Nice effect. It reminds me of this: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/shinn/artefact/

It is like Fenlamd — novelty galore!

Seriously: doing this kind of distressed is hard to do. Start with an effect and then find a common denominator? Go for it!

This looks fun, although it also looks like you started with Myriad to get here. I think you should remove most of the curves and make it more angular.

it also looks like you started with Myriad

That reminds me of this other one:
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/myriad-wild/tilt/

The idea was something along the lines of creating a sans that had grotesk outsides, (what's the opposite of a counter?), and sort of semi-calligraphic, though machine tooled looking, odd ribbony counters that seem as though they are trying to burst out of their shell(the outers?).

The outter form looks like a humanist sans, not a grotesk.

brian, even keeping in mind this is book weight?

I think the cross bar of the lower case 't' is what I question the most about this font. I think I worked out the overall stroke balance from glyph to glyph very well, and still managed to pack it full of extreme width differences. I tired to have every glyph have a thinner form tying into a bigger, thicker, or if you like, bolder stroke, and not just a little bit bolder. On top of that I wanted it to be incredibly readable, and on my humble inkjet printer, it's very clear at 6 point, and likely would be at lower sizes than that. The overall tone and color of the text appears even, and yet when you look at it at good size with anything longer than a quick glance, you can't help but notice it is full of flavor.

brian, even keeping in mind this is book weight?

Structure is structure.

The idea was [...] creating a sans that had grotesk outsides [...] and sort of semi-calligraphic, though machine tooled looking [...] counters

You could be interested in this thread: http://typophile.com/node/41687

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