Loading images...

Code:
private Image loadImage (String pad){
        return Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(getClass().getResource(pad));
    }
the getResource() function automatically searches for the file in your local directory, if it is not found there it will look inside the java system directories ... etc.

Short example:

Code:
public class MyPanel extends JPanel implements java.awt.image.ImageObserver{
    public void paintComponent(Graphics g)
    {
                int x = 0;
                int y = 0;
                Image img = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(getClass().getResource("mario.gif"));
                g.drawImage(img, x, y, this);
            }
        }
    }
}