I bought Minecraft a couple of days before it went Beta. After getting raped by Zombies and Skeletons the first night I found the Minecraft Wiki which Drak posted. Without that Wiki I would have been lost.
I'm still learning my way about but feel it would be nice to play on a server so I can check out other folks construction projects.
Last night, like a douche, I walked into a lava pit trying to toss away a shitload of cobblestone. D'OH! My biggest loss were my diamond pick and 2 other diamonds I had in my pack, which I had a real hard time finding.