Inconsistent luminescence readings with Eye-One Display 2

I just picked up and Eye-One Display 2 and have been calibrating my
monitor with it. I've been getting some weird readings for luminescence
values when using the device with the Eye-One Match software its bundled
with. After seemingly not being able to hit the target luminescence
value of 120 cd/m2, I went back and used the Custom Target Luminescence
function at the beginning to calibrate my device and measure how bright
I could make my monitor. With the monitor's native controls set at 6500K
and the backlight and brightness set all the way up, I got a reading of
155 (when the device is placed on a solid pure white square that I
created in Photoshop). It would seem, then, that the target value of 120
should be no problem.

However, when going through the actual pre-calibration steps, with my
backlight all the up and upping my brightness from its lowest value
upward, my brightness hits about 105 cd/m2 at around 40% brightness and
then doesn't go up in value no matter how much more I brighten the
screen. I do see some additional brightness as I turn the monitor up, so
I'm not quite sure what's going on here.

Additionally, I tried a calibration where I set the target value at 100
and had the opposite problem - the luminescence was off the charts even
before I had the backlight turned all the way up. (Brightness was at 0 -
I try to keep the backlight at 100% because the monitor makes a buzzing
sound when I lower the backlight - I figure that can't be good, plus its
annoying.)

I finally went with setting the target value at 120, the backlight at
100%, and the brightness at 53%, which is the value that gave me closest
to 120 in the initial Custom Target Luminescence step.

Any ideas? I'll also note that the resulting profile I get from my
calibration profile looks awfully blue to me, even though I have both
the monitor and the target profile set at 6500K. However, I want to
first get some consistency with my luminescence readings, then
troubleshoot the blueness problem if it remains after this.

Here's my computer, software, and device setup, BTW:

Mac Pro Quad Core 2.8/OS X 1.5.4
ATI Radeon HD 2600
Sony SDM-X82 monitor (Settings: Color Temp = 6500K, Gamma = Gamma 2
(2.2))
Eye-One Display 2/Eye-One Match 3.6.2

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I presume you realize you are calibrating to try to achieve WYSIWYG color
printing, not to please your eye by what you think your monitor image should
look like.
The eyeball is always wrong, probably because it is connected to the human
brain and we all know what a mess that is.
For consumer grade LCD panels in general you should leave the
contrast/brightness/backlight settings at their default value which is
generally also displayed as 50%.
The results are unpredictable when you stray from these base settings as you
have found.
You can adjust RGB sliders at that point in the calibration routine if
offered the opportunity to do so. I don't remember the way the software for
your device works as I switched to Spyders and their ilk for no good reason.
All these devices and their software seem comparably accurate/inaccurate but
you have to realize their limits.
Newer devices are not necessarily any more accurate than older ones,
although newer LCD panels, especially dedicated graphics units, may
calibrate more accurately. Not to sound too snide but if you paid Apple
prices for the kind of middling Intel/ATI hardware in that box perhaps you
can afford a better LCD?
In my experience calibration of LCD panels of your grade, and current
comparable models, should yield reasonably accurate color matching when
printing. That is not difficult to achieve at all.
However in my experience the calibration devices and software do not
accurately account for the brightness of LCD panels and generally yield
prints that are too dark. However there are many easy work-arounds to apply
to images before printing them in Photoshop.