How to get back into Minecraft?

I have sort of fallen away from minecraft. I like it, but I think the past 2 updates (1.8 and 1.7) were really stupid. I've been playing since 1.7.3 beta and I'm fine with any update in between that and 1.6.4. I've fallen away from it and I don't like it any more. But I'm a very forgiving person and I'm willing to give it one more chance. Can someone please give me good motivation to get back into minecraft?

Get into mods, I find vanilla minecraft extremely boring, even with the new items in the updates. With mods I'm not limited to what I can do apart from built. I can make fully functioning factories, rail systems and magic. I can defeat hard bosses or create an adventure with a storyline and objective.

Without mods minecraft wouldn't be as popular as it is today. I recommend playing Feed The Beast or even the Yogscast complete pack, with 240 mods there got to be something that is for.

The new slime blocks can pass on redstone current through pistons. Someone made a working, moving battle fortress thing that can launch working missiles. It's shaped kinda like a four-legged swine/pig/boar. Its a freaking marvel of Redstone mechanics.