1. dselect (`man dselect` is your friend, or read the excellent article on using debian: http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue15/debian.html) is not the most user-friendly program around. It is normal that it reports a few errors as it operates in several rounds: in the first round, all packages that are required or used by other packages are unpacked and configured. Packages that rely on some of those are only unpacked, not yet configured as this will happen in the subsequent round. It is perfectly possible that the completion of this iterative process takes several rounds if many packages have to be installed/upgraded.
   If you are using a low-bandwidth connection (downloading the commonly selected packages for a new complete installation may easily take one hour given a 100 KB/sec-Internet connection), it may be advisable to copy the debian packages apt-get downloads to a safe place for later usage:

    mkdir -p /data/debian.packages;
    cp /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb /data/debian.packages 
   

   You may also wish to follow the procedure to set up a local mirror of these packages which can be used by dselect later on.

All the lines have been written         There's been Sandburg,
It's sad but it's true                  Keats, Poe and McKuen
With all the words gone,                They all had their day
What's a young poet to do?              And knew what they're doin'

But of all the words written            The bird is a strange one,
And all the lines read,                 So small and so tender
There's one I like most,                Its breed still unknown,
And by a bird it was said!              Not to mention its gender.

It reminds me of days of                So what is this line
Both gloom and of light.                Whose author's unknown
It still lifts my spirits               And still makes me giggle
And starts the day right.               Even now that I'm grown?

I've read all the greats
Both starving and fat,
But none was as great as
"I tot I taw a puddy tat."
                -- Etta Stallings, "An Ode To Childhood"