Java SE (Java Platform, Standard Edition)

Occasionally my [url http://r0k.us/graphics/SIHwheel.html]applet will throw java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException . It always seems to load fine the first time, but if you click away and quickly come back, the exception is sometimes thrown. This causes the applet not to run. If I click away and wait for the Java Console to die, then come back, it seems to run reliably again. Here is the startup code:

    public void init()
    {   // fallback to manual init() if cannot read color name dictionary
	if (!NTC.readCND(null))  NTC.init();

	try {
	    javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
		public void run() {
		    JPanel frame = makeContent();
		    setContentPane(frame);
		}
	    });
	} catch (Exception e) {
	    System.err.println("makeContent() failed to complete: " + e);
	}
    }

    public JPanel makeContent()
    {
	try {
	UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
            "com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif.MotifLookAndFeel");
            // Motif L&F does not provide cut/copy/paste automatically
	    JTextField field = new JTextField(10);
	    InputMap map = field.getInputMap();
	    while (map.getParent() != null) {
		map = map.getParent();
	    }
	    map.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl C"), DefaultEditorKit.copyAction);
	    map.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl V"), DefaultEditorKit.pasteAction);
	    map.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl A"), DefaultEditorKit.selectAllAction);
	    map.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke("ctrl X"), DefaultEditorKit.cutAction);
	} catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException e) {
	    System.out.println("UnsupportedLookAndFeelException: " + e);
	} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
	    System.out.println("ClassNotFoundException: " + e);
	} catch (InstantiationException e) {
	    System.out.println("InstantiationException: " + e);
	} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
	    System.out.println("IllegalAccessException: " + e);
	}

	paintingCanvas = new SIHCanvas(640, 640);
	controls = new SIHControls();
	colorList = new SIHListPane();

	JPanel outer = new JPanel(new GridBagLayout());
	GridBagConstraints gbc = new GridBagConstraints();

	gbc.fill = gbc.BOTH;

	gbc.gridx = 1;
	gbc.gridy = 0;
	outer.add(paintingCanvas, gbc);

	gbc.gridx = 1;
	gbc.gridy = 1;
	outer.add(controls, gbc);

	gbc.gridx = 0;
	gbc.gridy = 0;
	gbc.gridheight = 2;
	outer.add(colorList, gbc);

	return(outer);
    }

Does anyone know what the problem might be, and how I might force reliable restarts every time?

The calls to NTC.readCND(null) and potentially NTC.init() are completely non-GUI. The first will read and process a large properties file (1567 entries, stored within the .jar) which contains data for the GUI. Should that fail, NTC.init() does some quick processing on a minimal, hard-coded color list of 8 entries.