Dealing with creepers on a new game

Some time ago (shortly after Beta 1.3 launched), I started a new minecraft game, and made a little base. (Didn't know about beds yet, so I just waited out the night). Anyway, when light came, I took out a spider and a creeper close to the entrance, and went out to build a tower on top of the base's location (so I could find my way back if/when I died.)

However, due to the rough nature of the terrain outside, I couldn't see very far, and I was promptly ambushed by another three creepers, and blown to bits.

So, my question would be the following:

In a new game (before you get the resources for a bow and arrow, or elaborate traps), how do you avoid copying my nefarious end? Creepers are the only enemy in the game that stay aggressive in sunlight (spiders revert to neutral, and other hostile ones burn up), do significant damage by blowing you up (making close combat risky, and you don't really have any alternatives at that stage), AND don't make any warning sounds until they're right on top of you. So what's the best method for dealing with these annoyances?

(Also, I'd prefer something aside from "Sleep at night to avoid the spawns". I know that will work in single-player, but I spend a lot of time on SMP servers, and that doesn't work as well there.)

If you want to play it safe, try putting all your gear into a box next to the entrance and take what you absolutely need out with you. Generally, it is a good idea to make sure you can easily see outside nearby, if you can't, you may want to spend some time leveling the zones around you if its feasible.

You can also try putting up a tower from within your house so you can take a look around you before heading out. Just remember to put some torches at the top.

Finally, if you don't mind dying a few times, just stash all your gear and go out and trigger them to blow up. After a while, you'll end up with a nice and flat area to work with.

Get a stone sword.

Weapon          Damage/hit   Time to death      Durability
----------------------------------------------------------
Bare hands             0.5         20 hits        Infinite
 ↓ tree punching
Wooden sword           2            5 hits     12 creepers
 ↓ wooden pickaxes + stone
Stone sword            3            4 hits     33 creepers
 ↓ stone pickaxes + iron + furnace
Iron sword             4            3 hits     83 creepers
 ↓ iron pickaxes + diamond
Diamond sword          5            2 hits    781 creepers

You should be able to get one by the time night falls upon you.