Mostrar entradas excluyendo una categoría

<?php
$today = current_time('mysql', 1);
$howMany = 11; //Número de entradas que quieres mostrar
if ( $recentposts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT ID, post_title FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_modified_gmt < '$today' AND post_type = 'post' ORDER BY post_modified_gmt DESC LIMIT $howMany")):
?>
<ul>
<?php
foreach ($recentposts as $post) {
if ($post->post_title == '') $post->post_title = sprintf(__('Post #%s'), $post->ID);
echo "<li style='padding: 5px;'><a href='".get_permalink($post->ID)."'>";
the_title();
echo '</a></li>';
}
?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
		</ul>

<?php

//args
$args = array(
	'post_type' => 'post',
	'orderby' => 'modified',
	'showposts' => '11',
	'order' => 'DESC',
	'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1,
	'cat' => '-3',
);

// The Query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );

// The Loop
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
	echo '<ul>';
	while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
		$the_query->the_post();
		echo '<li><a href="' . the_permalink() . '" rel="bookmark">' . get_the_title() . '</a></li>';
	}
	echo '</ul>';
} else {
	// no posts found
}
/* Restore original Post Data */
wp_reset_postdata();

?>