ugh

app/assets/javascripts/settings.coffee

@@ -48,5 +48,9 @@
           height: Math.round(ry * preview[0].naturalHeight) + 'px'
           marginLeft: '-' + Math.round(rx * coords.x) + 'px'
           marginTop: '-' + Math.round(ry * coords.y) + 'px'
+          ($ '#crop_x').val Math.floor(coords.x)
+          ($ '#crop_y').val Math.floor(coords.y)
+          ($ '#crop_w').val Math.floor(coords.w)
+          ($ '#crop_h').val Math.floor(coords.h)
 
-    fr.readAsDataURL(input.files[0])
+  fr.readAsDataURL(input.files[0])

db/migrate/20141229133149_add_crop_values_to_users.rb

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+class AddCropValuesToUsers < ActiveRecord::Migration
+  def change
+    # this is a ugly hack and will stay until I find a way to pass parameters
+    # to the paperclip Sidekiq worker.  oh well.
+    add_column :users, :crop_x, :integer
+    add_column :users, :crop_y, :integer
+    add_column :users, :crop_w, :integer
+    add_column :users, :crop_h, :integer
+  end
+end

db/schema.rb

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 #
 # It's strongly recommended that you check this file into your version control system.
 
-ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20141229105013) do
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20141229133149) do
 
   # These are extensions that must be enabled in order to support this database
   enable_extension "plpgsql"
@@ -164,6 +164,10 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20141229105013) do
     t.integer  "profile_picture_file_size"
     t.datetime "profile_picture_updated_at"
     t.boolean  "profile_picture_processing"
+    t.integer  "crop_x"
+    t.integer  "crop_y"
+    t.integer  "crop_w"
+    t.integer  "crop_h"
   end
 
   add_index "users", ["email"], name: "index_users_on_email", unique: true, using: :btree