Help: AAA Can't store images in non public folder

Im attempting to setup an assets folder in the rails root. Images sit as
a subfolder and are symlinked to the public directory.

The problem is that when i specify the assets/images folder in
acts_as_attachment, using the file_system_path the public_filename gets
all messed up.

Example
With this setting in the model i get a nice public_filename

:file_system_path => ‘public/assets/images’
public_filename : /assets/images/124/127963590054.jpg

BUT

when i attempt to store the images outside the public directory i get a
weird public_filename

:file_system_path => ‘assets/images’
public_filename
/Users/more_directories_here/trunk/config/…/assets/images/150/127963590054.jpg

While i understand that the default location for storeage is
public/table_name. I thought that if you specified your own location,
outside of the public dir, it would still work.

Would be great to get some help with this.