Firstly, watch these videos! do one at a time. I found them VERY useful when I started. (Otherwise I would die on my first night).
Also, mine! lol, it might sound stupid but I (and a few other I know of) spent a lot of the time above ground until I realised that actually, to do pretty much anything else, you NEED those essential metals. For those I would advise to take a look here for help with that.
[quote name='SoulSnatcher' post='3739804' date='Jun 26 2011, 02:34 PM']Tempcraft is a good server. http://tempcraft.net/[/quote]
No it's not. It sucks.
You can try mine... 92.237.182.91
The current world is tempory (Until 1.7 due to world generation changes) and you will probably lag since your in the US of A