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2) There's no way you should be getting readings of half the rated value on a resistor. Most of these 1/8W resistors are metal film (blue body) and have a +/-1% relative tolerance rating. So a 1M resistor should measure between 990K and 1.01M. I suspect that you are placing your finger tips in contract with the resistor leads or multimeter probe tips and are therefore measuring the resistance of your body in parallel with the resistor. For lower resistance values, this introduces a small to negligible error, but for higher rated resistors, this can become a significant source of error, giving a lower value.
This is what is happening more than likely. I use alligator clips and I *always* measure those dang tiny blue or cream thingies. BTW 1/4 watt resistors would be too big for most of the L'il series I suspect...