diff --git a/app/models/permission.rb b/app/models/permission.rb
index 63b0fe0e..c370721b 100644
--- a/app/models/permission.rb
+++ b/app/models/permission.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ class Permission < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   # userstamp
   stampable
-  # belongs_to :user
+  belongs_to :user, class_name: 'User', foreign_key: :creator_id
 
   # enumerations
   enumerize :level, :in => [:owner, :writer, :reader, :none], :default => :none, predicates: true
diff --git a/app/models/tag.rb b/app/models/tag.rb
index 17f706c1..518b8617 100644
--- a/app/models/tag.rb
+++ b/app/models/tag.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ class Tag < ActiveRecord::Base
 
   # userstamp
   stampable
-  belongs_to :user, :class_name => 'User', :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  belongs_to :user, class_name: 'User', foreign_key: :creator_id
   acts_as_paranoid
   validates_as_paranoid
 
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index 13d25c6f..74acb6cb 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 class User < ActiveRecord::Base
+
+  # NB: this intentionally left simple
+  #   The bulk of the emails populated into this model will come from external authentication providers
+  VALID_EMAIL_REGEX = /^[^@]+@[^@]+\.[^@]+$/
+
   # Include devise modules.
   # :registerable,:rememberable,
   devise  :confirmable, :omniauthable, :token_authenticatable,
@@ -8,39 +13,47 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   # Setup accessible (or protected) attributes for your model
   attr_accessible :user_name, :display_name, :email, :password, :admin
 
-  has_many :authorizations, :dependent => :destroy
+
 
   # user stamp
   model_stamper
   stampable
 
   # other associations
-  has_many :projects
-  has_many :sites
-  has_many :audio_recordings
-  has_many :audio_events
-  has_many :tags
-  has_many :audio_event_tags
+  has_many :authorizations, :dependent => :destroy
+  has_many :projects, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :sites, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :audio_recordings, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :audio_events, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :tags, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :audio_event_tags, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :permissions_created, :class_name => 'Permission', :foreign_key => :creator_id
   has_many :permissions
-  has_many :analysis_scripts
-  has_many :analysis_jobs
-  has_many :progresses
-  has_many :bookmarks
-  has_many :saved_searches
+  has_many :analysis_scripts, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :analysis_jobs, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :progresses, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :bookmarks, :foreign_key => :creator_id
+  has_many :saved_searches, :foreign_key => :creator_id
 
 
   # validation
   #validates_presence_of :display_name
-  validates :user_name, :presence => true, :uniqueness => { :case_sensitive => false }
+  validates :user_name, presence: true, uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false },
+            exclusion: { in: %w(admin harvester analysis_runner) }, unless: :skip_user_name_exclusion_list
             #:format => { :with => /\A[a-zA-Z0-9_ ]+\z/, :message => "only letters, numbers, space and underscore allowed" }
-  validates :display_name, :uniqueness => {:case_sensitive => false }, :presence => { :unless => Proc.new { |a| a.email.present? }, :message => "Please provide a name, email, or both." }
-  validates :email, :uniqueness => {:case_sensitive => false }, :presence => { :unless => Proc.new { |a| a.display_name.present? }, :message => "Please provide an email, name, or both." }
-  validates :user_name, :exclusion => { :in => %w(admin harvester analysis_runner) }, :unless => :skip_user_name_exclusion_list
+  validates :display_name, uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false },
+            presence: { unless: Proc.new { |a| a.email.present? }, message: 'Please provide a display name, email, or both.' }
+
+  # it turns out devise provdes its own validations for the email field
+  # providing our own (e.g.uniqueness) creates duplicated errors! #uniqueness: { case_sensitive: false },
+  validates :email, format: {with:VALID_EMAIL_REGEX, message: 'Basic email validation failed. It should have at least 1 `@` and 1 `.`'}
+
   #friendly_id :display_name, :use_slug => true, :strip_non_ascii => true
 
 
-  # special vanlidation skip
-  # TODO: does this need some protectection?
+  # special validation skip
+  # these methods allow a temporary skip of exclusion validation. this is used for seeding users into the database
+  # TODO: does this need some protection?
   def skip_user_name_exclusion_list=(value)
     @skip_user_name_exclusion_list = value
   end
diff --git a/vendor/bin/install_console_audio_tools.sh b/vendor/bin/install_console_audio_tools.sh
index 67904151..069c5fec 100644
--- a/vendor/bin/install_console_audio_tools.sh
+++ b/vendor/bin/install_console_audio_tools.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
-sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 16126D3A3E5C1192
+sudo apt-key del 16126D3A3E5C1192
+sudo apt-get update
+sudo apt-key finger
+sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 16126D3A3E5C1192
+sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install ffmpeg mp3splt sox wavpack --fix-missing
-sudo apt-get update
\ No newline at end of file
+sudo apt-get update
+
+# http://askubuntu.com/a/86445 apt-get clean            # Remove cached packages
+cd /var/lib/apt
+mv lists lists.old       # Backup mirror info
+mkdir -p lists/partial   # Recreate directory structure
+apt-get clean
+apt-get update           # Fetch mirror info
+sudo apt-key finger
\ No newline at end of file