Basically, I'm showing one random post from a specific category, and then having a list under that which shows recent posts, not including whatever random post was displayed earlier.

This is what I have (just an excerpt from the full code, so don't pay any mind to the extra closing div tags):

Code:
					<div class="mainLinkColumn">
					
						<?php $randomPosts = new WP_Query("cat=16&posts_per_page=1&orderby=rand"); while($randomPosts->have_posts()) : $randomPosts->the_post();?>
					
						<div class="module big portfolio" style="background: url(<?php echo featured_portfolio(); ?>) no-repeat center center; background-size: cover">
							<h2><a href="portfolio">Portfolio</a></h2>
							
							<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" class="moduleClick"></a>
														
							<a class="more-link" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title_attribute(); ?></a>
							
							<?php endwhile; ?>

						</div>
					</div>
				</div>
												
				<ul class="recentPosts">
												
					<?php
						$args=array(
							'post_type' => 'post',
							'post_status' => 'publish',
							'posts_per_page' => 8,
							'post__not_in' => array($post->ID)
							);
						$my_query = null;
						$my_query = new WP_Query($args);
						if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
							echo '';
						while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
							
						<li class="box1" style="background-image: url(<?php echo get_first_image() ?>)">
							<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">

							<?php if ( in_category( 'Portfolio' )) { ?>
							
								<span>
									<?php the_title(); ?>
								</span>
								
							<?php } else { ?>
							
								<span>
									<?php the_title(); ?>
								</span>
							
							<time datetime="<?php the_time('c'); ?>" class="recentDate"><?php the_time('m/d/y') ?></time>
							
							<?php } ?>

							</a>								
						</li>							
							
					<?php
						endwhile;
						}
						wp_reset_query();
					?>
									
				</ul>
I'm still learning PHP (which is probably relatively obvious), so I'm wondering if this is okay. It works, but I'm not sure if having two WP_query's like that is going to interfere with anything.