Jessie is installed but now I'm stuck
 

I managed to read enough to get the 8.4.0 'Jessie' for AMD/intel installed after a second try. I disabled the mirror for the second install because the first install had to be booted from a grub boot disk, which was not good. Anyway, during the second installation my cd didn't read the label before i hit enter and it just blew the whole install, but the system boots. It didn't install the packages for a browser or a nice file manager. I've read through the installation guide and it doesn't seem to touch on this possibility. At this point I am stuck because I can't seem to install a browser from the CD set or configure the internet packages option. I am stuck. Any suggestions, or do I need to start over again?

I think you can use wget, if you need to download something outside of the package manager, and you should be able to use the package manager (apt, apt-get, aptitude) to install things that are available in the repositories. You can manually add repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list , if that isn't set up yet.
If you mean "desktop environment", instead of "nice file manager", look into XFCE, LXDE, and GNOME. If you really meant "file manager", I can only recommend Thunar, because I don't use anything else.
The usual "graphic desktop environment" options come with a browser, and everything. (If you install the XFCE or GNOME "solutions", you will get a browser too, I believe.)
Anyway I hope this helps you on your way.

Personally I would start again. Sure, give WeaponS solut' a go but there's no telling what sort of other damage has been done...I prefer installing straight from a disk, for me internet installs can easily miss...