starting out with this install (ubuntu, nginx, rvm multi-user, rails 3.0.9)

.rvmrc

if [[ -s "/usr/local/rvm/environments/ruby-1.9.2-p136@fat" ]] ; then
  . "/usr/local/rvm/environments/ruby-1.9.2-p136@fat"
else
  rvm --create use  "ruby-1.9.2-p136@fat"
fi

Gemfile

source 'http://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.0.9'
# rake 0.9.0 is broken (should work with rails 3.0.8)
gem 'rake', '~> 0.8.7'

# Bundle edge Rails instead:
# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'

gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :require => 'sqlite3'

group :staging, :production do
    # use postgresql remotely
    gem 'pg'
end

group :development do
    # access rspec generators
    # gem 'rspec-rails'
end

group :test do
    # gem 'rspec'
    gem 'webrat'
end

group :development, :test do
    # gem 'autotest'
    # gem 'autotest-rails-pure'
    
    # mac-only
    # gem 'autotest-fsevent'
    # gem 'autotest-growl'
end

# Use unicorn as the web server
# gem 'unicorn'

# Deploy with Capistrano
gem 'capistrano'

# To use debugger (ruby-debug for Ruby 1.8.7+, ruby-debug19 for Ruby 1.9.2+)
# gem 'ruby-debug'
# gem 'ruby-debug19', :require => 'ruby-debug'

# Bundle the extra gems:
# gem 'bj'
# gem 'nokogiri'
# gem 'sqlite3-ruby', :require => 'sqlite3'
# gem 'aws-s3', :require => 'aws/s3'

gem 'rvm'
gem 'devise', '1.3.4'
gem 'devise_invitable'
gem "oa-oauth", :require => "omniauth/oauth"
gem 'omniauth'
gem 'jquery-rails'
gem 'uuidtools'
gem 'grackle'
gem 'fb_graph'
gem 'factory_girl'
gem 'attr_encrypted'
gem 'will_paginate', '~> 3.0.pre2'
# queue strategies
gem 'delayed_job'
gem 'resque'
gem 'redis'
# gem 'client_side_validations'

# images
gem "paperclip", "~> 2.3"

# sensors
# gem "nikeplus-ruby", :git => 'https://github.com/bob-p/nikeplus-ruby.git'
gem "fitbit"

# better IRB experience
gem 'wirble'
gem 'awesome_print'
gem 'httparty'
gem 'mush'

# Bundle gems for the local environment. Make sure to
# put test-only gems in this group so their generators
# and rake tasks are available in development mode:
# group :development, :test do
#   gem 'webrat'
# end

my deploy directories..

lrwxrwxrwx 1 www-data www-data   36 2011-07-01 17:40 current -> /var/www/fat/releases/20110701174029
drwxrwsr-x 4 www-data www-data 4096 2011-07-01 17:40 releases
drwxrwsr-x 7 www-data www-data 4096 2011-07-01 06:19 shared

nginx.conf

user  www-data www-data;
worker_processes  1;

#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#error_log  logs/error.log  info;

#pid        logs/nginx.pid;


events {
	worker_connections  1024;
}


http {
	passenger_root /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136/gems/passenger-3.0.2;
	passenger_ruby /usr/local/rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.2-p136/ruby;
	include       mime.types;
	default_type  application/octet-stream;

#log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
#                  '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
#                  '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

#access_log  logs/access.log  main;

	sendfile        on;
#tcp_nopush     on;

#keepalive_timeout  0;
	keepalive_timeout  65;

	gzip  on;

	server {
		listen       80;
		server_name  us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com;
		rails_env production;
		root /var/www/fat/current/public;
#autoindex on;
		passenger_enabled on;
		index index.html index.htm;
		client_max_body_size 50M;
#charset koi8-r;

#access_log  logs/host.access.log  main;

#location / {
#    root   html;
#    index  index.html index.htm;
#}

#error_page  404              /404.html;

# redirect server error pages to the static page /50x.html
#
		error_page   500 502 503 504  /50x.html;
		location = /50x.html {
			root   html;
		}

# proxy the PHP scripts to Apache listening on 127.0.0.1:80
#
#location ~ \.php$ {
#    proxy_pass   http://127.0.0.1;
#}

# pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on 127.0.0.1:9000
#
#location ~ \.php$ {
#    root           html;
#    fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
#    fastcgi_index  index.php;
#    fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
#    include        fastcgi_params;
#}

# deny access to .htaccess files, if Apache's document root
# concurs with nginx's one
#
#location ~ /\.ht {
#    deny  all;
#}
	}


# another virtual host using mix of IP-, name-, and port-based configuration
#
#server {
#    listen       8000;
#    listen       somename:8080;
#    server_name  somename  alias  another.alias;

#    location / {
#        root   html;
#        index  index.html index.htm;
#    }
#}


# HTTPS server
#
	server {
		rails_env production;
		listen       443;
		server_name  us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com;
        ssl                  on;
        ssl_certificate      /etc/ssl/certs/unsigned_bhi_ssl.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key  /etc/ssl/private/unsigned_bhi_ssl.key;

        ssl_session_timeout  5m;

        ssl_protocols  SSLv2 SSLv3 TLSv1;
        ssl_ciphers  ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers   on;
        
        root /var/www/fat/current/public;

        passenger_enabled on;
        passenger_use_global_queue on;

    #    location / {
    #        root   html;
    #        index  index.html index.htm;
    #    }
    }

}

rvm info

ruby-1.9.2-p136@global:

  system:
    uname:       "Linux ip-10-168-106-243 2.6.31-302-ec2 #7-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 13 19:06:04 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux"
    bash:        "/bin/bash => GNU bash, version 4.0.33(1)-release (i486-pc-linux-gnu)"
    zsh:         " => not installed"

  rvm:
    version:      "rvm 1.6.20 by Wayne E. Seguin (wayneeseguin@gmail.com) [https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/]"

  ruby:
    interpreter:  "ruby"
    version:      "1.9.2p136"
    date:         "2010-12-25"
    platform:     "i686-linux"
    patchlevel:   "2010-12-25 revision 30365"
    full_version: "ruby 1.9.2p136 (2010-12-25 revision 30365) [i686-linux]"

  homes:
    gem:          "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global"
    ruby:         "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136"

  binaries:
    ruby:         "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136/bin/ruby"
    irb:          "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136/bin/irb"
    gem:          "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136/bin/gem"
    rake:         "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global/bin/rake"

  environment:
    PATH:         "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global/bin:/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@fat/bin:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games"
    GEM_HOME:     "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global"
    GEM_PATH:     "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p136@global"
    MY_RUBY_HOME: "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136"
    IRBRC:        "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p136/.irbrc"
    RUBYOPT:      ""
    gemset:       "global"

setup_load_paths.rb

if ENV['MY_RUBY_HOME'] && ENV['MY_RUBY_HOME'].include?('rvm')
  begin
    rvm_path     = File.dirname(File.dirname(ENV['MY_RUBY_HOME']))
    rvm_lib_path = File.join(rvm_path, 'lib')
    $LOAD_PATH.unshift rvm_lib_path
    require 'rvm'
    RVM.use_from_path! File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__))
  rescue LoadError
    # RVM is unavailable at this point.
    raise "RVM ruby lib is currently unavailable."
  end
end