I think that an AppleScript is definitely the way to go for what you want to accomplish. I'm not sure if the script will initiate a "self pause" while the Mini's drive spins up, but there are ways, in AppleScript, to control this manually. If you find that the script isn't executing properly try putting in some repeat loops that do nothing but wait for a process to appear before allowing the script to continue:

[code] 
set frontApp to ""

tell application "System Events" 
tell application "EyeTV" 
activate 
end tell 
repeat while frontApp is not "EyeTV" 
set frontApp to name of the first process whose frontmost is true 
end repeat 
--your code here 
end tell 
[/code]

This script will launch EyeTV then test to see if it's the front app, if not it tests again, and again, and again, and.... until EyeTV is in front. Only then will it continue to execute the script. FWIW I use scripts like this in my HTPC Mini quite often—even when I am switching to an already running app. On a fully awake Mini, with hard drives spinning, the test to check if "foo" is the frontmost app (after sending, say, cmd-tab) fails 13-20 times before "foo" is really at the front!

Good luck!