MySQL/PHP will not insert into database - php

Question

I've been trying to add an email confirmation system to my website when people sign up and create an account but it will not add the key and the user id in the database. The other problem I'm running across is I'm trying to send a confirmation email but the email does not send. It echo's "message sent successfully" but when I check the email I put in, it is not received. Thanks in advance for your help! And yes, I am aware that mysql is prone to sql injection, but I would like to figure this out with mysql.
Here is my code:
EDIT: I replaced $insert_confirm with $hin and I renamed the table confirm to email_confirmation to maybe get rid of reserved words but I'm still getting an error
<?php
require_once '../scripts2/app_config.php';
require_once '../scripts2/database_connection.php';
$upload_dir = HOST_WWW_ROOT . "/uploads/profile_pics/";
$image_fieldname = "user_pic";
$first_name = trim($_REQUEST['first_name']);
$last_name = trim($_REQUEST['last_name']);
$name = $first_name . " " . $last_name;
$username = trim($_REQUEST['username']);
$password = trim($_REQUEST['password']);
$email = trim($_REQUEST['email']);
$bio = trim($_REQUEST['bio']);
if(isset($_POST['submit1'])) {
if($_POST['picture'] == 'picture1') {
$radio_value = "/home/users/web/b2620/ipg.knecktcom/testphp/uploads/profile_pics/1387503042-autopicture2.png";
} else if($_POST['picture'] == 'picture2') {
$radio_value = "/home/users/web/b2620/ipg.knecktcom/testphp/uploads/profile_pics/1387547040-auto_pic_grey2.png";
} else if($_POST['picture'] == 'picture3') {
$radio_value = "/home/users/web/b2620/ipg.knecktcom/testphp/uploads/profile_pics/1387503042-autopicture2.png";
} else {
$radio_value = "/home/users/web/b2620/ipg.knecktcom/testphp/uploads/profile_pics/1387503042-autopicture2.png";
}
}
$bgcolor = "#FF0000";
$check_email = "SELECT `email`" .
" FROM users" .
" WHERE `email` = '$email'";
$query_email = mysql_query($check_email);
$check_username = "SELECT `username`" .
" FROM users" .
" WHERE `username` = '$username'";
$query_username = mysql_query($check_username);
if(mysql_num_rows($query_email)>0 || mysql_num_rows($query_username)>0 ) {
if(mysql_num_rows($query_email)>0) {
$email_msg = "This email is already taken: {$email}";
header("Location:signup2.php?error_message={$email_msg}");
} else if(mysql_num_rows($query_username)>0) {
$username_msg = "This username is already taken: {$username}";
header("Location:signup2.php?error_message={$username_msg}");
} else {
$msg = "This email and username is already taken: {$email} , {$username}";
header("Location:signup2.php?error_message={$msg}");
}
} else {
$insert_sql = sprintf("INSERT INTO users " .
"(first_name, last_name, name, username, " .
"password, email, " .
"bio, " .
"user_pic_path, bgcolor) " .
"VALUES ('%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s',
'%s', '%s', '%s');",
mysql_real_escape_string($first_name),
mysql_real_escape_string($last_name),
mysql_real_escape_string($name),
mysql_real_escape_string($username),
mysql_real_escape_string(crypt($password, $username)),
mysql_real_escape_string($email),
mysql_real_escape_string($bio),
mysql_real_escape_string($radio_value),
mysql_real_escape_string($bgcolor));
//insert the user into the database
$insert_user = mysql_query($insert_sql);
$private_user_id = mysql_insert_id();
function generateRandomString($length = 20) {
$characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
$randomString = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
$randomString .= $characters[rand(0, strlen($characters) - 1)];
}
return $randomString;
}
$private_user_key = generateRandomString();
$hin = sprintf("INSERT INTO email_confirmation " .
"(user_id, key) " .
"VALUES (%d, '%s');",
mysql_real_escape_string($private_user_id),
mysql_real_escape_string($private_user_key));
//insert the user into the database
mysql_query($hin);
echo mysql_error();
$name = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['name']);
$create_user_table = mysql_query("CREATE TABLE `".$email."` ( friend_id INT, friend_status INT)");
if($insert_user && $create_user_table) {
// Email the new user the confirmation key
$to = $email;
$subject = 'Welcome!';
$message = "
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome!</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Please click the following link to confirm your email:</p>
<p>Confirm Email</p>
</body>
</html>
";
// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";
// Additional headers
$headers .= 'From: Admin <email#email.com>' . "\r\n";
// Mail it
$retval = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);
if( $retval == true )
{
echo "Message sent successfully...";
echo "\n" . $to . "\n" . $message . "\n" . "\n" . $subject;
}
else
{
echo "Message could not be sent...";
}
}
//Redirect this user to the page that displays user information
// $msg = "Please check your email to confirm your email address";
// header("Location: newuser_signinA.php?error_message={$msg}");
// exit();
}
?>