I try to avoid going out at night when I can. Zombies, creepers, and even spiders in small numbers are okay, but as soon as I hear the skeleton's bow, I run inside as fast as I can.
I have had a few run ins with creeper surprise attacks though. Never ever get close to a wall with a ledge above you at night. Those creepers jump down on you and explode before you ever know they're there. It happened once in my new quarry (Pictures soon, I promise.) that I foolishly thought was deep enough to deter attacks and again when I stupidly decided I couldn't wait to go do some cosmetic repairs to my outer wall. They jump off the ledge right on your head and it might be the scariest thing ever. Just as you hear the hiss and are about to spin around, *boom*, dead.
I mostly collect sulfur in the early mornings. The zombies and skeletons are just catching fire and you can collect their loot, the spiders leave you alone, and there are usually a few creepers out. It's light out so they're easier to see and they don't have any other monsters to team up with, so they're easier to pick off. I try to stage the fight on a hill I'm trying to demolish anyway, so if I screw up and don't get the loot, at least they blast a hole in the hill.
I think I've made about 5 blocks of tnt so far, so that averages out to 25ish successful kills. Seems about right. Like I said, it's really only good for blasting away the top dirt or maybe the top few levels of stone to expose lower levels. It destroys most of the collectible material in the blast, so you don't want to use it on any ore.
