\u\[\e[32;1m\])-(\[\e[37;1m\]\j\[\e[32;1m\])-(\[\e[37;1m\]\w\[\e[32;1m\])\n\[\e[0m\]"

Here's how it appears:

   :) (seas456:narayana)-(0)-(~/personal)
  [this line is where your cursor blinks; notice no symbol at the start of this line]

You can't see the colors here. The smiley face turns into a bright red frowny face if the exit code of the last job is nonzero.

[jamii]

It looks like the your markup got mangled a little. Would you mind posting a gist?