maybe the instantiate method will help

app/models/user.rb

@@ -297,7 +297,12 @@ class User
   end
 
   ###Helpers############
-
+  def self.instantiate( opts = {} )
+    opts[:person][:email] = opts[:email]
+    opts[:person][:serialized_key] = generate_key
+    User.create( opts)
+  end
+	 	
   def terse_url
     terse= self.url.gsub(/https?:\/\//, '')
     terse.gsub!(/www\./, '')