Minecraft is awesome, let me show you! :)
yes bad graphics are bad, but they have a certain charm to them.
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc1.jpg
My little house, that I made by cutting down trees and mining rocks. I also dug up some sand and smelted it into glass to make the windows. I had to gather some more wood and some coal to make the torches.
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc2.jpg
The beginnings of Castle Daz! Lots of mining was done to come up with the rock to make the walls. Its snowing here so everything is white, but you can gather the snow and throw it at things! :P
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc3.jpg
My house from the outside. The large watch tower at the top is so that I can fire my bow at enemies on the outside. There is a large chest full of arrows at the top just in case I run out :)
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc4.jpg
My castle from the top of the cliff behind it. Lots of torches around so I don't get any enemies spawning inside it at night!
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc5.jpg
I was digging down fairly deep below my castle when I found this underground stream, I mined through a block and suddenly all this water came into my tunnel and I nearly drowned :P You can re-direct the flow of water by building blocks around it.
http://daz.quaddicted.com/images/temp/mc6.jpg
Crafting a new mining pick, to create items you have to "draw" the item you want using the correct materials in the crafting square. There are absolutely tons of crafting recipes and you have to discover them for yourself.