Okay, an annoying chain of unpleasant events.
Went exploring to find a place to build.
In the middle of nowhere, I see mention that in order to be promoted above 'guest', one has to register for the forums, so I switch windows to go do that, while standing in an area I thought was safe. I wasn't safe -- creeper blew my face off, and I don't remember where I was, so everything was lost. No tools, food, nothing.
So I finish registering, and go back to exploring, using sand towers to build up and knock down trunkless trees, gathering wood and saplings. I'm in the jungle, so there is very little grass, and there are so few animals that I don't want to kill any and have them go extinct, so I start slowly starving.
At this point, I'm half-dead, almost out of hunger, nothing to eat, still no tools because I hadn't even gone underground to get stone, so when I found a farm, I started to harvest a bit of the wheat to make some bread, replanting as I went with the seeds that popped up.
I know the farm belonged to someone else, but I was close to death and had very little choice, and was replanting the wheat instead of leaving an empty plot :<