the only thing that would make this hobby "fun" at this time, is if the USD/BTC exchange went top $1200 again.
I blame that moron that ran MT. GoX. for taking back bitcoin 5 to 10 years.
the bottom line is, USD/BTC < $1200 not going to work.
sorry , just calling a spade a spade.
I doubt that it will take 5-10 years (which makes it advantageous to mine for 5-10 years until it goes up)
I have faith that Coinbase and Bitpay are going to make some serious inroads for the masses in the USA regarding bitcoin. mtGox is like myspace, just because it failed doesn't mean the whole idea of social media failed.