Taxonomy module MySQL errors w/XAMPP - "MySQL server has gone away" + "Additional uncaught exception"

Original
PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away: SELECT name, machine_name, vid FROM {taxonomy_vocabulary}; Array ( ) in taxonomy_vocabulary_get_names() (line 792 of C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal\modules\taxonomy\taxonomy.module).

Additional
PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away: INSERT INTO {watchdog} (uid, type, message, variables, severity, link, location, referer, hostname, timestamp) VALUES (:db_insert_placeholder_0, :db_insert_placeholder_1, :db_insert_placeholder_2, :db_insert_placeholder_3, :db_insert_placeholder_4, :db_insert_placeholder_5, :db_insert_placeholder_6, :db_insert_placeholder_7, :db_insert_placeholder_8, :db_insert_placeholder_9); Array ( [:db_insert_placeholder_0] => 1 [:db_insert_placeholder_1] => php [:db_insert_placeholder_2] => %type: !message in %function (line %line of %file). [:db_insert_placeholder_3] => a:6:{s:5:"%type";s:12:"PDOException";s:8:"!message";s:134:"SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away: SELECT name, machine_name, vid FROM {taxonomy_vocabulary}; Array ( ) ";s:9:"%function";s:31:"taxonomy_vocabulary_get_names()";s:5:"%file";s:61:"C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal\modules\taxonomy\taxonomy.module";s:5:"%line";i:792;s:14:"severity_level";i:3;} [:db_insert_placeholder_4] => 3 [:db_insert_placeholder_5] => [:db_insert_placeholder_6] => http://localhost/drupal/ [:db_insert_placeholder_7] => [:db_insert_placeholder_8] => ::1 [:db_insert_placeholder_9] => 1299395791 ) in dblog_watchdog() (line 155 of C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal\modules\dblog\dblog.module).

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Uncaught exception thrown in session handler.
PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2006 MySQL server has gone away in _drupal_session_write() (line 204 of C:\xampp\xampp\htdocs\drupal\includes\session.inc).