timestamp and NOW('') in php / mysql

Hello all I have been writing a job tracking system but am having a few problems with getting a sensible validation of the timestamps i have set. i insert a record containing data , one of the fileds is time_stamp with the value NOW('') When i try to compare the mysql NOW('') stamp and mktime() they are very very different for e.g. : <SNIP> $my_new_time_stamp = mktime (); print ("<BR>output new stamp: $my_new_time_stamp"); print ("<BR>output db value : $myrow->time_stamp"); the output: output new stamp: 965411494 output db value : 20000804185021 so am i using the xorrect type of comparison ? probably not. Any ideas / advice gratefully recieved :) thx Neil