Apertura, from The Motorcycle Diaries.

Dayum.

Macro lens I'm assuming?

I was using a set of battery operated fairy lights wrapped around the lens as a makeshift ring light for a time 

Aaaaah, I remember those times...long long ago...gods I've been playing this game for a long time. Ah well.

Well, if you're really having that much trouble I'll tell you what I do when starting a new world, you can take it or leave it. Basically, there is almost nothing you NEED to go exploring for, pretty much everything you need to get going can be found under your house. The only things you really need to go exploring for are Villages, Temples and Strongholds. Villages aren't necessary, it's a nice perk to get the wheat right off the bat if you spawn in close to one, but you can get going without them, temples are just nice little surprises you can find along the way, again it's nice to get the loot if you spawn near one, but not necessary, and strongholds are basically and end game thing (Literally, they have the portal to the End)

So basically, I go exploring far enough to find an area I like, or if that's not a big deal to you, where ever you spawn. Get wood, get seeds, get dirt, kill food animals. Build yourself a dirt hut (or cobble if you've got it and seal yourself in. If you still have time in the day see if there's any surface coal nearby and grab it. Make torches and light your shit up. Then start digging down inside your hut. I usually do a staircase straight down to bedrock, and if I hit any caves on the way down, BONUS. Then with the iron and coal you get from that (or little bits of branch mining, cause sometimes the luck gods really screw you over on your first tunnel), make tools, armour, a bucket. Once you have a bucket get water and make a make a makeshift wheat farm outside your house. Then keep digging, caving and strip mining until you have enough stuff to survive. make sure you're below level 16 to find diamonds and lava (Surface lava notwithstanding). Then have at it. You can usually get enough diamonds this way to get yourself reasonably well set up. Or stick with iron, whatever works for you.

And from there you can do all the bed, and stuff you want. Get a nether portal, enchanting tables, potions etc etc.

If you are having THAT much trouble and frustration finding your places, just jot down the coords, saves SO MUCH headache.

Have you been to the nether yet in your own games?

If not, I reaaally want to see your reaction the first time you do

I've played it with my brother, which is fun. He's played it a bit more than me, so he knew how to set up some basic farming stuff, while I focused on getting a house together. We played large biomes, and settled in an island part. After mining a couple of hours, we gathered enough material to hit up the netherrealm, and get some glowstones. We then thought that the easiest part to get from our island to the mainland was to build a cart system. So naturally, we built it underwater using glowstones on the ocean floor to light it up, and encased it in glass. 'twas fun. And that was about 3-4 months ago. Haven't touched it since.

It's not that I don't like it, I do, I just don't have the patience to keep going for days and days in any game, let alone minecraft vanilla.