diff --git a/bin/mage b/bin/mage
index c051736..aff9e5e 100755
--- a/bin/mage
+++ b/bin/mage
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@
 * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
 * file that was distributed with this source code.
 */
-
-if (empty(ini_get('date.timezone'))) {
+$timezone = ini_get('date.timezone');
+if (empty($timezone)) {
     date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
 }