title: Stupefied by RSpec
body: <p>I'm sorry, but this is beginning to feel like kicking myself in the head.  I'm completely baffled by RSpec.  Have watched video after video, read tutorial after tutorial, and still I'm just stuck on square one. </p>
  
  <p>=== here is what I'm working with</p>
  
  <p><strong><a href="http://github.com/fudgestudios/bort/tree/master" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://github.com/fudgestudios/bort/tree/master</a></strong></p>
  
  <p>=== Errors</p>
  
  <pre><code>F
  
  1)
  NoMethodError in 'bidding on an item should work'
  You have a nil object when you didn't expect it!
  You might have expected an instance of ActiveRecord::Base.
  The error occurred while evaluating nil.new_record?
  spec/controllers/auction_controller_spec.rb:16:
  spec/controllers/auction_controller_spec.rb:6:
  
  Finished in 0.067139 seconds
  
  1 example, 1 failure
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>=== here is my controller action</p>
  
  <pre><code>  def bid
  
        @bid = Bid.new(params[:bid])
        @bid.save
  
    end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>=== here is my test</p>
  
  <pre><code>require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec_helper'
  include ApplicationHelper
  include UsersHelper
  include AuthenticatedTestHelper
  
  describe "bidding on an item" do
    controller_name :items
  
      before(:each) do
        @user = mock_user
        stub!(:current_user).and_return(@user)
      end
  
    it "should work" do
      post 'bid', :bid =&gt; { :auction_id =&gt; 1, :user_id =&gt; @user.id, :point =&gt; 1 }
      assigns[:bid].should be_new_record
    end
  
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>=== spec_helper</p>
  
  <p><strong><a href="http://github.com/fudgestudios/bort/tree/master/spec/spec_helper.rb" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://github.com/fudgestudios/bort/tree/master/spec/spec_helper.rb</a></strong></p>
  
  <p>It's very disheartening to wake for work at 3 a.m. and accomplish nothing for the day.  Please understand.</p>