I came across the 'Shadow of israphel' series on youtube completely by random - and after watching an episode, and another - I watched the whole series, I had to find out what minecraft was and buy the game
I spend a lot of time in creative mode now - but nothing at all beats the fun I had in my first month or so playing survival in 1.7.3, I built a huge sky-bridge with a house on it - it was really ugly by the standards I set now - but it is still my favourite creation and I had so much fun making it.
Might have to go play some more survival mode on a server now *memories*