If you're interested in branch aliases, here are some that may be helpful that I use at GitAlias.com.
topic-start = "!f(){ branch=$1; git checkout master; git fetch; git rebase; git checkout -b "$branch" master; };f"
topic-pull = "!f(){ branch=$(git branch-name); git checkout master; git pull; git checkout "$branch"; git rebase master; };f"
topic-push = "!f(){ branch=$(git branch-name); git push --set-upstream origin "$branch"; };f"
topic-finish = "!f(){ branch=$(git branch-name); git checkout master; git branch --delete "$branch"; git push origin ":$branch"; };f"
branch-name = rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD