git clone operation

I'm trying to understand git-clone and what to expect when I clone a repository. Disclaimer, I am a newbie :).

Assume I have a repo with the following branches:

  cpu-intfc
  gige_mux
  improve-build
  main-devel
* master

According to the man page, git-clone "creates and checks out an initial branch equal to the cloned repository's currently active branch."

So, when I clone this repo and run 'git-branch -a' I will have the following:

  origin/HEAD
  origin/cpu-intfc
  origin/gige_mux
  origin/improve-build
  origin/main-devel
  origin/master
* master

All the origin/* branches are remote.

And, .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD is, 

$ cat .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD ref: refs/remotes/origin/master

So far, this makes sense to me.

Now, let's say that I am working in the cpu-intfc branch of the original repository and I clone the repository.

Running git-branch -a returns the following

  origin/HEAD
  origin/cpu-intfc
  origin/gige_mux
  origin/improve-build
  origin/main-devel
  origin/master
* cpu-intfc

And this,

$ cat .git/refs/remotes/origin/HEAD ref: refs/remotes/origin/cpu-intfc

I was expecting to have a local branch named master (that is equal to the remote branch origin/cpu-intfc) instead of cpu-intfc. Am I wrong to expect this? Also, as a newbie user, it seems odd that I cannot specify which branch of repo that I am cloning should be the default (master) branch of the cloned repo? To put it another way, when cloning a repo I have no way of controlling which branch I get as the default. It just happens to depend on which branch the developer is working in at the time I clone. I've read through the man-page and there doesn't seem to be any way around this.

I realize that I can create a new local branch that is based off the desired branch:

$ git-checkout -b master origin/master

Is this the accepted method for obtaining the desired branch?

Thanks, Mike