paint methods on japplet help

below is some code i converted from a demo application on the sun website to make it into an applet.
its supposed to let you create hotspot rectangles, i have a vector of rectangle objects that will show existing rectangles.
now im trying to paint these ontop of the image but as i dont understand AWT or SWING very well, the place where i put the code
only shows the rectangles once i click the mouse,  can someone help so they show the rectangles as soon as the applet loads.
i also need code to check that any newly selected rectangle doesn't overlap with any of the existing rectangles.

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public class CreateHotSpotApplet extends JApplet {
    JLabel label;
    static String inputFile = "";
      public Vector points = new Vector();
      SelectionArea area = null;
   
    private void buildUI(Container container, ImageIcon image) {
        container.setLayout(new BoxLayout(container,
                                          BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));
                                         
        area = new SelectionArea(image, this);
        container.add(area);

        label = new JLabel("Drag your hotspot area within the image.");
        label.setLabelFor(area);
        container.add(label);

        //Align the left edges of the components.
        area.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
        label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT); //redundant
    }

    public void updateLabel(Rectangle rect) {
        int width = rect.width;
        int height = rect.height;

        //Make the coordinates look OK if a dimension is 0.
        if (width == 0) {
            width = 1;
        }
        if (height == 0) {
            height = 1;
        }

        label.setText("You selected from ("
                      + rect.x + ", " + rect.y + ") to ("
                      + (rect.x + width - 1) + ", "
                      + (rect.y + height - 1) + ").");
    }

    /** Returns an ImageIcon, or null if the path was invalid. */
    protected static ImageIcon createImageIcon(String path) {
        java.net.URL imgURL = CreateHotSpotApplet.class.getResource(path);
        if (imgURL != null) {
            return new ImageIcon(imgURL);
        } else {
            System.err.println("Couldn't find file: " + path);
            return null;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Make sure we have nice window decorations.
     
            JPanel p = new JPanel();

        //Create and set up the window.
        Container content = getContentPane();

        //Set up the content pane.
            buildUI(p,createImageIcon(inputFile));

            JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
            JMenu file = new JMenu("File");

            JMenuItem exit = new JMenuItem("Save");
            exit.setActionCommand("save");
            file.add(exit);
            menuBar.add(file);

            this.setJMenuBar(menuBar);
 
            content.add(p);

    }

    public void init() {
            // get param
            inputFile = getParameter("inputFile");
            points.add(new Rectangle(297,101,20,37));
            points.add(new Rectangle(280,196,22,37));

            createAndShowGUI();
    }
   
    private class SelectionArea extends JLabel {
        Rectangle currentRect = null;
        Rectangle rectToDraw = null;
        Rectangle previousRectDrawn = new Rectangle();
        CreateHotSpotApplet controller;
   
        public SelectionArea(ImageIcon image, CreateHotSpotApplet controller) {
            super(image); //This component displays an image.
            this.controller = controller;
            setOpaque(true);
            setMinimumSize(new Dimension(10,10)); //don't hog space
   
            MyListener myListener = new MyListener();
            addMouseListener(myListener);
            addMouseMotionListener(myListener);

                  repaint();
        }
   
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            super.paintComponent(g); //paints the background and image
   
            //If currentRect exists, paint a box on top.
            if (currentRect != null) {
                //Draw a rectangle on top of the image.
                g.setXORMode(Color.white); //Color of line varies
                                           //depending on image colors
                g.drawRect(rectToDraw.x, rectToDraw.y,
                           rectToDraw.width - 1, rectToDraw.height - 1);
   
                controller.updateLabel(rectToDraw);
                        drawExistingPoints(g);
            }
        }

            public void drawExistingPoints(Graphics g)
            {
                  Rectangle rec = null;
                  for (Enumeration e = controller.points.elements() ; e.hasMoreElements() ;) {
                         rec = (Rectangle)e.nextElement();
                         g.setXORMode(Color.white); //Color of line varies
                         g.drawRect(rec.x,rec.y,rec.width - 1, rec.height - 1);
                         //System.out.println(rec.x + ":" + rec.y + "--" + rec.width + ":" + rec.height);
                   }
            }
   
        private void updateDrawableRect(int compWidth, int compHeight) {
            int x = currentRect.x;
            int y = currentRect.y;
            int width = currentRect.width;
            int height = currentRect.height;
   
            //Make the width and height positive, if necessary.
            if (width < 0) {
                width = 0 - width;
                x = x - width + 1;
                if (x < 0) {
                    width += x;
                    x = 0;
                }
            }
            if (height < 0) {
                height = 0 - height;
                y = y - height + 1;
                if (y < 0) {
                    height += y;
                    y = 0;
                }
            }
   
            //The rectangle shouldn't extend past the drawing area.
            if ((x + width) > compWidth) {
                width = compWidth - x;
            }
            if ((y + height) > compHeight) {
                height = compHeight - y;
            }
         
            //Update rectToDraw after saving old value.
            if (rectToDraw != null) {
                previousRectDrawn.setBounds(
                            rectToDraw.x, rectToDraw.y,
                            rectToDraw.width, rectToDraw.height);
                rectToDraw.setBounds(x, y, width, height);
            } else {
                rectToDraw = new Rectangle(x, y, width, height);
            }
        }

             private class MyListener extends MouseInputAdapter {
            public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) {
                int x = e.getX();
                int y = e.getY();
                currentRect = new Rectangle(x, y, 0, 0);
                updateDrawableRect(getWidth(), getHeight());
                repaint();
            }
   
            public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
                updateSize(e);
            }
   
            public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
                updateSize(e);
            }
   
            /*
             * Update the size of the current rectangle
             * and call repaint.  Because currentRect
             * always has the same origin, translate it
             * if the width or height is negative.
             *
             * For efficiency (though
             * that isn't an issue for this program),
             * specify the painting region using arguments
             * to the repaint() call.
             *
             */
            void updateSize(MouseEvent e) {
                int x = e.getX();
                int y = e.getY();
                currentRect.setSize(x - currentRect.x,
                                    y - currentRect.y);
                updateDrawableRect(getWidth(), getHeight());
                Rectangle totalRepaint = rectToDraw.union(previousRectDrawn);
                repaint(totalRepaint.x, totalRepaint.y,
                        totalRepaint.width, totalRepaint.height);
            }
        }
    }
}