[SossMan]

Some great questions.

My suggestion, which will likely be different than many others, would be to set up a 'preflop routine' similar to a preshot routine you see pro golfers use. Mine goes something like this:
cards get dealt to me
I look at cards quickly and memorize
I place my buddha card protector on top of the cards
I look at the players left to act before me
If there is time, and I'm planning on playing the hand, I concentrate (but not obviously) on the players to the left of me to see if they seem to be interested.
When it's on me, I act accordingly.

I think that the chance that you will give off tells when everyone is looking at you (if you wait until it's your turn) is greater than the benefit of the two seconds extra you get by looking at everyone else when the cards are dealt.

If I could give any advice, though, it's look left. Follow Caro's advice of almost anything faked is the opposite (unless it's super sappy obvious over the top, in which it's probably the truth). Concentrate on the few people to your left and maybe the guy or two to your right. These are the people that you are most likely to be playing against. Also, be sure to find out when your table is scheduled to break (approximately) to see if an image play would be worth anything.

good luck.