Given that mySQL and I have decided that we are each equally stupid (link), maybe I should stop both coding and talking about coding and do something else for a change.

Self, to Brad: Oh yeah, massive ugly brain death today. I can't even get stuff that WORKS on the command line to work in PHP. So much for my soaring glorious code-fu of yesterday.

Brad, to self: My troubleshooting suggestion: go read a book or watch a movie. Or pet your cats. :)

Must you all be so obnoxiously right all the time? It's really annoying…

I had two code-related goals today: get the database-backup page working properly and set up the edit-yourself page so that when you change your own password, an email is automatically fired out to the address on record.

So far, I'm 0 for 2. The command to execute the db backup works perfectly from the command line but doesn't work when I wrap it inside system()…which Gareth said would work. The email isn't sending because they're something subtly wrong with the query I'm writing, and I can't figure out what it is.

So, in the time-honored practice of finding something else to occupy one's mind, Jeff and I watched the first half of Apocalypse Now Redux. There was something strangely fitting about jumping from nonsensical code to a movie about a barely-sensible war. I'll give the code another hour's worth of battering and call it a night. Iain Banks' Use of Weapons may be a pretty stark read, but it's better than going stark raving mad from the code I'm writing.

Sunday was a fine, fine coding day. Today was a wash. Hopefully the pendulum will swing again at around eight a.m. tomorrow morning.