Lucky numbers

888

I'm in America attempting to get a temporary phone number for my unlocked Iphone 4S.  The whole reason my friend bought me this phone from the Apple Store was so I could use it in China and the US.  It's a big deal to have a phone that was never locked.  In China, I have a great China Unicom phone number that I had a say in choosing.  It has a bunch of lucky numbers.  But in America I'm limited to computer generated phone numbers.

Four is an unlucky number because the word four or Sì 四 sounds a lot like the word for dead or Sǐ  死.  Nobody wants a four!  Many of the buildings in China do not have a fourth floor, for example.  Many of the ex-pat buildings have no 4 and also no 13.  Also, no 14, etc.

Eight, on the other hand, is a lucky number.  Eight, or Bā 八, means prosperity.  So, we love our 8s.  Many airlines like the dreaded United have flights like its back and forth Beijing PEK to San Francisco SFO that are flight numbers 888 and 889.  In China, the little corner shack stores that sell SIM cards and top up your phone have little stacks of SIMs labeled, "NO 4s"  or just "8s."  You pay extra for 8s.

But here I am in America, unable to control the computer generated numbers and using the auto-phone-tree-change-your-number thing at Net10 over and over so many times that I locked my SIM and have to get a new one.  That's greed.  Greedy for 8s.