Show post from custom category ids

what am trying to do is hardcode some category ids in this function rather have it pull from the theme options instead how can i change this code to display category i add in the loop right now it displays 3 categorys with thumb, title, its excerpt from post, and three additional links below it as just links, but i want to change this so it shows categories i hardcoode in its loop how can i do that, am having an hard time getting it to work
<?php
$cc = 0; $c = 10; while ($cc < $c) {
$cc++;

unset($cat, $catlink, $loop);

$category = ‘featured_category_’ . $cc;

if (option::get($category)) {
$cat = get_category(option::get($category),false);
$catlink = get_category_link(option::get($category));

$posts_num = option::get(‘featured_categories_posts’);

$loop = new WP_Query( array( ‘post__not_in’ => get_option( ‘sticky_posts’ ), ‘posts_per_page’ => $posts_num, ‘orderby’ => ‘date’, ‘order’ => ‘DESC’, ‘cat’ => option::get($category) ) );
?>

<div class=”featured_cat”>

<h3>“><?php echo”$cat->name”;?> <span></span></h3>

<?php if ( $loop->have_posts() ) :
$x = 0;
while ($loop->have_posts()) : $loop->the_post(); update_post_caches($posts); $x++;

if ($x == 1)
{
?>

<?php $image = ui::getImage(220, 145);
if ($image) { ?>
<div class=”thumb”>” title=”<?php printf( the_title_attribute( ‘echo=0’ ) ); ?>” rel=”bookmark”><img src=”<?php echo $image; ?>” alt=”<?php the_title(); ?>” />

<?php if (option::get(‘display_comments’) == ‘on’) { ?>
<span class=”bubble”><?php comments_popup_link(‘0’, ‘1’, ‘%’, ‘ ‘, ‘ ‘); ?></span>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>

<div class=”article”>
<h2 class=”title”>” title=”<?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?> <?php if (option::get(‘display_readmore’) == ‘on’ && option::get(‘display_content’) == ‘Excerpt’) { ?>“><span><?php _e(‘Read more’, ‘wpzoom’); ?> ›</span><?php } ?>
</div>

<?php } // if $x == 1
else { ?>
• ” title=”<?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?>

<?php } // else ?>
<?php endwhile; // ?>

<?php else : ?>

<p class=”title”><?php _e(‘There are no posts in this category’, ‘wpzoom’) ?></p>

<?php endif; ?>

</div>
<?php } // if category is set
} // while categories
?>

<?php wp_reset_query(); ?>