Here is a trick I use in ~/.bashrc to make a nice fancy prompt

#!/bin/bash
DATESTR=$(date +%m/%d/%y)
TIMESTR=$(date +%H:%m)
LIGHTRED="\[\033[01;31m\]"
RED="\[\033[02;31m\]"
LIGHTGREEN="\[\033[01;32m\]"
GREEN="\[\033[02;32m\]"
LIGHTCYAN="\[\033[01;36m\]"
CYAN="\[\033[02;36m\]"
NORM="\[\033[00m\]"
BLUE="\[\033[02;34m\]"
LIGHTBLUE="\[\033[01;34m\]"
MAGENTA="\[\033[02;35m\]"
LIGHTMAGENTA="\[\033[01;35m\]"
YELLOW="\[\033[02;33m\]"
LIGHTYELLOW="\[\033[01;33m\]"
PS1="${LIGHTRED}[${LIGHTGREEN}u${LIGHTBLUE}@${LIGHTGREEN}h${LIGHTRED}] ${LIGHTCYAN} \ 
  {${LIGHTRED}${DATESTR} ${LIGHTMAGENTA}${TIMESTR}${LIGHTCYAN}} ${NORM}${CYAN} \ 
  (${LIGHTCYAN}w${NORM}${CYAN})n${LIGHTYELLOW}> ${NORM}" 
 

The result of the above is this: